Writing cards (Photo credit: Sami Keinänen)
There are two types of romance writers:
pantsters, or those who write by the seat of their pants and
plotters, or those who plan their story before they write it
I believe that most writers are a little bit of both. I, personally, am a plotter. I outline my entire story and then I begin writing from the beginning. However, as I write the story tends to change.
The characters behave differently than I expect. New characters pop into the story and strange things happen. All the while the original outline is used as a guide to keep me on track.
Pantsters may not follow an outline, by definition they do not, however in my earlier panster days I did have to pause in the middle and try to figure out where the story was going. Even pansters need to remember that a story has to have a beginning, middle, and end.
I challenge you to embrace a little bit of planning with your romance writing. It will help reduce the amount of revision you have to do and it may help you with plotting.
And if you’re already a plotter, then plan your writing in a different way. Grab a calendar and plan out what you’ll write and when you’ll write it. Perhaps you’ll work on main character development for one day or one week. Or maybe you’ll finish that action scene that has been challenging you.
