This is an age old debate.A long time ago, in a contest far far away, someone told me I was a plotter. That my story wasn't developed by character, but by events. That comment sticks with me to this day.
I've never considered myself a plotter. When I start a book, I know about my characters and I have an idea what happens between them, but as for what happens in the middle and the end, I'm clueless.
I'm trying to become more of a plotter. Having some idea what's going to happen in the book before venturing more than a chapter or two into it. To help me, I've been gathering lists of questions to answer about my character. My latest list involves core beliefs. What is my character's core belief? What is her life goal? Immediate goal? What inciting incident brings about a change my character can't avoid? What does she want that she can't achieve? What past incidents keep the character from achieving her goal? What strength does my character posess that will help her win through in the end?
Then there's questions about her enneagram, her archetype, character traits, Donald Maas workshop questions designed to dig into her psyche.
JR Ward said she writes down the scenes that pop into her head on a series of pages. Then she shuffles those into an outline that she can write from. I'm trying that approach too.
I do find that doing a synopsis upfront helps a lot. So does coming up with a query or a blurb. When I wrote the blurb for my on-line Desire pitch, I found that my conflict changed/tightened when I had to sum it up in 2 sentences.
So, what's your style? Do you have a list of questions that you use to get to know your character or do you discover stuff about them as you go?
Today's goal: 500 words
Yesterday's achievement: character development for my current WIP
What I'm grateful for: I'm back to being excited about current WIP
Quote: "If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it!" -Jonathan Winters
