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Writers usually fall into one of two camps—outliners and writers who make the story up as they go along (seat of their pants.)

I’m decidedly a pantster. It’s how I wrote my first six books.

Then along came a new series and new editor (who is a lovely, charming, clever woman! Who likes outlines.) :)

So I’ve now written two books from outlines. And, since I’ve written both ways now, I thought I’d do my own personal wrap-up of how it went, just in case any of y’all are interested in trying another method.

This is just how it went down for me, as someone who has never outlined a story before. Others will have different experiences!

Pros of outlining

In some ways, I was able to make the mystery itself more complex and puzzling by using an outline. It enabled me to see the different sections of the book and how they connected.

The outline helped me develop the characters before writing the book. I already had a sense of who they were as I started out.

I could more easily spot potential problem areas of the book. I could see when I wrote myself into a plot hole. I could tell when I’d lost track of the theme.

I could easily explain the project I was working on to my agent and first readers before I even finished it.

The actual writing itself went super-quickly after I’d completed the outline and had it approved by the editor. There was very little mulling over.

I knew my editor would like the story that I turned in on June 30th. There were no surprises there—she’d already approved it.

My agent was able to just skim my book as she read it before we turned it in…because she knew we’d already wrangled out the plot ahead of time.

Cons

I wrote way too short as I followed my outline. I had to add about 20,000 words.

I’ve found that I can either write a very, very short outline or a very, very long one. Writing a mid-sized outline was impossible for me. My outline ended up being 21 pages long.

The outline took about as much time as it took for me to write the book.

Creatively, I felt very tied down with the outline and was less-likely to go off on any interesting tangents with subplots, etc…until I came up super-short, when I decided to indulge myself in the subplots. :) In reality, I could have deviated from my outline. But, working with a new editor, I hesitated doing it.

The outlining process tended to flatten my characters out. It took a while to fluff them back up and give them individuality and their own voice. Writing them in the strictures of an outline seemed to make them feel more like cutouts to me.

Summing up

Would I choose to outline a book, if I weren’t asked to do so? No, I sure wouldn’t. Were there some benefits to doing so? Absolutely.

But the process for the first book was so tortuous that I asked my editor if I could turn in more of a short, sketched out plan for the plot of the second book—including the murders, suspects, red herrings, clues, killer, hooks, and theme. She said that would be no problem, so I feel a lot better about the short outline that I’ll hand in before August 1. It covers all the big stuff, but I don’t feel as tied down as I did with the first one.

Do you outline or make up the story as you write? Have you ever tried another approach? How did it work out for you?

I had an email recently from a writer who was worried that his word count was too low for his genre.

I sent him a link to some information that I hoped would help him out. And told him that having a low word count is much better than having one that’s too high.

Most editors have a range that they want for a particular genre. If you’re a debut novelist, then they definitely don’t want a 130,000+ word book from you. They probably don’t even want a 110,000 word book from you. It would be considered risky for them…after all, a book that long would be expensive to print and debut novelists don’t have a track record for sales or a following.

There is definitely, though, some leeway with word count in a manuscript. If you’re a few thousand words over or under the range, it’s probably not going to kill your chances. You can always bulk up a book with a great subplot or edit out extras to bring a word count down.

I do keep half an eye on my word count as I’m writing. For one thing, it helps me know if I’m meeting my goals each day. For another, it helps save me some time after my first draft is done if my word count is close to my target.

For additional information on word count and tips for bumping your word count up or down, try these links:

Word Count for Novels and Children’s Books: The Definitive Post

Think twice before querying your 291,000 word book

An agent with word counts for different genres

Cutting Down Your Word Count

A Few Words on Word Counts: How to Beef Up or Slim Down (especially for freelance writers, but some tips that will help novelists, too)

An agent on word counts (and here, where she defends her position)

Writing Nowadays–Word Count Violations and You

Bolstering Your Word Count

When your WIP is too short

How to increase your novel’s word count

How To Get Ahead When You Are Behind On Your Word Count

Handling Your Word Count

The Writer’s Knowledge Base has many articles on word count.

Will the rise of e-publishing mean that word count might rise again? This article from the BookEnds Literary Agency suggests it might, but I’m not so sure. It seems to me that our 21st century world seems to make us all more distracted—phones ringing, texts coming in, Twitter feeds and Facebook status updates. Do we have the attention span for longer books, even if cost isn’t an issue anymore?

How close do you track word count? Do you usually find yourself writing over or under your target? (I’m frequently a little under, myself.)

When I’m meeting people for the first time as a mom and a writer, I invariably get the question, “Aren’t your children just so proud of you?”

I don’t ever hesitate when answering. Yes, they are proud of me. Of course! I’m Mama. But the truth is, they’re not any prouder of me than they are of my husband (who is a computer engineer.)

There are times, though, when they find my insights and career more interesting:

When I go with them into the local bookstore and I answer to ‘Riley’ when an employee there calls out my pen name. (I always remind them when we go in that the bookstore employees call me by a different name.)

When my editor emails me the book covers.

When I get new promotional materials (bookmarks, etc.)

As a writer, I’m influencing them in some ways:

The other day my son mentioned that he might be interested in journalism, so I must be having some sort of influence! :) Although I had to blink at the journalism…not sure how that industry will be holding up in the future.

When they don’t enjoy a book, I always want to know why. They’re able to give a critical review of a book and where the writer went wrong (in their opinion.)

They see writing as a business as well as a form of expression. They realize how important it can be to a writer.

Because books are so important to me, I make sure to hook them up with good reads. When I hear of something I think they’ll be interested in, I get it. Although I take them to the library and bookstore to encourage them to find books, I spend a lot of time making a targeted search for the kinds of books I think they’ll enjoy—I want them to find a treasure (which means they’ll continue being eager to read.) I don’t leave finding books up to them—and because I’m plugged into the industry, I’m finding some amazing books for them.

Where they get it wrong:

Because I know so many writers, they think I know all the writers. They’ll hold up their current books and ask if I know the author. Funnily enough, a couple of times I have. Which just goes to show how amazing social media is. Of course, though, 9 times out of 10 I have no idea who the writer is.

Summing up:

I think it again just proves the point that when we’re writing a book, we definitely need to be writing for ourselves and our readers. Family loves us no matter what—but may not love our writing quite as much as we do!

What does your family think about your writing? Are they supportive? Enthusiastic? Interested? Ambivalent? Does the fact you’re writing change the way they look at books and reading? Who are you writing for?

It’s a good thing my guest post today was only 5 easy questions! I think my brain is still a little fried from my blog tour. :)  Hope you’ll pop over to Jill Kemerer’s blog today for a fun, short interview.

I’m probably not the easiest friend to have.

That’s because I really don’t enjoy going out.

Honestly, if it weren’t for my children and their plethora of activities (and multitudinous errands), I’d probably rarely leave the house.

The funny thing is that the types of friends that I tend to attract are extroverts. This is probably because my fellow introverts are too busy being mellow inside their own houses. And maybe extroverts see me as a challenge. :)

I have one particular extroverted friend—we’ll call her Karen. She absolutely adores people and events and feeds off them. She has many, many, many friends and she treats them all wonderfully—she finds these fun, frequently inexpensive events to attend, calls her friends, they have a happy time, many pictures are taken and shared on Facebook.

Of course, though, when Karen calls me up and asks me to go somewhere (at least twice a week), my automatic reaction is, “No.” Right out of the gate.

Usually, Karen can get me to recant the no. “Elizabeth! Have you got something else to do then? Because it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s free, the band is supposed to be great, the weather is going to be perfect, our girls can play at the playground there at the park. Why don’t we go? You can always leave early if you’re not having fun. You’ll probably find some characters there.”

And I do usually go. I’ll frequently be a little grouchy at the start, but trying to hide it (with varying degrees of success.) Then…the event is almost always fun, something interesting always happens, my children will have fun. There will be more people I know there. I’ll end up talking to them, too. Frequently, characters and ideas and just raw life will pop out at me at these things and demand to be written.

Then I go home and am completely exhausted and withdraw for the entire next day. And Karen will have already gotten a commitment from me to attend some other event. :)

The thing about Karen is the kind of reactions that she can bring out of me. There’s that desperate way I seize onto that ‘no’ at the very beginning (knowing the likely futility of it). And when she pushes me out of my comfort zone, there’s my usual irritation. But then, when I’m at these events that I never would have attended on my own, I end up with an odd feeling of accomplishment by the end of it. And I’ve frequently surprised myself at how much I enjoyed it. Then I crash. :)

I’ve recognized lately, that I always have a character like Karen in my books. They’re secondary characters to my protagonist and always make something interesting happen. They function almost as antagonists (but aren’t…the antagonists in my books are murderers.) These characters can create some pretty amazing elements in a book:

Maybe the secondary character provides tension in a scene as they push our protagonists in directions they don’t want to go in.

Maybe this supporting character provides some humor (we know the protagonist is avoiding him and what he represents. It’s fun to see them encounter the character.)

This character is frequently someone that the protagonist can’t quite figure out. And can’t really avoid or resist.

Maybe the push that this supporting character gives is actually more of a pull. That’s because many protagonists are extroverts and the conflict would be more effective if it was a holding back instead of a push ahead.

Maybe the character is someone who embarrasses the protagonist in public by saying whatever comes into her head, but ultimately presents the protagonist with a truth.

Ultimately, these types of characters can also bring out the best in a protagonist or actually change the protagonist in some way by pushing the character in a new direction. And this is great for a story because it means a deeper, more realistic protagonist.

Have you got any pushy secondary characters or read any you’ve enjoyed? What kind of effect did they have in the story?