Alec Peche's Blog - Posts Tagged "pantser"

I just finished my third book, A Break Death and I am amazed at how I can continue to miss typos or poor grammar. It is also proof of what Word misses. There are sections of my books that I use Dragon dictation to speed up my keyboard efforts. I can speak so much faster than I can type. Despite the hours I have spent at the keyboard I have never developed confidence in my typing such that I can look away from the keyboard as I type.

The trouble with dictation software is that no matter how sophisticated it is, it just doesn't always pick up the right words. To be fair the words are similar sounding - "while vs well", "we're vs were". The words are spelled correctly so Word's spell checker correctly judges the spelling.

When you read your own writing you see the words that you expect to be in the sentence rather than the words that may actually be on the page. I correct paragraphs often shortly after I have typed them. I also print the entire draft and make corrections to paper. Then I read on-line two additional times. Then the book goes to my first reader who sadly discovers additional errors. I guess that is par for the course when each book has been over 80,000 words.

Perhaps is also connected to being a severe pantser. With each book in my series so far, I have started with a murder in a location in the world and that is it. I build the story one paragraph at a time, not even knowing myself what is going to happen along the way. I wonder if it is easier to avoid typos and grammar problems if you're a writer who completely outlines your story? Can you concentrate more on typing and less on what is going to happen in the next fifteen minutes of the story?

Alas, I'll never know. I have tried to reform my writing behavior. With each book at the beginning I try to plot out chapters and sadly sit there with complete writer's block.

Aaarrggghhh!

I was recently asked by a FB friend to name my ten most memorable books so here goes.

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. No better character development than Elizabeth Bennett and Lord Darcy
2. The Prince by Machiavelli - He has many great quotes and the book provides an interesting view of Italy at the time.
3. The Art of War by Sun Tsu - "have your subordinates at war with each other rather than with you the leader" - terrible idea from the ninth century
4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding - another book on leadership
5. Naked in Death by JD Robb - because it was the beginning of this 39 book series that I adore.
6. On Writing by Stephen King - where I learned I was pantser and it's ok.
7. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. His stories are so rich and on point.
8. Any Jack Reacher book by Lee Child because Reacher is such an interesting character.
9. The Elements of Style by Strunk and White because someone has to teach me grammar.
10. Doris Force at Barry Manor by Julia Duncan -1931 teen sleuth that created a love of mysteries in my youth.

Take a few moments to compose your own top ten book lists and see what ends up there...

I am one of many authors honored to be given twenty minutes on the agenda at the Bouchercon conference in Long Beach. I’ll be in Harbor B on Saturday November 15, 2014. The instructions say that the twenty minutes is ours to do what we want - we can discuss writing, demonstrate a craft, or do a Q & A. As I am a more a sports playing newbie author than one with crafting talents, the vision of demonstrating a craft I barely have skill at is a scary proposition. So I gave more thought as to what I can bring to the table for fans or fellow authors. I have decided to talk about the joy of being a pantser since it seems very counter-culture to most of the writing world.

When I began the journey of writing rather later in life, I approached it from the traditional angle. I downloaded an app to my iPad. I dutifully tried to fill out all the questions - what was the point of the story, who were the characters, what was the plot, what would happen in each chapter, etc. I must have spent a week trying to fill it in, but mostly I drew a blank. I knew I wanted a political corruption story, set in California, and the title of the book would be Vials. Literally, where do you start for that first word you place on paper with the intent of having a murder mystery at the end of it? In the end I thought, let me figure out the first paragraph and I did. Then I had enough of a story in my head for a second and a third paragraph then a full page, and then a 1,000 words. I went back to the outline even after 1,000 words and I still couldn’t complete the book outline. I wouldn’t even admit to being an author, as I felt in my head that without the story board, or story outline on some writer’s software package that I must not be a real author. I would see other blog posts from writers with a picture taken of the author standing to the side with sticky notes all over it proudly showing this as the foundation of their latest story.

I was about three quarters of the way finished with writing my first book’s draft, when I had the infinite pleasure of listening to an audiobook written and read by Stephen King - On Writing. He managed to describe and give me a fabulous picture of his approach to writing which had for the most part mirrored my own approach. Hallelujah!

While I have collected a total of four college degrees, not one of them was awarded for anything remotely connected to English, Writing, or Literature. I have never taught English or grammar and consider myself a novice at both unlike Mr. King who is an expert and has taught English. I don’t remember any of the classics, although I do have favorites in the more recent novels of Pride and Prejudice and Lord of the Flies. As a mystery writer, it is likely that the heavy (I don’t know what else to call it) writing of centuries past would put the reader to sleep before they solved the crime.

Still, having diagnosed myself as a pantser (def: a writer who flies by the seat of their pants), I have still tried to reform my style. For book three - A Breck Death ,I downloaded a sample of the most popular writer’s software that you can use for any thirty days for free. I have managed to use it one of my thirty days so far. Again I threw in the towel and reverted to my pantser ways. In book four, I’m not even trying to eliminate the pantser side of my personality.

So what are the downsides to be a pantser? With each story, I have a range of characters in my head each acting and behaving according to their personalities. I have on occasion let the character behave in an inconsistent manner. My female protagonist is a very strong willed character and occasionally I have written something more suited to a general commanding an army than to her showing her love for her main man in the story. Fortunately, my beta readers pick up on those inconsistences and I have the opportunity to fix them.

I understand from doing more research into the pantser style that about 25% of writers are pantsers, and 75% are outliners. I haven’t yet attended a writer’s workshop, so I don’t know if there is a “test” that a new writer could take to figure out their style. I see if I can find the answer to that question before November’s meeting. It sure would have been a confidence builder for me if I had known early in my writing journey that I was a pantser.

I like complexity in my stories and I need to write about 15,000 words before that complexity begins to appear in my head. My imagination builds on itself, so while I can’t envision the twists and turns that the plot is going to take at the very start of the story, I know that in time those twists will reveal themselves. With my current WIP, I have just over 16,000 words written, and I have laid the groundwork for two of the characters that wanted my victim dead and their motives, but I know as the story goes along that I will dream up additional plots. I rarely experience writer’s block. If I do, I stay away from writing for a few days, come back to the story, re-read a part of it, and then get a new idea for the direction of the story.

Along the way in all of my novels, I perform internet searches on topics in my books. In Chocolate Diamonds I studied the diamond industry extensively and wrote that into my story. Often, doing a little more research on a particular piece of the story gives me a direction to go next with my writing that I can’t imagine at the start.

At Bouchercon, I plan to share my journey as a writer with the hope of giving back to that attendee that has tried to start their writing journey but is not getting anywhere. Maybe their style is in conflict with their present approach. Perhaps that person is a pantser and hasn’t figured it out yet and I can offer a little help.

Cheers and see you in Long Beach,
Alec Peche

If you have followed my Goodreads blog or Twitter posts or have spoken with me in person, than you know that one of my writing tenants is "writing by the seat of my pants" or "being a pantser" as it is called in the industry. I like the freedom and the excitement of a story that slowly unveils itself in my head. Unfortunately that process has caused me to have days when I couldn't write. Either I was unable to decide where the story was going next, or I wrote myself into a corner, or I ran out of clues to solve the mystery.

It's probably a good thing that I don't tell my stories out loud to children at bedtime as I would have to leave them hanging for days at a time. Of course, murder mysteries are likely inappropriate to the age of children that like bedtime stories, but I digress.

I am an avid reader of The Kill Zone blog. I've saved lots of excellent writing advice from that blog - it's an author focused blog not a reader focused blog. I ran into James Scott Bell, one of the site's bloggers, author of numerous mysteries and writing craft books, at Bouchercon 2014. It was a short conversation, but my take away was that there was a way to become a hybrid pantser that might make my writing better or at least easier. His suggestion was that an outline might prevent me from having miniature writer's blocks or inconsistencies in my story. I believe that by the time I publish my book, that I and my first readers, have cleared all of the inconsistencies out of the story, but I would be the first to admit that when I stumble upon them, it scares my writer's soul. I ask myself how I could have such an inconsistency? How did I not see while I wrote, this hole, the size of the Grand Canyon, in the story; or the fact that I said Trixie was a Chihuahua on page 12 and a Dalmatian on page 30 (if you've read my books you know that
Trixie has always been a Dalmatian).

So for book five, "A Taxing Death", I "outlined" the first 24 Chapters. I chose 24 randomly as that was how many squares fit on the piece of paper. My books have varied considerably on chapter numbers, prologues, and epilogues. I can tell that the book doesn't end in Chapter 24, so as I get closer to writing chapter 24, I'll have to take out a new sheet of paper and outline the final 2-5 chapters. Each chapter is described in a single sentence. That sentence will have to become about 3,000 words or the average size of each of my chapters. I also wrote this book without a prologue, but now I have a new problem. The first chapter feels too long to be a prologue, but I have to change the point of view of the story between chapter one and two which is considered a writing no-no. Again, I'll figure out this transition with some help from my editor before the book gets published

So far, my writing speed has not been any better. I keep a 2,000 word count progression goal on my calendar that I broke by the third day. However the jury is still out as to whether I will feature Trixie as a Dalmatian or a Chihuahua as the story progresses. I'll update my blog in a few months with my experience as a hybrid pantser!

Cheers, Alec

My experiment with outlining is not going very well. Of the twenty-five chapters I outlined at the start of my work-in-progress book, “A Taxing Death” less than three, have gone according to plan. The original order of story nuances has become re-ordered in my writing to fit the story evolving in my head. A concept that I thought would take a chapter to flesh out, may have only taken a few paragraphs. Worse still, is that my writing speed has suffered.

A Taxing Death was scheduled to come out on April 15, America’s Tax deadline. The timing would have been perfect for readers - the murder mystery violence directed as some truly wonderful employees of a state tax authority. However, with my slower speed, I am heading towards a May 15 completion date. I've been unable to figure out why this is going so slow. I've been a little suspicious that the outline has reduced my creativity and enjoyment in writing. I'm sure that creative writing instructors would see this as a cop-out, or that I put insufficient time into creating a quality outline at the beginning of the project.

The one positive note so far has been that I haven't written myself into a corner - run out of clues to solve the mystery. In my previous book, Death On A Green, I wrote myself into a big dead-end street and was stuck, unable to move forward in my writing. I ended up leaving it alone for a week, when a burst of creativity hit me and I was able to solve the mystery.

It may sound absurd that I can be hallway through a book and not know who done it, but truly that is how the story evolves in my head. In Death On A Green, I knew I needed to kill a darling, a likable character, but I wasn't sure how to kill that darling until the final ten pages of the book.

I feel confined by my outline. It seemed pretty perfect when I wrote it and so I don't understand why it has been so unhelpful for the actual writing. Thinking that 'I wrote it, so I must use it' has seemed to stop some of my freelancing story-line from breaking out. Once I finish with this story, I'll return to my prior pantser ways. I have two thoughts on book 6 in my mind - it will be set in Dallas, Texas, and a murder will occur at a nursing convention. I have a friend who wanted to be written into one of my books and after a conversation with her friends on FB, I learned what her role would be in the story. Beyond that, I'll see where the words take me….

Most authors speak to a need to write - they see something in the world that inspires them to want to capture that something with words. I am new to the writing world, and haven't felt pressure to write all my life. I began writing a little less than three years ago and have been goal driven to get books written, edited, and published. The first book - Vials, took a year to publish. My second book - Chocolate Diamonds took nine months and books 3 to 5 have needed four months to be completed. As I was closing in on the end of book 5 - A Taxing Death, I decided to take a break from writing to go back and edit a few of the books and spend some time gaining a deeper understanding of marketing options. Then life interfered with those plans.

Like many people across the world, I have a senior parent that needs my help. My mother wants to stay in her own home and live independently. She has been a lifelong introvert and the social activities of senior housing options completely turn her off. She has increasingly become fragile as one would expect at 85. I've taken over various aspects of her life as she has lost abilities - she stopped driving 8 years ago, needed help with her weekly pill boxes about 5 years ago, then I began helping with banking, investments, taxes and meals about three years ago. Then she needed reminders three times a day to take her medicine in the last year and a walker on occasion for balance. Up to three weeks ago, she was able to live alone with frequent visits from me or my brother during the day. Then like many seniors, she took that one bad fall and fractured her 12th thoracic vertebrae. As there are all kinds of nerves in this area of the body, this injury is very painful. Unlike broken bones elsewhere, you can't put the back in a cast. The person has to go on moving with pain. The injury will heal in 6-12 weeks, but you can't put someone on bedrest for that period of time. There are subtle hints that the bone is healing - burping, sneezing, and coughing have become more tolerable.

During this injury period for mom, I have spent hours at mom's bedside first in a local hospital and then in a rehab center before bring her home with live-in help now. Hospitals are terrible environments for seniors - they are confusing places with dumb rules. Mom was admitted with high blood pressure due to the pain, once the pain calmed a bit, her blood pressure returned to normal, but she was left with a low salt diet. I feel that if salt hasn't killed you by 85, then it is not going to. Regardless she is continuing to make very slow progress each day, most of all she is happy to be back on her schedule rather than anyone else's.

During this time period I had a few deadlines on books that I handled while she was asleep. I didn't explore marketing opportunities as planned and I wrote the first 500 words of book 6. Unlike books 1 through 5, I don't have a title yet for this book. It's very strange to save the file as book 6 rather than Death by Convention, or A Dallas Death, or some other title that I have been mulling over in my mind. I've even lost the sticky note I had written on potential book titles. As I have flown by the seat of my pants these past 3 weeks, book 6 is lining up to be my best pantser effort yet as I have no title, no cover, and no outline even as I work on Chapter One.

When life gets in the way of writing, I know how to do the bare minimum to keep my author enterprise afloat while saving my time and energy to handle the lemons thrown in my mother's or my way.

Cheers,

Alec PecheAlec Peche

My current work in progress, Red Rock Island, which will be published mid-July is an interesting case study in pantser writing. Pantsers are writers who write by the seat of their pants. They sit down at the keyboard and begin a story with no idea of where it’s going. Compare that to J.K. Rowling who appears to be an outliner based on the storyboard that I’ve seen regarding her Harry Potter series. There are pros and cons to each style of writing and most writing instructors end with the advice to go with what works for you, the writer.

When I began my second series I started with a single premise. I’d put a guy who lives on the only private island inside San Francisco bay and he would solve crimes based on an engineering background combined with computer skills. That was all I started with. Today I’m sitting with the book 75% finished at over 60,000 words and I know I’ve got to solve my two cold cases, but I still don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I know it will come to me. The reason I can’t outline, is I don’t know the story ending without knowing the details I’ve come upon along the way.

Since the story began I’ve added eighteen characters, two cold case victims, a dog and two cats. Some of the characters will be specific to this book only and other will continue as the series goes forward.
I had a teenager pop into the storyline out of nowhere and I’m fairly sure I won’t solve her mystery for a few books yet.

My main character, Damian Green, I thought would remain static throughout the story. He’d start alone and end alone, but he wouldn’t stay in the box I had planned, and so a woman along with a teenager appear in the story. Again I had no predilection that this was going to happen from the start rather it fit the story as it unfolded.

I understand that Lee Child writes his Jack Reacher series much the same way. He starts each story with Jack arriving somewhere and when he begins he doesn’t know what kind of trouble is going to find Jack in this new town, only that he will.

It’s both the agony and the ecstasy of each new story. I’m excited to see where a story takes me, but I can get stuck if I occasionally write myself into a dead end or when I don’t hear the story’s characters calling out to me.

Weird huh?