Her Dear & Loving Husband is an Award Winner!

Before I get to my post today, I wanted to share some wonderful news. Her Dear & Loving Husband is now officially an award-winning novel. James and Sarah have won the Coffee Pot Book Club Book Award for highly recommended novels. Cool, right?

Our Writing Process is Fluid and Always Changing

I love it when a story comes together. The story for The Duchess of Idaho finally revealed itself last week, and I’m currently a Very Happy Camper.

It’s funny how our writing process can change over the years. When I first started writing fiction many moons ago I was a complete plotter. I had to figure out the outline of my work in progress from beginning to end, and then, and only then, would I begin my first draft.

What I came to realize, though, is that needing an absolute grip on the plot before I started writing meant that I often wouldn’t begin my first draft for months after I had decided that this novel was something I was willing to dedicate blood, sweat, and tears, not to mention time, to finish.

As a result, I ended up writing more slowly than I might have otherwise. That’s not a complaint, by the way. As writers, we write at the speed we write, no faster and no slower. For some of us, that means we publish several books a year, and for others of us that means we publish one book a year, and still others might release a book every couple of years.

I Went From Plotter To Pantster

Do you know what it means to be a plotter or a pantser?

Plotters carefully outline their story before they begin writing. Pantsters like to fly by the seat of their pants. They don’t outline their story and jump right into the writing process without a road map. Here’s a good description from Medium about the differences between being a plotter or a pantster.

Late in 2020, I decided that I wanted to publish Christmas at Hembry Castle just to prove to myself that I could put a book out more quickly than I thought I could. I had a head start since I knew the Hembry world (this was the second book in the series) and I knew the characters. What I didn’t know was the plot.

I had a vague sense that I wanted C@HC to be a tribute to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. To that end, I just started writing and figured out the story as I went along. This was the first time I began a story as a “pantster,” flying by the seat of my pants instead of having the plot set out step by step.

As I was writing C@HC, and as the story started coming together, I realized that I could discover the plot organically while working my way through my shitty first draft at the same time. What a revelation. I decided to see if it would work again with The Duchess of Idaho, and I’m pleased to say that it did.

Again with The Duchess of Idaho, I had only a vague sense of the story before I began writing. I knew it would revolve around Grace Wentworth, James and Sarah’s daughter from the Loving Husband Series, and I knew a few odds and ends about what happened to Grace. Particularly, I knew that Grace would time travel from the present day back to the Oregon Trail in 1850. I didn’t know anything more specific than that, but I started writing anyway.

Being a Pantster Provides More Fluidity

I find that I’m writing more quickly with the “pantster” style of writing since I get two things done at the same time: plotting the story and writing the shitty first draft. Before, I labored over the outline for months and then I’d write the shitty first draft, which also took months to complete.

I have more flexibility as I discover the plot organically as the characters take over and show me where they want to go. I’m not tied down by any previous decisions about the plot, and sometimes the story leads me in directions I hadn’t considered before.

I also find that flying by the seat of my pants allows me to overcome writer’s block. Again, since I’m not tied down by previous decisions, I can write any part of the story I want to, whichever part is inspiring me that day. Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series, has said that she writes her books in scenes and then discovers how to string the scenes together later.

I’ve always felt as if I was a slow writer, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I wasn’t changing the way I begin a new writing project because I was trying to quicken the pace of my writing. This was simply a natural evolution for me as I’ve gained more experience and learned to trust that there are many ways to write a story.

I love writing because I love that I can play with any aspect of the process. When being a plotter no longer served me, I tried flying by the seat of my pants and I was happy with the results. I already have the general plan for The Duchess of Idaho after two months (I started the first draft in January). For me, that’s crazy fast. Plus, my first draft is nearly done, and that’s always the most painful part of writing a novel—at least it is for me.

In a few more weeks my first draft will be done. I’ll set it aside for a bit, give it some baking time, and then I’ll head into what is always the best part of writing fiction for me—shaping the story into its final form.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a plotter, a pantster, or somewhere in between. Experiment and play until you find the right way to begin a new writing project for you.