Personally, I’m so relieved whenever I learn of authors who don’t plot, or use a linear method since I write scenes all over the place and then have to figure out how to connect them together after the fact. I had a huge inferiority complex about this until I read that Diana Gabaldon does something similar. *Phew* Exonerated by the marine bird Ph.D. lady.

::snicker::

You’re funny.

I’m a plotter. I used to be a pantser, and I then I underwent a massive transformation of character that left me organized and focused and suddenly I couldn’t write a book unless I knew how it was going to happen. Now, I grant you, I don’t plan everything and there’s a lot of, “She steals some of [her mistress'] dresses and goes to a theater to hire a maid to take care of the dressing and styling of wigs.” Now this sounds pretty explanatory, except how does a very well-known aristocrat sneak into a theater to hire a maid without anyone noticing?

Psh. And who the heck is the maid?

Psh.

And then the “synopsis” also has bits like, “Lord B~ begins to notice some strange tendencies of Heroine’s at the same time (looking at Hero too much, the smoothness of skin that he’d always disregarded) and NO THE GOOD VISCOUNT BATHURST ACTUALLY KNOWS HER SECRET! Nice.”

Obviously not something I can send straight to agents once (if I ever) finish the book.

Which is why I’m hoping to get a good chunk of this next book (which isn’t under contract yet) written BEFORE I sell it. On the other hand, I’m moderately terrified of putting in a lot of work only to discover I CAN’T sell it. Damned if I do, and damned if I don’t, but I’ll admit, it seems more like play when I’m not writing it because I HAVE to.

Good luck. I’m sure you’ll do just fine. (When’s it due?)

No, I am not freaking out about writing on deadline at ALL. Would I do that?

I love your description of your writing method, though I have to say that if I tried to write that way…well, I don’t even want to think about the consequences. Sadly, I have an extraordinarily linear mind, which means I absolutely must write all the scenes in order from the beginning of the book to the end. Even more, I have to have the “right” opening for every scene or I can’t write it at all, even if I KNOW what has to happen later in the scene. It’s actually a rather annoying trait, but I’ve learned it’s “my way” and can’t be altered.

That doesn’t mean I’m a hard line plotter, though. Like you, I have a fair idea of my turning points, my black moment, etc., but everything in between is up for grabs. But that’s exactly why I can’t seem to write out of order. Everything that happens in the story is predicated on what came before. If I don’t know what led up to the scene I’m writing, I have no way of knowing what history and emotions they might be reacting to or commenting on during the course of what’s happening now.

None of which means I don’t go back and layer in stuff as I go. If I realize I need a Dingbat A as I’m writing Scene 24, I will figure out a way to go back and introduce Dingbat A earlier in the book. And I’ll do it right then and there. Because if I don’t know HOW I introduced Dingbat A, I won’t be able to pull it in Scene 24 in a way that seems natural and reasonable.

Sound complicated? Yeah, it is. It’s also why I really don’t have identifiable “drafts” of a book. I’m constantly tweaking and modifying the whole thing as I write forward. By the time I write The End, the book is already Revision 127 or thereabouts.

I love how different we all are in our processes, yet we get to the same place in the end–a book!