Discovery Writing 101

I'm a Discovery Writer, also known as a Pantser. This means, I sit down and write my first draft with no idea where it's going to go. I don't plan. I don't draw out character arcs or timelines. I start on page one and work my way forward, completely blind.

Discovery Writers get a bad wrap. We're seen as undisciplined, scattered, and messy. People are afraid of writing like us, because our editing process is rumored to be horrific. Often, we can't even tell you who our villain is or if our book will have a happy ending.

Being a Discovery Writer is scary.

It's like jumping off a cliff without knowing if your parachute will work. You start writing your story without even knowing if it has an ending.

But, to me, being a Discovery Writer is magical.

What people don't understand is that being a Discovery Writer is all about trusting your characters. You introduce yourself to them, and say, "Alright, now tell me your story." And then you just follow them.

And they do. They tell you about their lives and their adventures. It's a very personal way to write a story. You get really close to your characters as they walk you through their lives.

But you have to accept that you have no control. You have to understand as a Discovery Writer that you're really not making decisions. Oh, in the editing process you'll have some choices -- do I include this scene? should I explain why she's doing this? can I remove this character? -- but, in the first draft, you don't have a say in any of that. You don't decide if this character is evil or if that character will drink the potion. You just watch them and see what they choose. You let go. You stop planning. You stop trying to force your will on the story. You just let it happen.

And you'll write a lot of words that will never be used.

When I wrote The Witch's Key, I wrote a first draft of 300 pages. I didn't even introduce my villain. I wrote these 300 pages, and all the while Phyllida and the others talked to me. They told me how they felt about things, and why things were happening the way they were. It wasn't very accurate, because I wasn't getting the full story all at once. But, by the time I reached page 300 (nowhere near the ending of the book,) I realized that I now knew the story. I understood the arc, and the way the pieces played together. I understood why Thanasius had a book on Necromancy and why we were taking a spontaneous trip to Canada. I was able to start over with a clean page, and write with the story more straight in my mind.

But that's not to say this draft came clean. I was still learning things. I knew my characters better, so I could trust them more. I found some twists and turns and learned more and more. When I start editing in September, I will have the full story laid out.

I don't believe outliners can do all this with a single outline. Sure, Outliners don't end up with 300 pages they will never use. But they do go through many different outlines. They do chapter sketches that don't make sense when they get that far. Their characters surprise them, too.

For me, it's easier to make the journey with my characters, instead of trying to figure it all out at once. It's like taking a trip. Some people want to plan out their itinerary in perfect detail, and some want to follow the roads as they reach them and see where they lead. I'm one of the latter kind.

Right now, I have no idea what the plot of Magicland even is. I don't know if Suzerra is evil, or if she'll get a love interest. I don't know what the political structure looks like. I don't know if Jak will return to New York or stay in Fairyland when the war is over. I don't even know if Clara will survive.
And that's ok. Because I know that they will tell me when I get there. And I know that, whatever they do, it will be better than anything I could plan at this point.

Being a Discovery Writer is about admitting that you're not in control. You decide how the story is told, but you don't decide what the story is. That is for your characters to figure out for themselves. It's about trusting your charries and the story that they're telling.

So, if you're a Discovery Writer, allow yourself to let go. Don't worry about outlines and character development and all that stuff. Just write. Your story will come.

♥/Kat!e

Talking to Fictional Characters

I believe I've admitted before on this blog that I talk to my characters out loud sometimes. I talk to them in my head pretty much every day. And when I'm not talking to them, I'm listening in on their conversations.

However, I didn't always do this. I mean... I always had voices in my head. Characters always kept me up at night, telling me their stories when I really wanted to be sleeping. They've always been their own entities. 

But I wasn't always confident enough to admit it. 

It was one of my very dear writing friends, Andrea Tonnies, who first "gave me permission" to admit to this craziness. All she did was talk about the relationship she had with her characters. She talked about arguments she would have with them and things they would do without her permission. One day, one of her characters went to visit one of our other friends. Her characters are very real, not only to her but to anyone who reads her writing. 

Hearing Andrea talk like this gave me the confidence to admit to it, too. And my relationship with my characters has only improved! It's easier to get them to tell me their stories when I actually talk to them. 

And I'm admitting to this here, today, in the hopes of doing for you what Andrea did for me. Giving you permission to embrace the crazy. Maybe we do belong in some sort of a home -- but it would be a happy home, and there would be lots of wonderful charries in it. And the same people who call us crazy are the people who enjoy our stories and love our amazing character development. 

On the other side of this, don't feel bad if your characters don't talk to you. I don't think everyone has this relationship with their characters, and that's ok. They still write beautiful books. These people tend to be more plot-driven writers, and come up with amazing story lines while I'm pretty much writing the same story over and over with different characters. 

If your characters are completely silent, or they only talk to each other, or they have full-fledged conversations with you, forcing you to scream at them in public to leave you alone, it's ok. We're all writers and this craziness that we have is what makes us the artists that we are. Embrace it. Love it. Write great stuff from it. 

And if you see my character Maurelle anywhere, would you tell her to get her snarky face over here? I need to write another chapter! 

♥/Kat!e

Irrelevant Characters

Let's talk Irrelevant Characters.

I've already mentioned... repeatedly... that I hate love interests who exist just for the sake of being a love interest. But what really is the issue with this? 

In my opinion, the worst thing you can do for your novel is create a check-list of things that you need. For example, if you're writing a Fantasy novel, you might create a check-list like this: 

• Young hero, prophesied to be the "Chosen One" 
• Wise old wizard
• Spunky heroine, raised herself in the woods
• Quest for MacGuffin 

Why is this so harmful to your book? You're not following the story. You're treating writing a novel like buying a furniture kit from Ikea. If you can figure out how to fit Fig. B to Fig. C, then you'll get the perfect novel. And we all know it just doesn't work that way. 

Throwing in a love interest comes with the same mentality. You think, because Romance is one of the biggest genres, and everyone loves a good ship, that you need a romance in your story. But these love stories tend to lack chemistry and true interest, because the Love Interest has no real substance. They aren't thoroughly developed characters. They don't actually matter. They serve as motivation for the character as much as any MacGuffin. 

Oh, and then, of course, you do something terrible to the love interest -- even kill them -- just to emotionally scar your hero. Not only is this cliché, it's just terrible. Is that really the only thing you can think of to motivate your hero? Is that really all this character is good for? The death of a character should make the reader feel like they're losing something. Like this story can't possibly go on with that character missing. That's how it feels when we lose someone in real life. How can the world keep moving with that person gone? 

Look, I'm not sure I'm making this point very well. All I'm trying to say is that you need to follow your story. Trust it. I'm not saying don't have a Love Interest. Love stories are wonderful, and love is a great motivator. But sometimes, throwing in a ship just gets in the way. Let's be honest, so many teen novels have brilliant situations and great characters, but the love story weighs it down and makes half the book gag-worthy. Does every teenage rebellion leader really need a boyfriend? (For the record, I haven't read Hunger Games or Divergent, so don't think I'm talking about any of these teen novels in particular. I'm just judging the genre because I'm a stereotypical snot like that.) 

Now, it's just as bad for your story if you make a list of things to AVOID because they've been done before. To never use prophecies, wise old wizards, or plucky heroines because they've been done to death. If your story requires a Love Story, killing a Love Interest, or even a Love Triangle (a topic for another day), then please add it. 

What it comes down to is analyzing your motivation. Are you adding in a Love Interest because you're "supposed to"? Because it might make your book more popular? Or are you adding them because they are an important character? Because there would be a hole in your story -- entire plot points that didn't work -- if they were missing? And this doesn't just go for Love Interests. This goes for sidekicks and mean girls and plucky comic reliefs. Everything in your story should have to FIGHT to be there. Does it add interest? does it carry the story forward? 

When choosing what to add to your novel, make sure you're listening to the story itself rather than what is popular. That's the only way you're going to get quality. 

♥/Kat!e