Maxime Trencavel
I am a thinker, ponder, and traveler. These predilections reflect in my writing which is intricate, complex, and plot driven—a narrative taking the reader around the globe and through time—both forwards and backwards.
Often my inspirations come from my hikes. Either in nature or through cities and countries I visit. I visit cities, towns, and villages around the globe soaking in the culture, the religion, the ethos, and of course, the food. All of these are stimuli for thinking and pondering. I could be hiking while listening to an audio recording of authors talking about the craft of writing which will stimulate thoughts on how I can rewrite a passage or chapter.
So I start with being a plotter. Yes, I have this huge spreadsheet that mapped out The Matriarch Matrix, which reviewers either liked for its complex, intricate plot, or really disliked it. But once I’m in front of a keyboard, I’m a panser and all sorts of things come out of my fingers within the framework of that chapter. I might do research on interesting ideas that come up spontaneously during the pansing process and there we go to somewhere else. I might have to rewrite another chapter based on the spontaneous ideas that come out which affect the plot and characters.
Good thing for my alpha and beta readers and a great editor who reel some of this back in. But the “within chapter pansing” is where the sheer inner creativity and genius shines through. I listened to a podcast with a well-published author who said he didn’t worry about what he was writing on the first draft. Just let it out. Then fix it or re-craft it on the edits. And so I found the editing process was six times longer than the creation process. But the creativity was not stifled in making that first draft happen.
Often my inspirations come from my hikes. Either in nature or through cities and countries I visit. I visit cities, towns, and villages around the globe soaking in the culture, the religion, the ethos, and of course, the food. All of these are stimuli for thinking and pondering. I could be hiking while listening to an audio recording of authors talking about the craft of writing which will stimulate thoughts on how I can rewrite a passage or chapter.
So I start with being a plotter. Yes, I have this huge spreadsheet that mapped out The Matriarch Matrix, which reviewers either liked for its complex, intricate plot, or really disliked it. But once I’m in front of a keyboard, I’m a panser and all sorts of things come out of my fingers within the framework of that chapter. I might do research on interesting ideas that come up spontaneously during the pansing process and there we go to somewhere else. I might have to rewrite another chapter based on the spontaneous ideas that come out which affect the plot and characters.
Good thing for my alpha and beta readers and a great editor who reel some of this back in. But the “within chapter pansing” is where the sheer inner creativity and genius shines through. I listened to a podcast with a well-published author who said he didn’t worry about what he was writing on the first draft. Just let it out. Then fix it or re-craft it on the edits. And so I found the editing process was six times longer than the creation process. But the creativity was not stifled in making that first draft happen.
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