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I'm a Plantser
Jan. 12th, 2019 06:51 am
Day 11: Describe your process for your creating your art.
There was once a song that we sang around the campfire on youth retreats. It began like this: "It only takes a spark to get a fire going, and soon all those around can warm up in its glowing." That's how my process starts. A spark, a tiny match lit that lights a candle, and then a Teal'c's roomful of candles, and then a Guy Fawkes's Day of fireworks.
And then a fizzle.
Fizzle. Fizzle. The gas range set on low. Simmer, simmer, simmer. Flare.
Okay, enough fire analogies.
An idea breaks through the minutiae of my brain. It could happen while I'm watching an episode, while I'm chatting with my fandom friends, while I'm reading someone else's story, looking at an icon, or, possibly, while I'm dreaming or in the shower. The idea flitters around my brain for a while. If it doesn't spark into another flame within a week or so, it flops around on the beach before sinking into the sand. If it catches, if it quickens, then I won't be able to get rid of it until I start working on it.
Sometimes I start writing right away. Get the words on the page and figure out the plot and dynamics and climax later. Those stories take shape quickly, the candles all burning at both ends. But, oftentimes, they fizzle. Fizzle in the middle. I find middles more difficult than both beginnings and ends.
This is where the gas range comes in. This is the time where I have to step back and turn down the fire and get out my tools (Scrivener, Excel, my notebooks) and plan out the rest of the story. Outline. Figure out exactly where I'm going and what I'm going to need to edit and write to get there. What do I want to leave the reader with? How is this story answering the questions I voiced in the early chapters? Letting the characters grow? Resolving the crisis?
Other times, the research comes first. When writing for SG1 in particular, I do a lot of research. Inventing a new Goa'uld, finding her/him in mythology, figuring out how this god or goddess fits into the Stargate universe. Making sure I don't step on any canon – and there's a heck of a lot of canon. 'Apron Strings' was a research-heavy story. But, still, even with these stories, there usually comes a time when I have to stop and reassess.
For my original fiction, the process is the same, but drawn out much longer. My spark of an idea for my first fantasy novel took six years to flame into a cohesive story. It took long conversations with my first readers. A lot of denial before acceptance of their criticisms. The editing took two years and resulted in a story I didn't expect. Working on editing the sequel now while I research agents and draft query letters.
There's another flame that sparked a week or so ago. It's found a half-dozen heavily scented candles stuffed into a box in the basement and is trying to create some kind of Write-Me Sacred Circle to get my attention. No matter how often I tell it I don’t have time for it, it's not going away. Time to make some notes.
*Note: A Plantser is a cross between a Pantser and a Planner. A Pantser writes by the seat of her pants, planning nothing. A Planner, as you might have guessed, plans everything out first.
