Plotter or Pantser?

 

Here we are in September all ready, and today is our day for another Round Robin Blog post. This month's topic is Plotters vs Pantsers: Do you plan your books before you start writing, or do your characters drive the plot? 

Hmm. Plotter or Pantser? First, let’s take a look at what each of them involves.

A Plotter is very organized. They will create the characters with likely an extensive character checklist (likes, dislikes, etc) and backstory. They will work scene by scene, often using post-its or recipe cards. They can look at these and move them around as needed to make sense of their plot-driven story.

A Pantser, on the other hand, starts with maybe a couple of characters and a rough idea of the story and goes for it, working with what comes to the surface as they go along. This method is typically character-driven.

After that, you get the Plotser, a combination of both. A bit of plotting here, a run of freefall writing there, and it all gets smoothed out in the editing. Oh yes, let’s not forget that part!

The upshot is, if any new writers are reading this, there is no right or wrong way to write a book. It is a matter of whatever works for you as the creator of the work. Of course, there are the usual guidelines to consider for character and plot development, the arc of the story from its beginning through its middle to the climax and resolution, and good, basic grammar. Learning how to handle dialogue, subtext, rising tension, and pacing can be learnt along the way through workshops and conferences, or online if necessary.

I have never been a plotter per se. My first books were historical romances, so I always started with a couple. It was usually the heroine who came into my mind first. Once I had a handle on who she was, I then started imagining the love interest for her. After deciding on which year to use as a setting, I would research events for that year to see how I might incorporate them into the story. And after that, it was pretty much a case of go with the flow. I always took the lead from the heroine.

Things started to change slightly when I began writing contemporary western romance, as I began to produce pages of bullet points of what I wanted to happen when. It wasn’t exactly plotting, but I found it easier to keep track of where I was in the story. I’m not sure if it was an age thing for me, as I found myself having a few senior moments of forgetfulness. Having the bullet points beside me was far easier than having to go back through the pages to determine where I was in my story.

Now I am writing a series cozy mysteries, Sixpenny Cross Murder Mysteries, and I definitely need to plot them more carefully. My amateur sleuth and her supporting characters won’t change from book to book, but the murders obviously will, so that needs more research and plotting. IE: Who was killed? How were they killed? Why were they killed? Who dunnit? Then there are all the clues and red herrings to keep track of, and without plotting, they would be all over the place and possibly make no sense at all.

So now I think I am maybe definitely a Plotser. Check out what my Round Robin colleagues have to say about themselves here: 

Helena Fairfax helena.fairfax@gmail.com

Belinda Edwards bee@booksbybelinda.com

Sally Odgers https://behindsallysbooksmark2.blogspot.com

Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/

Bob Rich  https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3xy

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

What I Am Reading

 

I first came across The Regency Town House https://rth.org.uk/ when I was doing research for one of my Regency romances. 

The Regency Town House at 13 Brunswick Square, is a grade 1 listed terraced home in the heart of Brunswick Town, a Georgian estate in the City of Brighton & Hove on the Sussex coast.

Built in the 1820s, the Town House is today being developed by staff and volunteers as a heritage centre and museum. Its activities are funded through The Brunswick Town Charitable Trust, a registered charity set up to support the project in 1994. To discover upcoming exhibitions and events, browse snippets of local history or to find out what our volunteers have been up to, please subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

The information about the house and the era, plus all the activities available, had me signing up right away for their newsletter. Each time I have been home to the UK for a visit, I have wanted to visit Brighton and The Town House, but dates and times for me to accomplish that have so far proved elusive. However, I am kept abreast of news not only from their newsletter, but also from an additional newsletter produced by their redoubtable housekeeper, Mrs. Finnegan, aka Bridget Whelan.

I loved all Mrs. Finnegan's snippets of gossip, opinions on butlers and house staff, sometimes even (shock, horror) comments about her mistress. Many a time, she informed her readers on what to do in a given month or season, and provided solutions for many problems, not least of them on false teeth and how to survive on two hundred pounds a year. I long thought she should write a book. Now she has! I am so happy that she has now produced Love, Life and Laxatives.

AVAILABLE HERE

 Although the era is 1820s in Brighton, Southeast England, some of the topics contained in her pages reflects today's issues, such as from where to source good meat: Oxen and cows should be pastured on open situations, on high lands, extensive downs and heaths where the air is pure and the grass short and sweet, to: Our ancient bachelor uncle is in danger of making a terrible blunder. He never gave a thought to marriage before meeting a young woman who has a powerful sway over him. Now, at the age of 69, he can talk of little else. We believe she is after his money.

Give Mrs. Finnegan a chance to amaze you with her wit and wisdom. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

So, here we are, more than halfway through 2025, and our Round Robin Blog topic for August asks: When did you decide to become an author, and what inspired you?

I don’t believe I ever deliberately chose to become an author; I think it was something I always felt compelled to do. It was ingrained in me but it took a very long time to emerge.

I was an early reader, having mastered the tales of Beatrix Potter and Alison Uttley before ever entering the doors of our local primary school. I still maintain that to be a writer, one also has to be a reader. My early writing was in crayon on a wall, not much appreciated by my mother or grandmother, with whom we lived.

In my schooling, it was nothing for me to score full marks in English grammar, English Literature, creative writing, or essay writing. At one of the schools I attended, my prize-winning essay earned a full fifty points for my house, nothing as exciting as Griffindor or Slytherin, but along those lines. My friends and family were regaled with tales of derring-do, and at the ages of twelve and thirteen, I began to write them down. The fact that my parents found them hilarious was enough to discourage me, which it did for many, many years.

I admire those who have the confidence to go ahead regardless. What I couldn’t do for myself, I did for my daughter, and I wrote a book for her thirteenth birthday. It took me much longer than I expected, and she received that book on her fourteenth birthday. My lack of self-confidence was further shaken when my father commented, “You haven’t been to university, so what made you think you could write a book?” Today, I am sure he did not mean it in the way I took it.

What I saw as a possible career, others saw as something of a joke, referring to it as Vicki’s little hobby. Although I was not actively writing, I was at least close to books, as I worked at an independent bookstore. My bosses, a husband-and-wife team, were interested in my ambitions and very supportive of them. The book I wrote for my daughter, If Wishes Were Horses, eventually did the rounds of four children's book publishers, receiving good reviews but no requests for submission. Somewhere in my move from the UK to Canada, those four favourable and complimentary replies went astray, as did the book itself.

Enter my Canadian husband, who had only two stipulations when I became a best-selling author. First, he wanted a red Ferrari; second, a young, blonde, and beautiful chauffeur. I agreed to the Ferrari but declined the chauffeur purely due to insurance costs. It was not just his encouragement, but his belief in my ability to write something worthwhile, that finally motivated me. He more than anyone set me on my path, initially by signing me up for a short story writing course with a local writers' group, and later by entering me for a short story competition run by a local newspaper.

As to what I would like to write, that was easy. Amongst so many books, I had been thrilled by the Regency romances of Georgette Heyer, and so I set out to write in that genre. I have now written six Regency romances, five additional historical novels, and three contemporary western romances. Small potatoes for sure, but as my first book was not published until 2013 in time for my seventieth birthday, I don’t consider that too bad for such a late starter.

Sadly, my dear departed husband did not survive to share in the success for which he paved the way. I might not have become a best-selling author by New York Times standards, although I can claim that because a short story of mine was included in an anthology, which did make it, albeit briefly, but I did buy the red Ferrari. Don’t get excited, folks. It was $1.99 in a gift shop, but I bought it in his memory, and it sits on a bookshelf close to my desk.

As families often are, mine was not overly concerned with my writing. My daughter said she would never read any of my current novels. My eldest son has read them all, and my youngest son most of them. I’m sure that now, if my parents were alive, they would finally admit that perhaps I had some level of writing competence after all.

If I didn’t write, I’m unsure what I would do with myself these days. The ideas for stories still come as quickly as they ever did, but I don’t type as fast as I used to, so it takes me longer to produce a book. However, my first cozy mystery, A Murder in the Meadow, is already available in print and as a pre-release ebook on Amazon. There are two more books in this series, Book 2 due in January, 2026 and Book 3 in September, 2026. And after that, who knows? I have outlines for two womens’ fiction novels, more contemporary romances, maybe even more cozy mysteries.

Whether they ever get written is beside the point. The writing world is my oyster. Let’s hop over and visit my fellow bloggers and find out what pearls they have to offer.

 

Sally Odgers https://behindsallysbooksmark2.blogspot.com

Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/

Bob Rich  https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3xy

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

 

Favourite Characters from Fiction

 

I’ve been MIA for the past few months as I finished my first cosy murder mystery. Having previously written historical and contemporary romance with a touch of intrigue, it took me quite some time and a lot of reading to get the hang of this new-to-me genre. I will review it over the weekend to catch any last-minute typos or inaccuracies, and I will send it to my publisher on Monday.

During a little break from writing, it will be my absolute delight to sit and read, so this month’s Round Robin topic of what was/is your all-time favourite character(s) in literature and why, gives me time to look back on some of the great books I’ve read.

I have no idea of reading standards these days. I know I’m giving my age away (I don’t care, I’ll be eighty-two in September), but I could read before I went to school and by the age of ten, I was reading the English classics, such as Lorna Doone, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights, as well as Moby-Dick and Treasure Island. I basically read any book I could get my hands on, and in my early teens, read a lot of Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, Max Brand and Jack Schaeffer before I discovered Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. Mixed in with all of those over the years were Black Beauty, the Flicka stories and the Black Stallion, along with all the Jill pony stories, Call of the Wild, Last of the Mohicans – and I could go on.

Although my reading was extensive and I loved the stories, I must admit that many of the nuances of character, setting, and plot probably went over my head. I revisited many of those titles as an adult and developed a whole new appreciation for them, especially those of Jane Austen. With such a treasure trove of material to pick from, it has been like dipping into a box of chocolates. Which hero or heroine to put at the top of my list?

As far as heroes go, Jack Schaeffer’s Shane (I believe a forerunner of the man with no name in Clint Eastwood’s ‘Dollars’ series) captured my imagination not as an all-American hero, but as a self-reliant man grappling with himself and his past. Going from one extreme to the other, another hero I found intriguing was the Marquis of Alverstoke in Georgette Heyer’s book Frederica. Like so many Regency lords, Alverstoke is portrayed as jaded and bored, but beneath it all, he is a decent man, much like Shane.

For my heroines, well. Here I am spoilt for choice entirely. My first choice is again from Frederica; in

fact, it is the leading lady, Frederica Merrivale herself. Her wit and manners endear her to Society, her sense of humour and common sense to Alverstoke, much to the dismay of his sisters. For my second heroine, it was a hard choice between Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind and Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. After much consideration, Elizabeth pipped Scarlett at the post, not least because Elizabeth came completely alive for me as a feisty, won't-back-down individual when played by Keira Knightley in the movie version, with Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy.

As you can see, I have a varied collection of books in my past and more in my future. My reading these days is often thrillers, particularly those by Dick Francis and Lee Child. I have a sneaking admiration for Lula, a fascinating character in the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich. In between all those books, I enjoy the travel books by Bill Bryson and have just started reading A History of the Wife by Marilyn Yalom.

Please join me now in visiting my fellow Round Robin contributors to see what their picks are.

Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

 Dr. Bob Rich  https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3vC

Sally Odgers https://behindsallysbooksmark2.blogspot.com

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

 

 

The Importance of Setting

 This April, our Round Robin blog will switch things up for fictional settings: how do you create your fictional towns or settings, whether in the past, present, or future? 

Shakespeare wrote, ‘Let me count the ways.’ Okay, so he was writing Sonnet #43, but that phrase could just as easily refer to our topic this month as to declaring love. In ‘As You Like It,’ Shakespeare also wrote, ‘All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.’

While the Bard waxes poetic, we authors are not so different in creating the stage or setting and moving our characters around in that landscape. As much as I love creating characters, I also enjoy creating their settings.

Most of my settings have been straightforward, as they are places I know well or have visited. Many of them have changed little from the original town plans. The Regency social round involved travelling from someone’s home to London, followed by excursions to visit or stay in the spa towns of Brighton, Bath, Cheltenham, Buxton, and Harrogate. While there were others, these are the most easily recognised, particularly Bath, for those who enjoy Regency romance. Being such popular cities, street plans are readily available online. Looking into each city’s archives usually begins at the town hall or planning office, but more often with a public library.  

Royal Crescent - Bath (4) © Mike Searle cc-by-sa/2.0 :: Geograph Britain and Ireland

geograph.org.uk

I have been torn between using real-life locations for my contemporary stories and inventing a town because I’m writing fiction. This is where I combine fact and fiction. I take a location I know and fictionalise it. That way, I can still write with a measure of conviction that might otherwise be lacking. Readers invariably sense a weakness, and I do my best to make my fictional settings as real as possible. I mix up English village names if my setting is in England, and I’m sure there are many more fictional ranches set in Southern Alberta than in reality.

The importance of the setting lies in its ability to anchor the reader in time and space, providing a sense of reality to the entire story. As authors, we are responsible for further solidifying that setting by engaging the senses. If it is an indoor setting, such as a house or a building, where is your character located? What can they see, hear, and feel? I often close my eyes and visualise it for myself, typically typing as I move from hallway to stairs, from scullery to dining room. The devil is in the details, so all the details I ‘see’ are typed. What time of day is it, and what part of the year? Where does the light fall, and what shadows does it create? How does that affect the colour palette of the décor? Being specific usually holds a reader’s attention, especially if it appeals to the senses.

For me, another aspect of setting is designing the houses in which my characters live. I need to understand how they move through these spaces and what keeps the upstairs household members separate from those below stairs. Even with my ranch houses, I approach the same considerations. After designing one ranch house, I knew almost every log and stone in its construction, but I could not picture the roofline. I called a local architect’s office, explained my dilemma to the receptionist, and asked if any architects there would assist me. The following day, I received a call from a gentleman intrigued by building a house in a novel. We scheduled an appointment, and when he examined my floor plan, it didn't take him long to add a roof to it. Job done, but our conversation about the intricacies of writing a book continued well beyond the one-hour slot he had allocated me.

I’m happy writing in the past and present, and my imagination doesn’t stretch to the future as I know it does with many of our Round Robin bloggers.  I’m off now to see what they have to say.

 

Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3rJ 

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

Belinda Edwards https://booksbybelinda.com/blog/

Anne Stenhouse https://goo.gl/h4DtKv

Helena Fairfax http://www.helenafairfax.com/blog

Sally Odgers https://behindsallysbooksmark2.blogspot.com

A.J. Dyer http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

 

 

 

 

Writing Romance by Victoria Chatham

 

Our Round Robin blog for Saturday, February 15th, is on the topic of Romance. If you write romance, what do you like (or dislike) about the genre and all other genres? Do you include romance in your stories?

I have always enjoyed reading romance novels, from my first Georgette Heyer Regency romance when I was thirteen to the latest contemporary romance. They were and are pure escapism, which is why I write romance.

Over the years, many people I have met who have learned I am an author have told me they could write a romance as “It’s only a basic formula, after all.” And as one close friend, who should have known better, once said, “Two people meet, fall in love, get married, have two children and a dog. The end.”

She had completely ignored the times she had seen or heard me almost pulling my hair out while trying to determine the nuances of building my characters to make them unique and plausible or deciding what subplot would best create confusion and conflict in their burgeoning relationship.

Romance Writers of America defines romance as ‘two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.’

As with any genre, subplots and conflict are necessary parts of the storytelling process if you want to

keep your reader engaged, but in a romance novel, the love story must be the main focus. Romance novels swing through a whole arc from sweet to super hot and in many subgenres, from historical and contemporary to fantasy, young adult, and paranormal, and at each end of the scale, spiritual to sexy. Whatever the heat level, our romantic couple must risk everything for each other before they get their happy-ever-after or happy-for-now ending.

I enjoy writing romance, especially historical romance, because I love putting my very proper heroines into unexpected and sometimes dangerous situations. They are not simpering sampler stitchers but real live flesh and blood, up and at ‘em in-your-face type gals. As I have often been told, my heroines are far too out of the box for a traditional Regency romance, but those are the kinds of characters I like, so that’s what I write and make no apologies for. The fact that my research into the historical facts for the Regency years (strictly 1811 – 1820) is in-depth and solid enough to create my settings and clothe my characters realistically is rarely, if ever, commented on.

My heroes, the guys who often raise their eyebrows at the shenanigans my gals become embroiled in,

 Vincent Cassel

are, indeed, my heroes. No one is perfect, but my heroes are perfect enough in my eyes to take centre stage and support, thwart, or otherwise involve themselves with my feisty, fearless females. For both leads, I find images on the internet on which to base physical features and build up their character profile. Actor Vincent Cassel, shown here, was the inspiration for Lord Lucius Clifton in The Berkeley Square Series.

Novels set before 1950 are considered historical, and my historical romances have covered the years 1814 to 1818 (Regency) 1907 to 1918 (Edwardian) and 1935, this last being Book #1 in BWL Publishing Inc’s Canadian Historical Brides Collection.

I am currently working on a cozy mystery series, but I have no doubt that I will eventually return to where it all began, particularly as another writer friend challenged me to write a Scottish Regency romance. Hmm. That might mean a return trip to Edinburgh!

Thanks to Skye Taylor for this month's topic, and welcome to our new bloggers, Belinda Edwards and Sally Odgers. 

Bob Rich   https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3pV

A.J. Maguire http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/

Belinda Edwards https://booksbybelinda.com/blog/

Helena Fairfax http://www.helenafairfax.com/blog

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

Diane Bator https://escapewithawriter.wordpress.com/

Sally Odgers https://behindsallysbooks.blogspot.com/2025/02/romance.html

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea