Pantser vs Planner

I wrote 5 of my 7 novels as a "Panterser" which in National Novel Writing Month terminology means writing by the seat of my pants.  In all cases, I had elaborate rules on the SETTING as well as who the characters were, and it helped me as a writer immensely.  I learned to make strong characters, to see things from their perspective, and to let the plot go where it may.

But I am really a Planner.  And I should have admitted that from the beginning.  My inner accountant can become an inner architect to provide structure for my inner poet.  It's like in the drawing I'm slowly teaching myself the difference between using 'broad angles' to define contour and just....well a Picasso painting without the Picasso. ( I am not and never will be Picasso.)

I've written about this before as the Stephen King vs JRR Tolkien style of writing.  I like reading King more; as do most people but Tolkien invented a new genre.  And especially now that I am mostly writing for myself, and my desire to improve my quality, I need to embrace my mechanical side so that my artistic side can run wild within those boundaries.

I thank "The Fantasy Fiction Formula" for helping me really figure out how to do this, first with a character profile questionnaire, and second with a series of exercises that ultimately became an outline for the plot.  I just had to if I was going to answer all the questions she was wanting me to ask.

And at this point, I'm realizing where novels 2 and even 5 went wrong.  Have Name Will Travel sat on a shelf for two years before I released it and finally just chopped off 20K words at the end.  It ends where it should have ended, even if that is a major cliff hanger; and that dangling participle of plot would not have happened if I hadn't just sort of meandered once I brought my 5 protagonists back together.

To put this in perspective, I firmly believe that this outline alone will result in a quality differnce in Fruitloop and Frankenstein between Robocop and Robocop 2.

And as far as the much hidden "Heir of Sunfire" I'm editing the hell out of it.  The ending needs another 15-20K words, but there is something to be said to writing it or Grenademan vs Zombies all in one sitting.  Grenademan Vs the Zombies ended up working because the end was already written...in a Zombie movie there really is only one way it can go; and the only question is whether anyone survives at all.

Good times.