The direction I'm writing.

I have been meaning to get back on here and put up a blog post, so here it is! I was thinking today as I mopped, sometimes the best ideas can come to me as I do household chores, that it's interesting how I take the time and effort to construct an outline before I start writing a new project, yet that outline grows and evolves as I write the story.

Each character will grow, the storyline itself will grow, too. I just never expected my outline to grow or change. I believe I lie somewhere in between plotting and pantsing. It's my own unique method to my madness. What starts out as A, B, C, and so on, becomes A, 1, 2, B, 1, 2, 3, C... You get the idea. Sometimes B is eliminated and C pops up in a fresh new way.

I suppose I thought this would happen during editing. Maybe I'm editing as I go along. I don't want to do that because I think it will only make more work for me and not be time effective.

Eh, well. I'm thinking there is no right or wrong. It's all individual, it's all unique. I'm sure the longer I do this, the better the routine I will acquire. My teacher in a year-long class about taking a story from premise to publication, explains is as being like driving a stick shift. There's a lot going on, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes routine.

I also know I'm an analyzer. I have to know how something is done, or at least I think I do. It did make learning to drive a stick shift a little rough in the beginning. Eventually I learned to let go and it happened. Maybe that's what I should do with my writing process, somewhat. Let go. Write the story. Especially for the first draft, because it's not supposed to be perfect or knit picked. Just let go and let it all out on paper.

But for now, I like my outline and my stick shift. I drive a van, for the kids, and I truly do not like it. I want a stick shift again. I suppose it's the same with my writing. I just want it to happen and not to be this overwhelming process that I have to think about. Geez, you'd think I would like an automatic when I put it that way! 

What about you - do you like to plot or are you more of a pantser?