Saturday, December 23, 2006

A Pantser Speaks

My compadres, C.S. Harris and Charles Gramlich, have posted some interesting discussions of their work processes lately. Harris has been writing a multi-part series on how she plots her books, beginning with plotting her work-in-progress, WHERE DRAGONS LIVE, the fourth in her Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery series.

Gramlich responded to one of Harris' posts, Plotters vs. Seat-of-the-Pantsers, with one of his own, Plotters versus Pantsers, in which he reveals that he has practiced both methods of plotting and now finds that one works better for novels and the other better for short stories.

I tend strongly toward being a Pantser, which the Plotters no doubt would say is why I have never yet completed a manuscript. Perhaps they're right. But I would add that I'm a Pantser in my day job, too, and somehow I manage to write excellent legal opinions that way. I believe my problem completing works of fiction comes more from my lack of BICHOK.*

*"Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard"

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