In any event, the planned pants garnered me my first handwritten rejection, and then a few others, besides.

Now that I’m relatively certain I have a decent handle on structure, I’m back to pantsing again, but have the planning going on behind the scenes thanks to that study. (I’ve now pantsed my way through about 62k of the first draft of my current work.)

On the personality thing, INFJs and ENTJs are both intuitive, it’s just that the intuition of the one is introverted while it’s extroverted in the other. I suspect that any personality difference between planners and pantsers probably lies more in the J/P aspect, along with some T thrown in. P’s, who like to have their options open, probably wouldn’t like the planning, and J’s, who like closure, would prefer it. When it comes to how a planner (J’s) creates vs how a pantser (P’s) creates, a planner (J) would be likely to say that the other P’d all over their story. LOL 😀

It’s very likely, though, that what goes into the difference between planning and pantsing isn’t quite that simplistic.

I’m an INXJ, since I tend to score borderline (or extremely close to borderline) on thinking/feeling, but I do have a slight tendency toward the rational side of things.

P.S. to the moderator(s). I accidently gave you the wrong email address. The correct one is in the “info” filed of this response

Love the “Drown the Cat” title. Too funny.

I am inclined to be a “panster”. It’s my nature. Although, I have this whole left-brain/right-brain war in my head all the time. I am a lawyer – very logically oriented, left-brained driven; but I also have a very artistic, creative side (right brained) which allows me to play guitar (never had a lesson in my life), write, and do photography. A real conundrum.

However, I stumbled onto K.M. Weiland’s website several years ago while contemplating writing a novel. I really have gained a great deal of appreciation for the planning side of writing a novel. Let’s face it. Writing a novel is a damn hard undertaking. Like so many other people, I always thought I could sit down someday and just spit out a best-seller onto paper. Now I know better.

So I am leaning towards planning most of this novel using K.M’s books and new software, as well as Scrivener for incorporating the planning/outline into creating a rough draft. Then let the creative side knock down whatever barriers are in it’s way as the process evolves. So I understand the battle many of us are having.

I just know that when I draft legal motions, or prepare oral arguments for court, I should never completely wing-it (although I have at times, with great success). Particularly in Opening Statements or Closing Arguments at trial. It’s far less stressful to have some kind of bare-bones outline – at least a framework – for structuring my arguments. Than I just stand up, look down at my next “talking point”, and let my mind fly with that idea. Has worked to perfection many a time when both my left and right brain work in concert…

Thank you, Darlene 🙂

I love the idea of mind maps and think these are an absolutely wonderful tool, especially with colours. I love the visual representation of relationships, character dynamics, and concepts they allow. Thanks for bringing that up!

For some reason, I can’t do them. I just end up with a very, very few basic obvious ideas/relationships and a mostly blank page…it’s almost like a block. It seems the only way I can work is through exploration by writing the actual story. I have no idea why. But I do envy people who can use them!

Best,
Dario

Hi Francis ~ and thanks for your great comments!

Writing scenes out of order sometimes is a terrific strategy sometimes — thanks for bringing it up. I’ve done that too, on occasions when I’ve known that an exciting scene was coming and was finding the one I was currently writing really difficult. It can really help with enthusiasm and drive, and you can then go back to the difficult scene refreshed. One really fine writer I know, though she’s more of a plotter, does this a lot. There’s no reason not to!

And your English is just fine. 🙂

Best, and good luck with the WiP,
Dario

The only difference in our writing style seems to be that I enjoy writing scenes out of order for a while. I have a second doc and there I just write down sentences or scenes that will occur somewhere in the novel and my goal is to get there. Then they go in the main script. Sometimes the scene changes, sometimes it can stay the same or gets deeper, sometimes it needs to go, but this stair-hopping approach works well for me. I probably have to re-write a lot, but I am not there yet.
With this project, I also used your excel “timetable”, because I have to cover one and a half years and wasn’t doing well juggling the dates. There came a point I just needed to make sure if I’m still in April or already in May. 😀

Have a great day!

Francis

P.S. English isn’t my mothertongue, so please ignore any grammar errors ;D I’m an German-only grammarian.

Thanks, so much Terri.

yeah, it sounds like we found our way to a very similar technique. You sound a little more organized than I, since I don’t do the recap until the end of the first draft.

A character bible is the way to go. And how very true about the way the characters reveling themselves more and more; even if you thought you knew them well at the outset, it’s only once they get moving and interacting that you really get to see their depths.

Best,
Dario

Shawn, that’s pretty funny. My book “Drown the Cat” is in large part a direct rebuttal of the Snyder technique. Thank you for validating my feelings about the results of following his “write-by-numbers” approach. LOL! 😉

Best,
Dario