by the seat of my pants

I don’t think anyone who knows me would be surprised by the fact that I kind of fly by the seat of my pants when I write.  Oh, I usually have a few established plot points in mind when I start, some targets to hit along the way, but sometimes all I have is a character or an ending, and the rest comes along as I write.

Unsurprisingly, this usually means that I end up having to do some heavy editing once the first draft is done, and I already have a pretty lengthy list of things I need to go back and fix as I sit here around sixty thousand words on The Blood Witch.  Some things I fix on the fly, but most I just make note of and keep moving, so I don’t get trapped in an endless edit loop and never finish the zero draft.

For me, getting the story down is more important than getting it *right* the first time through.  I can edit and finesse and dress up later.  First I need to get the bare bones down.  Sure, I have some phrases and entire scenes that come out perfect the first time through, but more often than not, those will end up cut out as the story evolves and get tucked away in a file in the dark recesses of the computer to be played with from time to time.

Over time, as the plot develops, I become more and more sure of the ending, and how to get there.  I’m at that place right now where I can see the ending, and I know a bunch of the plot points I need to get there, and really, I just need to sit my ass down and write.  If only I could squeeze out a few more hours in my day!

I’m hoping to write for as many as six hours per day on the weekends, and a half hour to an hour, minimum, per day through the week…I just need to figure out how to manage that with the day job, the freelance job, the gym, the commute, the housework, etc.

Speaking of, I should get back to it before the day gets away from me or I get buried under the mountain of laundry. Happy Sunday, Readers!

Photo by Uwe Jelting on Unsplash

Photo by Uwe Jelting on Unsplash