Annalisa C Parent - Storytelling for Pantsers: How to Write and Revise Your Novel Without an Outline

Storytelling for Pantsers

HOW TO WRITE AND REVISE
YOUR NOVEL WITHOUT AN OUTLINE

Annalisa Parent

LAUREL ELITE BOOKS
BUFFALO, WYOMING

Copyright 2017 by Annalisa Parent.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Laurel Elite Books

412 N. Main St., STE 100

Buffalo, WY 82834

www.LaurelEliteBooks.com

Additional copies of this book may be purchased at: StorytellingForPantsers.com

Book layout and cover design by Faithe Thomas

Cover photo by Caitlyn Fleet, Model: Nate Williams

Storytelling for Pantsers/ Annalisa Parent. 1st ed.
ISBN 978-1-947482012

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017949249

Printed in the USA

Dedication

For Dad, who was one of my first teachers and who is still always there to answer whatever random questions I call to ask.

And for Ma even if you always insisted we call you Mom for teaching me the secret in the sauce in so many ways.

What is a Pantser?

BRIEFLY PUT, A PANTSER is someone who writes by the seat of his pants (or briefs, if youre that kind of guy. Hey, no judgments here.).

Heor sheis the writer who, like Spock and Bones, goes where no man has gone before: the unchartered territory of a novel without an outline.

Scary? Sure. An adventure? Always.

This book is intended to help those of us seat-flyers get at least some grounding in what we do, and to find and use a system in the chaos that is pantsing.

This book is for you if you:

Have started a novel at least 68 times (the same novel) and only written the first chapter

Write chapter one. And then chapter five. And then chapter two. Etc.

Need to write to discover your story. (Its highly likely youre also the kind of writer who, when asked what writing is like, says, I just watch my characters and write down what they do.)

Get lost in the weeds of writing and revision because portions of your novel are in different phases of the writing process.

Feel frustrated because Dang it; writings hard enough. Why do I always have to complicate it?

Think the cover of this book is cool, or wear pants. Because, hey, the cover is cool. So are you, and so is this book. (Who says you cant judge a book by its cover? Pshaw.)

So read on.

BEING A PANTSER IS like being an architect who builds a little bit of each floor from bottom to top and then bottom to top again rather than the way we do it in the real world: foundation, walls, roof, etc.

Now, of course this kind of construction wouldnt work in the real world of physics, but it is, nonetheless, how we pantsers create structure for our novels.

We build a wall floating in the air. Then we fill in a fireplace on the ground floor. Chimney! Kitchen chair...

Its no wonder we cant see a house in that muddle. For a long time, its just a bunch of potential, a jumble of stuff, incohesive. It takes a lot of time and patience to connect what weve done and to start to see the house coming into form.

This book is intended to help you to start to see your patterns more quickly, and to learn strategies to embrace the process. (Because I am sorry to say: Youre stuck with it.)

Remember those old dot matrix printers? They would spread a layer of dots, and then go back over and spread another. And then another. Is it a recipe? A photo of Grandma? Part of the fun as a kid was the mystery to see what would reveal itself at the end.

Like one of those old dot matrix printers, we have to layer upon layer until the final manuscript is done. Its hard to see what it will become in the third or fourth layer of dots. Weve built something, but we dont know what yet.

My friend, the great writer Jill Schefielbein, has one of the best analogies Ive heard for the writing process.

When you put together a puzzle, she asks, are you the one who builds the frame first, and then fills in the pieces? Or do you just dive in, start to look for color and pattern matches?

Now look, this is not a book about putting together puzzles. (Puzzling for Pantsers? Hmm. On second thought, tis silly.)

But I think shes onto something. (Of course she is; shes brilliant.)

Gratuitous photo of me and Jill so I am brilliant by association

As pantsers we just wander in, start to take in whats around us. Place pieces, look for other pieces that share similar themes, build slowly into a cohesive whole.

Its a beautiful process, but much like building a puzzle in this fashion, it has its frustrations.

Thats the main problem for us pantserslosing sight of the forest for the trees for the forest and for the trees again. Around and around we go. Its hard to know what the heck it is were doing day in and day out.

Heres one last analogy, and hopefully this one will help you to see this success is not only possible but how it is possible.

Consider a sculptor. Now, Im not a sculptor, but I can imagine his process. Hes got a big block of granite, its nothing really, just stone. Hes got a concept and he starts to chisel away. The work looks like very little for a very long time. Chip chip chip. Still a Big Blob day, after day, after day. Yet he returns. Chip, chip, chip.

And eventually his vision starts to take form. The arm will be here, there a leg. Up until that point, all he had was a faith in his vision.

Think of Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel or Monet painting the water lily murals one dot at a time. These artists were close to the canvas (ok, ok, ok, or the ceiling) without the wide view or option of stepping away to see the big picture.

Art has been created this way for centurieswith a vision, a rough plan, and raw talent. And yet so many advisers tell fiction writers to outline before they go. No, I dont disagree that a rough outline, a sketch,