New Strategies

I love reading Rachelle Gardner’s blog. She’s a literary agent with Books and Such and regularly dispenses publishing advice via the internet. One of her posts discusses writing methods. Gardner gives examples of how authors go about writing a manuscript. Given that I’m at the point of admitting writer’s block, I figured this post would surely help. She mentions “plotters”, those who prefer to outline their novel before writing. There are “pantsers”, those who just sit down and write whatever comes to mind. I thought myself a pantser until I heard crime author, Terence Faherty, use the term “bingers”, those who mull over a story for a long time before getting the urge to sit down and write. I like that one.

I’ve been writing seriously for three years now. I’ve researched a lot and found many ways authors come up with great novels. A newbie like me can be overwhelmed, wondering which method is THE method. But Rachelle Garner stresses in her blog that new writers should find what works for them. I think the method I have is really pieces of different methods that I found worked. I decided to try the Snowflake Method on a biblical fiction idea I have and see what happens. So far, I’m on Step Four and haven’t pulled all my hair out. Yet. But all the while, a bit of what I learned from Victoria Mixon’s The Art and Craft of Fiction (both of her books) slips in.

I can only hope that what I settle on as my method will produce something readers find worthy of their time.