What’s Your Writing Style?

1. Are you a “pantser” or a “plotter?”

Plotter. I usually know what is going to happen in each chapter before I sit down to write Chapter 1.

2. Detailed character sketches or “their character will be revealed to me as a I write”?

I like to do detailed character sketches of all my main characters … we need to be “good friends.” That doesn’t mean that I don’t learn something new about them as the story progresses; I always smile when I say to myself, “You never told me that,” or “I didn’t know that about you,” when I’m writing about a  character. With minor characters to be “acquainted” with them is enough for me.

3. Do you know your characters’ goals, motivations, and conflicts before you start writing or is that something else you discover only after you start writing?

Yes, for the main characters. And, sometimes for the minor characters, but it’s not important for me to know minor characters’ goals, motivations, and conflicts before I begin writing.

4. Books on plotting – useful or harmful?

Useful in that they give you another option in plotting. Harmful in that you can get locked into a model that isn’t true to you or your book.

5. Are you a procrastinator or does the itch to write keep at you until you sit down and work?

I’m 99 1/4% procrastinator. I think my greatest asset, curiosity, is also a great hindrance. When I do get started writing something I often go off in tangents researching, plotting, character sketching, setting research, surfing the internet …

6. Do you write in short bursts of creative energy, or can you sit down and write for hours at a time?

I can do both. Mornings when everyone in the house is still in bed or at night when they’ve all gone to bed and the house is quiet is when I can write for hours at a time. I also jot bits and pieces at stop lights, watching tv, while washing dishes … whenever an idea flashes across my mind. I always have paper and pen with me.

7. Are you a morning or afternoon writer?

I write whenever I get a free minute, even if I have to beg, borrow or steal it.

8. Do you write with music/the noise of children/in a cafe or other public setting, or do you need complete silence to concentrate?

I prefer it to be quiet. I can handle music, but people talking really drives me nuts. I can’t concentrate with people talking within ears-shot.

9. Computer or longhand? (or typewriter?)

I can write with both. But, when I write longhand the words seem to flow freer and require less editing.

10. Do you know the ending before you type Chapter One?

Most of the time I do. Sometimes it’s a surprise for me.

11. Does what’s selling in the market influence how and what you write?

No. I write what I like to read. And that changes frequently … that curiosity thing again.

12. Editing – love it or hate it?

I love editing. Through editing I can make my words shine. Problem is, I sometimes get stuck in trying to make my words perfect. Sometimes good enough, is good enough.

Until next time …

No day without a line!

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