So Here's How I Wrote STOLEN

Thanks for all of the input yesterday you guys on the different ways you wrote your books, or the ways in which writing your various books have differed. I thought I'd share my own way of writing that I alluded to in the last post.


So for the record, I'm a plotter. A MAJOR plotter, to the point where I'm almost anal about it. I also can only write things in order.

This is funny because in real life (or rather outside my writing life) I'm a very go with the flow kind of person.

*Side Note* I've noticed that how organized a writer is in real life seems to be completely inverse to how organized their writing is. Melissa Marr revealed when I met her that she has to have everything on a schedule, and gets really annoyed if something doesn't arrive the minute its supposed to, but she's a pantser and writes scenes out of order and sometimes writes things without understanding why. I'm pretty cool with things happening when they happen (to an extent) but I must write in order and I don't write ANYTHING without there being a major reason for it.

Anyway, back to plotting.

So I always start off with two big images in my head. An image of my character at the beginning of the novel and an image of her at the end, so I know exactly where she starts and how she's changed by the end.

I also get ideas for a bunch of scenes that I will write in pretty loose skeletal form, knowing exactly where they fit into my plot.

Then with my beginning and ending in place and smattering of random scenes, I plot the rest of the story and then organize my plot into chapter summaries.

Here's where I fudge with my plot a bit. I don't usually steer off the course of my plot, but my chapter summaries often shift around a bit.

As I write (IN ORDER) I get a feel for if the plot is working. If I feel like something is off, then I'll stop there and rework the plot until it feels right. This usally means going back to the beginning. I always go back to the beginning (like Inigo in The Princess Bride) until I fix the problem.

I know some people can work problems out in their head and chart scenes in their mind and know what will work and what won't.

I'm not one of those people.

I'm a trial and error girl. So I will write a scene and then rewrite in a totally different way over and over until I stumble on the one that works.

Anyway then with my plot fully there, my chapter summaries (which do leave a bit of wiggle room for surprises and organic shifting) and any problematic scenes or plotlines worked out, I write a really rough draft. The way I think of my first draft is word vomit.

I know that's so gross, but it's what works for me. I have to literally vomit every word and idea onto the page before I clean it up and mold it into something nice.

So that is what I did for STOLEN, which then took 6 weeks to write (granted this was after 2 years of trying to write it with different plotlines and even in the beginning as a middle grade novel).

Now revision was a WHOLE other story.

But basically, that was how I did it. A lot of organizing, a lot of roughing it, a lot of trial and error.

So tell me, what do you think about the whole organized writer with a disorganized life? Are you organized as a writer and chill in life, or chill as writer and pantsing it, but super organized in life?

And I'd love to hear more about how you all plot and write.