BY M. IRISH GARDNER
I am so not a pantser. Y’know, those authors that simply sit down at their computers on a whim and write an entire book? Yeah, not me.
Unless I’m free-writing, which I do as often as I can for warm-ups and practice, I am an outliner. I love knowing where my book is headed even before I begin. I’ve had to give up too many projects that end at page seventy-five because I realize it’s not actually going anywhere.
My short story, “Reformation”, started out as a pretty average idea. I’d tossed around some concepts with our Editor in Chief, Penny Freeman, after stumbling upon the idea late one night, but although there were some unique aspects to it, the idea, in and of itself, was overdone. I abhor overdone. We don’t jive. So, I had given up that idea, pushed it aside, and moved on to more brainstorming.
Then, when the psychological thriller genre popped up for one of The X’s anthologies, Penny told me I should use that old idea, give it a new twist, and submit something. She’s so encouraging like that.
With just the right angle on an overdone tale, I created an original idea—or, original enough, which is really all a reader wants. There are only so many different ways a person can combine the ideas in the universe to create something as new as possible, so I did the best I could.
I submitted under a pseudonym [editor’s note: not M. Irish Gardner] so no preferential treatment would be given. Penny was one of the judges, but she wasn’t even sure the submission was mine, despite our conversation. It had changed that much. So, can outliners deviate? Absolutely. Actually, they must if they wish their plots to change with the flow they have created in the beginning.
In my mind, it’s not about the story leading me somewhere; it’s about what has happened up to that point of change, how it fits with what I’ve already written, and if it makes sense to continue on the path I previously designed, or to meld my two parts together with something that works even better.
Writing on a whim works really well for me when I have a limited number of scenes in my head—just segments of stories. It doesn’t work for me when I’m creating an entire, multifaceted story.
I love complicated plots, so it’s important for me to stay organized. Yet, when a new idea crops up, or when just the right twist will take the story to a whole new level, I would be doing my work a great disservice to stick to stubbornly stick to the plan.
It’s all about what works. Are you a pantser or an outliner?
Senior Editor McKenna Gardner writes under the pseudonym of M. Irish Gardner. Chasing after her two small children in the Arizona sun keeps her in shape for drilling the troops at The X.
Her short story, “Reformation”, appears in the anthology she edited with consumate skill, A Dash of Madness: a Thriller Anthology, to be launched August 3, 2013.
Follow Ms. Gardner here, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.