How It All Comes Together: Planning for this pantser

Hey y’all. So, for this post I originally started writing something else, but then I hit a wall with it and one of my friends suggested I change topics to see if that would help, so here we are. I think in the Rhythm of My Words post I talked about how I’m a pantser, meaning I don’t outline my stories. I get a general idea, and I see where it takes me.

At least that’s how I started. My first book, Fiendish, was literally a chapter by chapter thing since it started as a blog story. It all began with a writing prompt: take your favorite fairytale and put an adult spin on it. Once I picked my fairytale (Beauty and The Beast) I had to figure out what my “spin” would be. We all know the tale, so how could I make it a little different? Make him a good looking monster (aka a serial killer), of course. Once I had those bits figured out, it was a wild journey of what comes next one chapter at a time.

I truly had no forethought on where I wanted the story to go, but I had fun getting there, even though there was a lot of meandering along the way to get to the end. An end I had no idea about until I got to understand the characters better, mainly my FMC. Initially, I thought I was writing a romance, but as things progressed, and with how irredeemable the MMC was, that idea had to shift and it became a dark love story instead. 

I know that process seems chaotic to some, but it worked/works for many of us. I’ve never liked outlining, even way, way back when I was in school. Hated when teachers would want one before we had to turn in a paper or anything. As a writer, I get to choose how I do my stories. But also, as a writer, I continue to grow and tweak my process.

Which is how we get this post. I am a pantser, but as I created more books, I thought I needed to have a better foundation than just an idea and vibes. But not too much, because the one time I attempted NaNoWriMo, I tried to follow the prep rules which include outlining and it did not go well. So much so, I don’t even recall what that project was because the joy of it was killed trying to figure out what happened before I wrote it.

So, how do I as a panster “plan” my stories?

It started with me joining the Wordmakers group. I’ve spoken before (in my other blog) about how being part of that community has helped me level up as a writer. My mindset has been in a shift to being more intentional with how I approach my writing business and that includes how I craft my stories. 

Walk with me to see how Love on Madison Island became my first “planned” series.

I always considered myself a standalone girlie, but of my current books out, only one of them is a true standalone connected to nothing else. Since I kept falling into “accidental” series I decided to write one on purpose. This was for my first 20kIn5Days event. 

The start:

My other books seemed to come in threes so I stuck with that. Friends or siblings? Friends. That was the bare bones beginning. I am an HGTV fan. I watch lots of renovation shows, so I wanted to incorporate that somehow. I also had the idea that I wanted it to be “career” women with blue collar love interests. Things started percolating. 

Three friends: the names came first because I wanted to feature older leads because as an older-ish woman, it was something I hadn’t done. I wanted the names to fit with the ages of the characters so Cynthia, Regina, and Irene were born. I’m a Georgia girl, so most of my stories are set in the Atlanta area, but for this series I wanted something different so I made up a town.

From there, I had to break down the base trope that the plots would incorporate. I hadn’t written a second chance, so decided to start there. We have our FMC, the trope, who would be her love interest? This is where my HGTV love came into play to build the basic story idea. What if she’s returning to her hometown for some reason, and she has a house she inherited that needs some work and he has to do it for her? With that, Marcel was born. General idea, the opening chapter playing through my head, now, it’s at this point where I would have just started writing. But, I was doing 20k and trying to give myself more structure. 

The plan:

Tasha L. Harrison, the creator of Wordmakers and 20kIn5Days, has a character workbook you got as part of the challenge. The writer is meant to answer questions to get to know the characters better as well as identify central plot points. I did the workbook, and let me tell ya, it was a struggle. I had to think in advance about things that I would typically learn along the way. Things like how was their childhood? How was their family life? What life goals did they have? I didn’t know these things, I would have to wait for the characters to tell me the more the story unfolded. I was supposed to figure it out beforehand? That was a foreign concept to me.

But I did it because I was trying to learn and grow. And once I stopped and put some real thought into it, it wasn’t as difficult as I’d told myself it would be. And it wasn’t an outline! But those questions did help me determine a main plot point for second chance romance: why did they split? I knew there had to be a reason, but I hadn’t quite figured out the why until going through the questions. 

That’s where the planning stopped. But it was more than I’d ever done for any of the books that came before. 

Writing the book:

Since this was a “planned” series, it meant I had to make sure there were bread crumbs for the other two friends, and set up to their stories were embedded in the current story, even though I only had the basic tropes to guide me. I knew a firefighter would be the MMC for book two, I hadn’t figured out how he’d play in until I was writing Renovation of Love. Folks are still mad at me about Regina’s bakery LOL. But I had no idea that would be the sacrifice until the accounting error thread revealed itself in book one because I had no pre-thought out scenes. 

Like none at all. In the back of my mind, I’d have “it’d be cool if” thoughts, but not all of those get incorporated. Cynthia was estranged from her parents and I figured there needed to be a moment with her mom at least, but her dad also getting some page time was a surprise. 

The prep work for the other two books were the same, using the workbook questions to get to know the characters better. But even with that, my characters could manage to throw me for a loop. Remi is a good example of that. Between her and Irene, she was supposed to be the “easier” character, have less baggage, and yet when I started writing, she revealed a whole other side that I had no idea about. And while it was frustrating because I was thinking the story was going to go one way, it’s always exciting to veer right instead of left and do the journey of discovery. 

Things sometimes take longer to finish because I’m figuring it out as I go, but I always get to the end. My process is constantly evolving. Tarot was something else Wordmakers got me into. It started for personal use, but it’s a practice that can also be used to help guide stories.

Shoutout to Lisa Kessler for her classes.

When I would get stuck, I’d pull a card to see if it could spark an idea or help guide me in the next direction. I’d have to sit with it for a little while sometimes before the way forward would make itself known. 

The “planning” I did for the Madison books ended up not being as terrible as I always imagined planning to be because I found something that worked for me. Not a rigid play-by-play outline, or an outline of any kind. I consider it a more of a “get to know you” situation with the characters which I can pull in as the story unfolds. 

I think I’m hitting the rambling stage of the post so time to wrap it up. The workbook was my gateway drug as it were LOL and I’ve moved to incorporating tarot to get more into my characters and their relationship. I’m still a pantser girlie through and through. I don’t even consider myself a planster because it never goes beyond the get to know you stage. Sometimes I refer back to the answers, other times they just linger in the back of my mind as I’m writing. 

Either way, making this change to how I approach writing has helped me. As an author, we’re meant to grow and improve on our craft so while I enjoy learning about my story as I write it, having a better foundation before I start isn’t just a bad thing.

That’s all for this post. 

Until next time
~Meka