pantser – skepticlysm

One of the things I’ve had to go back and work on for my novel … character sheets.
I can see the characters in my head but reading while I’m revising, a lot of them are 2-D.
I noticed a lack of presence and flat dialogue.
Which means they’re placeholders and need to be fixed.
Annoying af.
Another speedbump in the struggle of writing a book.
That kind of thing was easier in the one I tried to write before.
At least it seemed so at the time.
Also a time when that was all I needed to worry about.
The job was to write, not to … job.
Anyway, character dictates plot as much as plot dictates character.
Kaia plotting everything down to the tiniest detail shone a light on why it’s taken me so long to write the goddamn book.
I get stuck because I did not do the pre-work.
I’m not a Pantser, as it turns out.
Exposition: allegedly there are two kinds of novelists – Plotters and Pantsers.
Plotters plan.
Pantsers pull it out of their asses.
Sorry, “write by the seat of their pants.”
That’s what Stephen King does, btw.
I bet he does not write character synopses.
I can’t sit here in these lists and criticize novels and movies for lack of character depth when I’m not doing it in my own work.
Don’t get me wrong.
Just because characters are flat does not mean the work won’t be entertaining.
There are fucktons of IPs where we have basic characters and the thing is about the plot/spectacle.
Fun, but disposable.
Beach books, right?
But your audience develops shallower emotional involvement when the characters are flat.
Which means the rollercoaster ride has to be perfect.
I’d rather have both, you know?
It’s like marketing: if you’re not creating an emotional connection to the property, no one’s going to remember (or return/buy your thing again).
(This is why most commercials are dogshit, btw.)
(Brand loyalty is an emotional response to a product or business.)
(Coke or Pepsi?)
(Favorite sports team?)
(I could do a whole list, or series of lists, on what makes for successful marketing, and you would not believe the amount of emotional manipulation that makes the good stuff good.)
My book is not literature, it’s a pulpy YA adventure.
Book one of a trilogy.
The heroine is 15 in book one, 17 in book two, and 19 in book three.
This is no kiddie story, but it begins when she’s youngish.
And she’s a she because way back when this was a short story, not a novel, Kaia said, “Why isn’t he a girl?”
Which is also how this became FOR her instead of for me.
I just thought the idea was cool.
Couple of kids break into a sorceress’s home.
Getting back out turns out to be harder.
This has been more difficult than writing my Master’s thesis.
However.
Progress!
I’m kinda pissed it’s taken me six weeks to make headway on it.
Head had to clear up a bit I guess.
We’re rollin’ now.
Obstacles being removed.
Hold fast.
You know, they say you’re less likely to complete a goal if you talk about it.
Like, I’m less likely to finish the book because I’ve talked about it to people.
F.
Too late, right?
Writing is a largely solitary effort.
You with a keyboard in a room alone.
Sometimes, however, you need to talk about it.
Need feedback.
Need holes shot in your thinking.
17 chapters to go.
That’s where we’re at.
And then we revise.
(This is another of those lists written the day before.)
(Most of it.)
(Yes, sometimes, I write two in a day.)
(Like I’ve said before, this is compulsory.)
(And the freedom has been inspirational and motivational.)
(I’m not going to finish this one yesterday, however.)
Anyway, character sheets.
One of the how-to books I read on novel writing had you do all this character pre-work.
Role.
Values.
Ambition.
Goal.
…
But all I can think of are D&D character sheets.
It’s a struggle not to give them ability scores and proficiencies.
I am giving them alignments.
Because, duh.
Shorthand for values and general demeanor.
At least when you’ve trafficked in alignment labels for 40 years.
Go find a D&D alignment quiz out there on the Web.
(I’d do it for you, but the link would only be good on the blog, not FB, and … c’mon, you can web on your own.)
(Okay, fine.)
I’m Chaotic Good.
Got a t-shirt and everything.
Yippie-ki-yay.
My favorite descriptor of that alignment: “The right thing, the wrong way.”
Wrong’s a strong word, and I disagree with it in this context.
Who’re you to tell me I’m wrong?
It’s only wrong because you think you’re right.
(Said all I needed to say on the opening topic.)
(Maybe I’ll get to the chickenshit Hollywood bit …)
Honestly I took one of those tests just now and came up True Neutral, but that does not fit my internal narrative.
I feel I should mansplain it a bit.
When you’re doing an RPG, the alignment you assign to your character dictates how they act.
Say they’re Lawful Good, then they’d be a Dudley Doright kind of person.
Chaotic Evil would be a megalomaniac.
Chaotic Good would be … John McClain or Henry Jones, Jr.
It’s like a game version of Myers-Briggs.
Okay, yeah.
I may post another of these later that’s a little more … in line with what we’ve been doing.
This one’s like a writer’s nerd rabbit hole.
I need like a song rec or something.
Uh …
“Death Do Us Part,” Royal and the Serpent.

Tag: pantser

Rabbit Hole