November, 2018 - Sacha T. Y. Fortuné

Pantser vs. Plotter – The Tipping Point

“I am not typically a fan of first person viewpoint writing but for this book, it works very well. The author managed to create two individual people within the story and tell a first person view from each of them and they did not get lost in each other, nor did one overpower the other.” (Red – see full review here.)

This is perhaps one of the best compliments I’ve gotten so far on my debut published novel Climbing The Walls (Hart & Cole Book 1) – one I didn’t even think of, when writing.

Because, of COURSE my characters don’t get lost in each other – to me, they never will; they never can. They are each so individual, so unique, to me… so I’m thrilled my readers are also able to GET that.

Because here’s the thing:

Kris and Nicole – they’re both fully (and individually!) formed in my head. I’ve only just barely edited them.


 

Plotter vs. Pantser

In writers’ circles you have to be one or the other – either you have a plan and you outline everything, or you just write and see where it takes you. So, which am I?

I revealed my own secret through the character of Nicole, a part-time writer:

That’s rule number one about writing a novel. Never tell your agent, publisher, husband, or anyone even remotely involved with your book that you don’t know jack shit about what your book’s gonna be like.

Have faith that if you start somewhere, one night the words will grip you and you’ll be typing like a possessed creature and you’ll fall asleep slumped over the computer and wake up in the morning to discover what you’ve written.

It’s rare that ideas are going to come if you sit calmly day after day in front the machine with slotted times to work on the book. It’s whenever you’re haunted, whenever you want to get away from your own life, whenever you’re possessed. That’s when the inspiration hits. That’s when you grin on the inside and think, JACKPOT.

Writing’s a lot like sex –– when you’re not getting any it can be the worst thing in the world, but then when it comes and it’s good it’s great and worth all the nights you weren’t getting any.

Yep, that was my cheeky nod to the writing process.

If you’ve got a keen eye for detail, you’d have noticed that Nicole’s writer’s block happens on Chapter 6 of her novel (and it happens in Chapter 6 of mine!).

 

“Chapter 6”

In law, in business, “Chapter 11” connotes bankruptcy. For me, Chapter 6 is the tipping point – just past the halfway mark between throwing in the towel and deciding to make it work.

Kris and Nicole have been married for 6 years before all hell breaks loose – beginning with the aftermath of their nasty fight that opens Chapter 1.

6 is the magic number here.

Chapter 6 of Nicole’s novel is the point when she decides to scrap everything and start over. It was also my point when the story fully took hold – when Nicole grabbed ahold of me and didn’t let go.

Hopefully Chapter 6 of their marriage is Nicole’s and Kris’ turning point, as well. God, I hope so. I hope I ended on a positive note, despite the journey getting there, despite the journey Nicole took me on.

Yes… Nicole. Sure Kris, was there too, but he was along for the ride.

Nicole was the one that pushed me, scrabbling at my brain and speeding those possessed fingers over the keyboard in the wee hours of the morning.

You see, Nicole is NOT necessarily a protagonist. You’re not supposed to love her.

Yes, I had trouble connecting with her at first. (And readers have said the same.) Everyone loves Kris – he’s easy to love.

He’s railing against himself to fight off the forces struggling to bury him… and he succeeds for a moment, only to plunge right afterward – self-destructing, seeking salvation, and susceptible; for the first time: susceptible.

But even in his darkest, weakest moment when he ultimately completely sh*ts the bed, you still feel sorry for him; you feel disappointed, sure, but you still feel compassion.

Nicole… not so much.

 

Zero to a Hundred

…But from Chapter 6, she was under my skin. She scraps her novel, and starts writing a story based on a memory of her childhood – and that’s when she became fully real to me.

The memory is about sex, which has always been easy for her to give away. Sex is easy. Everything else is the problem.

But you don’t – you can’t – “become” Nicole overnight… so how did she get there?

Where does she come from; what does she come from; who does she come from?

How does a girl turn into this monster bitch that can’t stop herself from making the wrong decisions?

How does a girl turn into a woman that goes from zero to a hundred – lashing out, vicious sexual seduction, profound intimacy – in a split second?

She’s scraped a piece of herself into everything she’s written. She’s all over the place. She was broken from the jump. That’s how.

She’s NOT a protagonist. Hell, I hated her, half the time. But that didn’t mean I had permission to stop telling her story. She wouldn’t let me stop telling it.

I’m working on Book 4 now, and I’m not even remotely done with her yet.

She’s already had her moments with Darren – coming up in Book 2 & Book 3 [and OH MY GOD, I LOVE WRITING SCENES FOR THOSE TWO!…] and still, for the life of me… I can’t stop.

She’s flowing out of me, this mongrel-mulatto journalist/writer b*tch.

I’m a pantser, oh baby I’m such a pantser, but only because she’s already been hard at work, plotting.

She’s eating me alive… she’s devouring all the other imaginary friends in my head, pushing ahead of everyone else to stamp her way through everything.

…And for the life of me… for the life of Nicole, God help me… I can’t stop.

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The Conflation of Motherhood

Motherhood is a HUGE theme in my Hart & Cole series, and I thought it would be worthwhile to focus on this theme for discussion.

In our society, a woman’s worth is often conflated with her ability to not only bear children, but to then selflessly raise them without a thought for herself.

This is the crux of the drama for the first couple in my series, Kris and Nicole.

Nicole: “I could do that whole… mom… thing”

Nicole can do the “dutiful wife” part; that’s easy – she’s always wanted Kris; the problem is that for him, the “mothering” part is also a major part of the wife role, and that’s where she struggles.

They’ve always talked about kids; she never saw herself as NOT having kids. I mean, it’s what you do, right?… whether or not you ever seriously thought about what it meant to have them or what you needed to sacrifice to do so; whether or not you yourself had a good relationship with your own mother; whether or not you ever really saw yourself as a mother.

Both Kris and Nicole come from dysfunctional families, despite the fact that they each had both parents around.

Kris’ background included a working-class home with parents that just couldn’t get it together to be home and actually parent their two kids; Nicole also came from a working-class home and was an only child, but her own parents were a hot mess as well.

For Kris, NOT having the kind of parents he would have wanted, made him even more desirous of the kind of home he wants to build with his own kids.

For Nicole, she just can’t figure out what’s missing in her, that motherhood didn’t come naturally. She’s going through the motions. She’s doing the pick-ups and drop-offs and dinner trade-offs and the natural order of splitting parenthood. She’s trying. But she’s faltering at every step of the way — and she knows it.

She sees how Kris is with the kids, and she envies it — how the kids crawl all over him, how he always stoops to talk to the kids at eye level, how he stops what he’s doing immediately to attend to something his kids want him to do.

She’s just… not like that. She doesn’t know how to be.

Luisa: “Stay-at-home mom”

Luisa, on the other hand, we only get to know in Book 1 through what Darren says about her, but it’s enough to realise she is Nicole’s polar opposite. I’ll focus on Book 1 only for now.

Darren describes her family in passing, and in the little he does say, it’s evident she’s nothing like Nicole. “Worldly” and “amazing” — he originally thought she was out of his reach.

To him, she was the epitome of what he needed on his arm — a trophy, the perfect wife and mother… “warm, loving, but composed“.

She also comes from a upper-middle-class background with both parents and brothers that love her, particularly Alejandro (Lee).

For Luisa, motherhood came naturally.

She’s a mother to her three kids, and even a mother-figure to her younger brother. Since her youngest child was born, she’s stayed at home with her.

As a stay-at-home mom, however, she doesn’t have what Nicole has — the career, the security of self-pride, the knowledge of her own awesomeness as a woman outside of the “mother” label. That’s where she falters.

Darren’s friendship with Nicole centres on his admiration of her talent — the raw talent he helped to develop out of her; and Luisa can sense that connection a mile away.

It’s what eventually leads her into the arms of another man.

Overprotective & Underwhelming Mothers

We also see some minor characters — Carrina, who is only 23 and raising her young son on her own; and Stacey, who dominates every aspect of her children’s lives, hovering to make sure they are mothered enough.

Carrina makes it look easy, and she’s good at it — Nicole sees her with her son and is jealous about how natural she makes it all seem, just like Kris does.

Stacey makes it seem like a job, but she’s also good at it — Nicole sees her as overprotective and overbearing, and rolls her eyes every time Stacey branches off into ‘baby-talk’ with kids.

We also get snippets of Kris’ and Nicole’s childhood memories…

Nicole’s mother constantly berated her husband; Nicole says:

“She made her throat sore from the yelling, the screaming, the squabbling… I remember her with her mouth open, always; the woman never shut up.”

And Kris says:

“Her mamma… was a dragon. Spat fire, that one.”

Kris’ own mother preferred to stay quietly on the peripheries of conflict, rather than getting involved. Even as an adult, she cowers to her husband’s raging temper, and leaves the room when he and Kris start to fight:

“Typical of her. Extracts herself from a situation that she doesn’t want to exist in. I’m surprised it took her this long to resign herself. She did it for twenty-two years while I lived under her roof.”

Give Mamas a Chance

…So there’s a lot here, to unpack, when it comes to motherhood. I think it’s an important theme to focus on, because motherhood doesn’t come naturally; we are fools to believe it does, or that it would, or that it should.

The redeeming quality of motherhood, in Nicole’s case, is that when you DO give her half a chance, she rises to the occasion.

Usually, with Kris being around all the time, being the super-parent, Nicole hasn’t had to try too hard. Kris has always doubted her, and never really gave her a chance to become the type of mom he wants her to be.

When tragedy strikes with their daughter, Nicole doubts her powers as a parent once more:

“I really wish Kris was here. He – he knows her better than I do.”

But, even though Kris does return, it’s Nicole who saves the day and triumphs in her newfound bond with her daughter to understand her and think like her.

Nicole is inherently selfish (as most of us would be, if we let ourselves be!); but while fathers can “get away with it” if they’re “half-arsing” it as a parent, mothers just can’t. Everyone down to her daughter’s teacher – down to her daughter, in fact! – can tell.

Nicole has to go through a journey to see herself as a parent – and it takes a good bit of soul-searching for her to get there, and for her little mini-me (her daughter Nikita) to lead the way.

So, that’s it, for the “Motherhood” theme, for the moment at least! 🙂

I’ll pick another theme to delve into for another post.

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