*drumroll*
Ashley with beautiful AND treacherous: “the ocean” – I’ll send an email.
Both OH and I grew up in a seaside town, in and out of boats, fishing and sailing so it really struck a chord.
Such a difficult choice as there were so many wonderful answers. Thanks so much everyone!
That is the question, to paraphrase a certain Danish Prince of questionable sanity.
I’m not what you would call a plotter. (Not when it comes to writing anyway). And yet on occassion I will do it. It all depends on the story I am sitting down to write. So yes, this is a writing post. Otherwise known as a Ruth meanders through a blog post hopefully, eventually reaching some sort of conclusion before she gets bored and wanders away.
Whether you are a plotter or a pantser(1) is one of those questions that always seems to come up when writers get into conversations. Most people have an opinion on it, some of them quite vehement. I’ve seen Pantsers turn white at the mention of 3 act structure and Characters sheets. I’ve seen Plotters cross themselves at the thought of setting out to write without doing all of this and more first(2).
So what is the difference? Well, for me (because as always I can only answer for myself) I actually do a bit of both. I think it comes down to whether you are a writer who likes to mull over a story in detail before actually writing, to let it ferment and grown in your mind, let those various plotbunnies join together and do their thing, or the type of writer who likes to work all this out in a more structured way – putting it down on paper (or in pixels(3)) beforehand and mapping it out.
Here is my theory. You can repeat it, copy it, whatever – Both these type of writers are DOING THE SAME THING. But while one of them is doing it on paper, the other is doing it in their head. (my inner 10 year old is smirking).
When a Pantser talks about a character that won’t tell her why he’s doing the dasterdly thing he is no doubt doing, it isn’t actually because the voices in her head are laughing at her(4) but rather because she hasn’t yet made the mental link between the character and his motivation. At the same time, elsewhere in the city, a plotter is staring at a stubborn character sheet trying to work out how to link those two scenes in a way that follows narrative logic.
THE SAME THING. DIFFERENT WAYS OF DOING IT.
Once again we’re back to the idea that there are many rules when it comes to writing. Take the ones that work, throw the rest away. If you like to write it all down, do it. If you like to wander around muttering to yourself, get some professional advice that’s fine too.
I plant. Not in the garden. Ok, in the garden as well, but not for writing purposes. I both plot and pants it. The process runs something like this. I am mugged by a plotbunny. I write it down in my notebook. Another one joins it, then a few more and they have a party in my head. I write all this down. Some time later I go back to it and discover it isn’t entirely crazy(5). I start to sketch out ideas. I walk away. I read. I research. I mull things over. I have ideas. Because I have a brain like a sieve, I must write these ideas down or they will be GONE FOREVER. There is nothing worse than that perfect, shining, beautiful idea which occurs at 3am or in the shower, when you cannot write it down. There are notebooks everywhere in my house. I am slightly obsessed with them.
And then, because if I poke an idea for too long without doing anything it loses its lustre, I start writing. I might not get very far. But at this point I need to get to know these people, need to explore their world as they see it. I need to immerse myself in the story. In doing so I will probably (usually) stray far away from the original plan, but that doesn’t matter. It’s not really a plot. It’s more like guidelines.
Then I’ll gradually run out of steam. And return to the notes. I’ll rewrite them. Maybe just a scene or two to come, maybe the whole thing. Every book is different. But once I know where I’m going again, I’ll set off once more. Slowly, we edge towards the end. But we do get there. (6)
So when looking at different ways to write remember that there is no one or the other. You can be both a plotter and a pantser, you can mingle the two if needs be. And just because one story works that way, doesn’t mean the next one will. Let the story guide you. Allow yourself the flexibility to try new things. And always, ALWAYS, have fun with it.
Just to remind everyone this is the last day to enter the 100 day giveaway for an ARC of THE TREACHERY OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS. I’ll be picking a winner tonight!
And now I’m off to have fun.
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1. Pantser – one who writes by the seat of their pants, i.e. makes it up as they go along
2. Not really.
3. Pixels always make me think of pixies. I have an interesting mental image of the inner workings of a computer.
4. Well, probably not…
5. Notice, I qualified that.
6. “We” are the characters and I. We are now best friends. Best friends I torture, drown and chop up. It’s a unique relationship.
You may have noticed the sparkly loveliness in my sidebar, counting down until the 16th of August, 2012.
This is because it is now 100 days until The Treachery of Beautiful Things launches in the US. *Throws confetti*
To celebrate, it’s giveaway time. To win one of the last ARCs I have, leave a comment below telling me something beautiful and something treacherous. The winner will be picked in an extremely subjective manner — maybe by asking a kid, maybe by asking the Patchwork Cat, maybe by selecting random number.
Remember you can find out more about Treachery and read an exclusive preview on this site.
It’s available for pre-order in all these shiny places -
Indiebound | Book Depository | Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk | Barnes & Noble | Powells
Please spread the word, tell your friends, RT, Tumbl (is that a word? It is NOW) and let’s make this as much fun as possible. The competition is open from now until the 15th May 2012, a whole week. Remember, one post each – something beautiful and something treacherous. It can even be both.
___
fireworks by Dreamstime.com
So right, well, due to matters beyond my control… well actually due to responsibilities which I can’t ignore and the massive headache that followed it… I didn’t manage to blog yesterday, which is annoying because I totally meant to.
Because *drumroll* *taa-dah*
yesterday was May Day.
That would have been so much more effective yesterday when it was “today is May Day”, you see? But never mind.
The reason May Day is important (not just because it’s what I frequently shout. Ok, when I’m in trouble in France anyway) is that The Treachery of Beautiful Things is in part based on the legends and folklore surrounding May Day. It is the first day of summer here in Ireland (notable this year for the pheNOMinal ammount of rain we got). It’s Bealtine, one of the quarter days when the veils between worlds become thin enough to let things slip through. It’s a time of magic.
Alright I never actually got around to writing the blog post, but luckily for me The History Girls had a fantastic one written by Mary Hoffman, so I am totally linking to that. 
It even has a lovely picture of the May Tree, aka the hawthorn.
The hawthorn we planted in the garden is doing well by the way. It has little buds. So pretty! Next year we’ll have pictures of it, I promise. At the moment… it’s a stick with some little green buds on it, so not that interesting.
Today (NOT May Day) I’m over at the Australian blog Treasured Tales for Young Adults celebrating its Blogoversary, and talking about Jenny from The Treachery of Beautiful Things. I love Jenny. She’s a complicated girl, who learns and grows over the course of the book, growing into herself as a confident and self-assured young woman by the end of the story. I like characters who develop over the course of a book, rather than being the same the whole way through and I think Jenny shows this. Anyway, see for yourself what I had to say.
And finally, here is my May Day song (late) which is one of the most important songs from my Treachery Playlist – Rabbit Heart (Raise it up) by Florence + the Machine. (I can’t embed it, so follow the link to YouTube).
This is another quick blog update but with some super news.
I’m going to be a guest at TitanCon in Belfast in September. I’ll be reading on the evening of the 21st September in McHugh’s and I’ll be at the con all day on Saturday 22nd. Anyone there, please come and say hi!
Also up today is a guest post I wrote for Tangled Up in Words and their Why I Write segment. It almost sounds sane. Well, sane-ish. Maybe. But most importantly the Tangled Authors are have a massive giveaway which is open for about 3 more days and includes, among many other shiny & spectacular things, one of those elusive ARCs of The Treachery of Beautiful Things. Go and enter! While you’re there maybe leave a comment for me, pretty please?
I saw the final jacket for The Treachery of Beautiful Things today. It’s so beautiful. Will share as soon as I know I can.
In other news for those of you in the US, there’s a goodreads giveaway of Treachery going on at the moment.
And I’ll be doing another giveaway somewhere soon. In the meantime back to work I go…
I’ve a guestpost up on The Book Pushers today, as part of their Fantasy Appreciation Week, on fairytales in modern fantasy – Fairytales in a modern dress. And if that’s not lure enough… oh all right, you can enter to win an author review copy of The Treachery of Beautiful Things!
The giveaway ends on 13th April, and it’s open internationally.
There is an interview with me up at the Open Book Society website today – talking about writing, worldbuilding, & The Treachery of Beautiful Things
Come along and say hello.
It’s Fantasy Appreciation Week at the Book Pushers.
I’ll be there on Friday, talking about Fairytales and giving away an ARC of The Treachery of Beautiful Things… Just a little advance notice for you.
The Treachery of Beautiful Things has been getting some lovely reviews. Which makes me very happy. The paranoia of a writer (this writer anyway) is such that it doesn’t matter that you write something, polish, have other people edit is, polish it, sell it etc. That all kind of pales when someone who doesn’t HAVE to be nice to you or doesn’t have an interest in the book, or indeed any contact with you at all, tells not you, but people in general that they like it. That is such a rush.
And makes me slightly terrified, but that’s my own problem.
Reviews are funny beasts. (NOT REVIEWERS, I NEVER SAID THAT). Because I believe a book needs to stand on its own for the reader. I studied English Lit in college with a firm ethos that the reader brings things to the reading experience that the writer perhaps never intended to be there (and with my mental insertion of relationships into otherwise relationshipless stories I know that’s true). Reading is a subjective thing. What works for one person will not work for another. And the writer… well… once a book is finished and out in the world I kind of imagine it skipping off with no more than a backwards glance at me. A bit like the cat. Off to the person willing to carry on loving and feeding it with their imagination. A review is really something for the person writing the review. It’s their expression of what they liked or didn’t like in a book.
Coming from the Sci-Fi & Fantasy critique boards that I first found when I started writing seriously, I learned (not through direct experience thank goodness) that it did no one any good to argue with critiques. Slightly different there because in that case of critiques they are written with the author in mind. Most of them helped a lot. Some didn’t. Some exposed problems that actually did lie with the reader rather than the piece of writing. Luckily the people who ran these boards were generally very quick to stop things becoming unpleasant. But the fact remains and was drummed into me there too. Books are out there on their own. I don’t want to rake up all the bru-ha-ha of earlier this year but yeah. Books gotta run free as the Patchwork Cat and kill some birdies…. err maybe not that.
But it also means I sometimes find it hard to poke my head up at all, even to say thanks for a good review. I deliberate about clicking “like” or retweeting something, let alone replying unless I’m named in the tweet. (Although I did this morning. Yay me!) So I will say it here. Thank you for reading my book, thank you for reviewing my book. If you liked it and gave it a good review, awesome. Thanks again. *danceofjoy* If you didn’t like it, well, I’m sad it didn’t work for you but thank you all the same for giving it a chance.
<3
If you’re interested the reviews are on Goodreads and the one from this morning is at Simply Books as well.
