Since the release of my book out I've gotten a ton of questions about how I went about writing it. I thought that it would be easiest to just answer the non-face to face questions here on my blog. The winner of the question contest has been; do you plan everything out or just go by the seat of your pants?

    Little did I know there are actual terms for these methods. Planner or Pantist. I don't know if they're official but I've seen a lot of other authors use these so I will too, at least for the duration of this post.

    My answer then, is both. Maybe 35% Plan 65% Pants.

    I spent time working through the structure of the main events and how they interconnected with one another. I also placed key events and kernels of information that would never be truly important in book one. I seeded these for books two and three. I based where I placed them on the act I was on, and if they would have an impact on downstream actions or ideas in book one. I had an Excel spreadsheet listing branches and so on and so forth. This let me stay on track with the overall plot of the book as well as keep the subplots rolling along. Then, out of the blue, surely as a ninja hides in the dark, some idea ambushed me and took me in a different direction than I intended.

    In a span of about ten minutes I derailed half of my story because I decided to do something different with the main plot. In my opinion the idea added depth to the work but it also fundamentally changed the story. As a result I noted what I wanted to do down, copiously. I used that energy and momentum to tie the changes into what I was planning for the rest of the book, the impacts on the characters, and how that would impact downstream on books two and three.

    After that was done I had to go back and look for impacts at the start of the manuscript. It wasn't a small task by any means as my change came about mid way through the manuscript. The Excel sheet and structure let me really find the things that had to be changed as a result and made sure I was still on track for books two and three by the time book one was done.

    Structurally this is about as seat of the pants as I get, at least so far.

    When I'm deep in writing a scene is where the real seat of the pants action comes in.

    I try to write organically, and let the flow of the character's dialogue and actions influence where the scene goes rather than trying to plan out every exchange. This is especially true in combat scenes. All I really know is the starting point of the combat, and the final out come (most of the time).

    I'm a very visual person so when I write these combat scenes out I'm literally imagining every move, and what a trained (to the limit of my knowledge) combatant would do as a reaction. I really see combat as this dance, it's alive, it's viceral, and it has beats. It has breath and momentum. I'm not saying I am a worldly fighter of men, or master warrior but I've been in my fair share of situations that involved someone being hurt (sometimes me), and someone winning (not always me). In each and every one of those situations I've felt the training I've had kick in. I knew what to do when I needed to do it. However, a fight is messy. People don't come at you the way you want them to. The environment can be against you as well. When training fails you have to rely on instinct to get you through.

    I really tried to capture this in my writing.

    I wanted it to feel as real as possible. Each combatant needed to display the level of training they had according to their back story, and their current physical condition. Considering that my main protagonist is a super powered spy with more training and experience than I'll ever see it was a daunting task.

    Chances are I'll do a post specifically on how I write combat scenes just because I could go on for a while about the subject. I'm going to get back on topic now.

    To Pants or not to Pants? Again I say both. Structure is the roadmap to get you from your starting point to your final destination while making sure you always have a gas station to refuel at. Seat of the pants is stopping at that little country store you're driving by for the most amazing strawberry ice cream you will ever eat.

    Your gut will often tell you that the planned out structure isn't working well the way you planned. When you're in the moment you'll just have these ideas blossom on how a scene, a conversation, or a chapter is going. I think it's good to head down that path. If you're using Word or some software to write save your work under a different iteration and then charge forward. If you find that the idea wasn't good you won't lose anything but a little time and you can jump back and get back on plan without having to reconstruct what you had before.

    Make sure to hold on to your work. I created what artists call a Morgue. Instead of containing art it contains writing. I never deleted anything that felt right to me permanently, I saved it, kept it in my morgue just in case I had a reason to bring it back. The spark of inspiration that made me produce it in the first place was probably good and I don't want to waste that. Maybe the idea didn't fit as well as I liked in the spot I had written it in but there was more than one occasion where I dug it out of the morgue to use later on. More seat of the pants? Yep because I like strawberry ice cream.

    Anyways, that's my take on it.

Keep writing!

Garth