I am in the midst of my next book, a sequel to Isle of Swords...yet untitled. I'm going to create a poll in a week or two with a series of possible titles. But in the meantime, if it seems like I haven't posted every day, you'll understand why. I have until Oct. 20 to get my best draft to my publisher. You may have noticed a new feature in the sidebar. My word count for this novel is 85,000. I'll be doing my best to get close, but not over, that number. I've outlined the whole novel. I know what's going to happen all the way through, except I don't.
Some people are seat-of-the-pants writers. They are the spontaneous lot. They write as the muse hits. Some are meticulous outliners. I'm in that camp, except I'm not. Are you following? Good. See I outline very carefully, sometimes taking a month or more to plot out the story. I have to or I'm doomed to massive rewrites and time consumption you wouldn't believe. BUT, when I start to flesh out the story from the outline, when the characters take on lives apart from my mind...well, the story must follow. So, the outline becomes flexible.
And...that's what's happening right now. This pirate tale has developed some themes and depth that I hadn't imagined initially. I'd hate to be in the shoes of some of my own characters. There are uncharted waters ahead.
What style of writer are you?
A. SOTP--spontaneous, as it comes, outlining is blasphemy.
B. StrictOutliner--flesh out the entire story before the manuscript. Never deviate.
C. FlexibleOutliner--know the whole plot but being open to character-driven twists.
D. Something Completely Different? Do tell.
