What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.
When I was writing Aiyanna, Time Witch, the story was writing itself. When I write novels, I employ four different actions: 1) write, 2) research, 3) write ideas longhand in a notebook only for the novel, and 4) think. I do a lot of thinking: scenes, what a character might say, actions, etc. Just about anything. Some of these go directly to the writing if related to the scene I’m writing, others to the notebook – put in the notebook as they come, with no particular organization, and some just hang around in my thoughts as I chew them over.
The book has its origins in 1975 when I was at Duke. I wrote ideas sideways if necessary to go on the page along with arrows all over the place linking ideas. I filled about three pages with what looked like gibberish but represented the book I was thinking about. Out of college, I was in a technical field of algorithms and problem solving. And I lost those three pages.
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I am what is known in the business, as a pantser – one who writes by the seat of their pants, just letting the words tumble out onto the page (Steven King, George R. R. Martin, Mark Twain). At the other end of the spectrum are plotters. They create detailed outlines and character profiles before they start writing, and keep refining this information as they write (J.K. Rowlings, John Grisham). I started out a pure pantser with Aiyanna, Time Witch but became a plantster (somewhere in-between). After chapter two I started writing, long hand, in a dedicated spiral-bound notebook. I write down anything: plot ideas, themes, possible future scenes, brainstorming, abbreviated character profiles (I typical focus on motivations, short-term goals, and conflict – both internal and external).