Thursday, August 25, 2011

Thinking About It

Before I sit down to write anything, I think about it. A lot.

I've spent the better part of today pondering what I'm going to blog about. Not continuously, but here and there over the course of the day. I was going to give it up as lost (since nothing was coming to me), but I didn't post yesterday, so I figured I should put something up today.

About then, it occurred to me that this thinking I do is part of how I write.

Last week, I got a couple comments about how I must be some combination of a plotter and a pantster since I don't follow my short draft very closely. I disagree. Just because my writing rarely goes according to plan doesn't make me any less of a plotter, I think.

I spend a lot of time figuring out my stories before I even start writing them. I spend a lot of time planning my blog topics before I even get online. I can't stare at a blank screen and put down the first thought that comes into my head. I have to have something in my head, a place to start, before I start.

I may diverge from the plan once I get started, but I can't start anything without something to start with.

That's just how I'm wired.

6 comments:

Karen Jones Gowen said...

Thinking is good! Most people don't do enough of it.

Theresa Milstein said...

Plotter? Planster? Plontster? I think true plotter follow their outlines pretty closely. I've heard some people have pages of outline before they. There are pansters who really have no idea. But most of us fall somewhere in between, I think. I think you're closer to the plotter and I'm closer to the panster.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

I prefer plotting. My writing is plotted out from start to finish. Otherwise, I'd never finish anything.

Missed Periods said...

I think a lot about what I am going to blog, and then I always end up blogging something totally different.

Astrid Paramita said...

I like to think about things before I wrote it down too. Although my problem was, I could think too much about it I ended up not writing it at all >.<

Sarah McCabe said...

Hello from a fellow campaigner!

It sounds like your process is exactly like mine. Not only do I plot, I also like to just sit and think and work things out in my head first every time I sit down to write.

Your Etsy stuff is so cute. :)