How Do You Write?
My non-writer friends are in awe about me finishing a manuscript. For me, it's just the tip of a very long iceberg, but they always ask "How do you do it?"
Well... It was a lot of WRITING, for one. But really, I just did it. I decided one day that writing was important to me and started devoting my time to doing it. THAT was the start. Beyond that, there was a lot of head pounding, hair tearing, pacing, and general anxiety.
For me, as a Pantser, planning along a plot line or a dot-line....
Which by the way, I love the Plot Dot!
As a Pantser, I just don't plan. I DO go back after I've written to make sure that my story hits the Plot Dot essentials, but I just can't bring myself to say "Hey! This is what happens here, next, and this is how my story ends...." I like to be as surprised as my readers.
Editing is tedious for me as a result... But that's a whole different post.
I can't remember who said it, or where I heard it, but and I'm screwing up the quote... The best stories are the stories that take everything away from your characters and see how they react to having nothing.
Writing, for me, is about telling that kind of story. The one that makes a character learn how to survive having everything ripped from her and then getting that world and my character on paper, nothing more. I'm constantly asking myself how my character would realistically react to a situation. And then, after having everything taken, presenting them with a life or death choices and asking how will my characters choose to survive?
THAT in a nutshell is how I "do it," I guess. All by the seat of my pants. And it's quite the ride!