She is kind of my personal hero, and I owe a lot of my organizational skills to her. A big part of writing is figuring out your own personal process, so this is part of mine.) I got the story grid idea from Alexandra Sokoloff. (Yes, I know most people call it a 3-act structure, and it really is 3 acts, but it makes more sense to me sometimes as 4 parts instead of just 3. Usually, I use little sticky tabs in different colors and separate a piece of paper into a 4 act structure. When I first start a new project, I set out my story grid. When I finally decided to let go and trust my instincts and trust the process, I realized that I don’t need to plot and control every detail of the novel. Literally, I took the life and spontaneity of my stories out by over-plotting. When I first started writing, I thought for sure I was a plotter. Maybe a general idea of the central story action, but nothing specific and always open to whatever the writing brings. A pantster is someone who writes ‘by the seat of their pants’. Often, these plots are detailed and exact down to each scene and character motivation. Basically, a plotter is someone who plots their novels out ahead of time. In writer’s circles, there is a lot of talk about whether you are a “plotter” or a “pantster”. Since I’m at the very beginning of plotting Book 4 of the Peachville High Demons series, I thought I would do a post about the way I plot a novel.
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