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My next book for writers is here! Technically, it was here two months ago, but I was so busy, I didn’t have a chance to announce it.
It's called How To Pants A Novel.
Blurb:
If you've spent much time in the writing community, you've probably run across this question: "Are you a plotter or a pantser?" Plotters plan and organize their books ahead of time, while pantsers "write by the seat of their pants"—or, in other words, wing it.
But how? How does that work? How is it possible to just sit down and write a book?
The short answer is: it's not. There is a lot more that goes on in a writer's brain than just sitting down and writing a book. Even if that's what it looks like from the outside.
How To Pants A Novel is an explication of my experience as a lifelong pantser. It explores what the process of pantsing a book might look like, delves into the intricacies of crafting a story on the fly, and answers a few common questions often posed to pantsers.
Pantsing is a less frequently discussed method of writing a book, but for many writers, it’s the only way that works. And if you’re one of those writers—or if you’re not sure what kind of writer you are—hopefully this book will help you better understand and refine your own process into something that works the best for you.
You may be familiar with the concepts of “plotting” and “pantsing,” which are both different ways of thinking about how to approach the process of writing a book. Plotting essentially means “to create an outline of the book before beginning to draft it” and pantsing means “writing by the seat of your pants”—in other words, winging it with no outline. And for those who split the difference—they're called plantsers!
Different writers have different brains, and different brains work better with different methods. Outlining and organizing a story before beginning the drafting process is really common, and there are tons of books about it. Pantsing is less common, and there are far fewer books about it.
So I decided to add my perspective into the mix.
This book explores my own process of pantsing—or intuitive writing or discovery writing, as politer people than I like to call it.
Now, many books on plotting, for example, aim to give other writers a definitive process they can follow on their own. But that is not what I attempted to do with How To Pants A Novel.
I think there is this (false) idea that pantsers simply “sit down and write a book” and just like magic, a fully formed manuscript appears. But this isn’t true. There is a lot going on behind the scenes that is invisible to readers, and also to other writers watching a pantser work.
So my goal was to explicate my own process, so that perhaps other pantsers would see some similarities with their own process, and maybe find ways to improve it or create efficiencies for themselves, and be encouraged to embrace pantsing—if that’s the right method for them; and to the contrary, encourage other writers to embrace outlining or explore the gray area between, if pantsing is the wrong method for them.
All that said, How To Pants A Novel is now available! And if you feel so inclined, please consider leaving a review.
If you would like an entry into my writing for writers, the first book in the series, How To Build A Book Marketing Strategy, is free!