Writing Foundations for Plotters

I have started on a new writing project!

It's another mystery. It’s ambitious. It has intertwined stories. It has a mystery that will span over the course of multiple books. 

And when I think about this writing project which will be my soul focus for what will likely take years, I can see the scope of what I wish to accomplish and then don’t know where to start. 

I am excited, but I am also crazy overwhelmed by the prospect of it.

The need to quell this anxiety is why I am a plotter and not a pantser.

In the writing community, many writers will identify themselves as either a plotter or a pantser. Plotters plot and pantsers writing by the seat of their pants. The most lucrative pantser is author Lee Child who claims to have no idea what Reacher will do until he starts typing out what Reacher is doing. Lee Child has written many, many books this way. In an effort to help, my husband purchased a copy of the book about Lee Child's specific writing process as a pantser. It’s on my shelf and I am actively avoiding it. It’s like when that friend who has lost a ton of weight gifts you a copy of a book about The Mediterranean Diet. Yeah, it might be good for you but you’re just not quite ready for change so it sits on the shelf where you can wonder if it was really a passive-aggressive message.

There is no one way to write a novel and while it seems like the plotters and the pantsers are at odds, they are not. Mostly we listen to how each other writes our novels and then scoffs at how their way would never work for us. 

I have to have an idea of what I am doing or else I won’t do it. I need some kind of frame work for what the next steps are, how long it will take me, and any road bumps along the way. 

It's also helpful for me because I have to balance more than one job, attend live events, and live the life of an active parent of teenagers while also allowing myself to be dragged to multiple destinations because my husband loves to travel and mostly enjoys US cities where we can all go on historic walking tours. I have to manage all that time.

This means before I write the first chapter, I have to build my foundational documents.

Foundational documents are the baseline, off-the-page information I must know about my novels’ community, characters, and time frame with which the story takes place. When these documents are complete, I will make them accessible in my writing space so when I have a question about something specific, I can reference it quickly. 

For example, I have a master list of names for Pretty Girls Get Away With Murder. It’s not just people, but also towns, counties, schools, and civic organizations. Because I don’t have to have to constantly search for what I named everything – particularly the fictional town names. I have this list in a document that is constantly minimized on my laptop screen so I can easily access it. 

And while this might sound like it's the paperwork and boring part of the process, it's actually incredibly fun. It might be the most fun part because it's all new and fresh and full of potential. Putting together the music I will listen to while I write, thinking about what colors and clothes people will wear, looking up the Zodiac signs for my characters based on their fictional birthdays: these are the fun parts of the process because the stakes are so low and it all feels like experimentation and play. Much like the excitement that pantsers feel when they sit down and conquer the unknown every writing session, I'm just doing all of it at the beginning.

For the month of June, I'm going to be posting about the different types of foundational documents that I find helpful as a plotter. I will be addressing character sketches, treatments and synopsis, outlines, and timelines.

Be on the lookout this month for those upcoming articles.

In the meantime, be sure to check out the brandibradley.com store where you can review the full catalog of all my novels. And if you have not ordered your copy of Pretty Girls Get Away With Murder, remember that during Pride Month, $1 for every book or story sold from the shop will be donated to the Lost n Found Youth, a nonprofit in Atlanta that that provides services to LGBTQ+ Youth experiencing homelessness.

Pretty Girls Get Away With Murder

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