I’ve tried just about every bit of plotting advice out there. Sure they work, but not for me.

I have to KNOW my characters. They have to KNOW themselves before I get the groove with a new wip. By that time I might stop and do a timeline, but not really plot. Not really. Not ever. Sure I know where it’s going (sort of) and how it has to get there (sort of again). But sometimes characters just don’t like to clue me in for a bit. This happened with the ST I recently finished.

Sometimes a really dark character drops into a story where he is not needed. I like him, CP likes him, but alas he will be reserved for a later story. Sometimes elements are put in place for one reason or another and well they just aren’t needed no matter how much I like them…

Alas the sins of a panster, yes J I will be spending the next week paying the price, but in the overall scheme of things it works for me.

I chatted with my mother who paints. We rarely discuss my writing but after a really productive phone call with CP I was in the character chatty mood and well, mom got the low down. I was explaining why I have to correct some issues –  being a panster is the basic reason for most of the ‘issues’.

What I said to my mother was – “I can’t plot, because then it’s not fun to write the book.” And never realized until I verbalized that is IT!

Mom in her infinite wisdom explains it’s the same way for her. She can not draw something exact then go back and layer and layer on the paints. She has her ‘way’ and her way works for her and comes out beautifully. There’s nothing wrong with the way other’s do it, it just doesn’t work for her.