All Writers Plan

Pantsers seem to take umbrage, sometimes extreme, to my statement that planning is vital to writing.

Let’s get what I hope is an unbiased definition of “plan” from Merriam Webster:

plan verb: to think about and arrange the parts or details of (something) before it happens or is made

Let’s consider writing without planning:

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Free ISBN? Not a Problem.

ISBNs are confusing.

In many countries, they’re free. Apparently those folks have a God-given (or government-given) right to be listed as the publisher of their own work, finances notwithstanding.

In the US, you’ll pay for the privilege of appearing to have published your own book. Bowker owns the monopoly. Like most monopolies, they’re expensive. But at least they’re hard to deal with, too, so you get the full package.

Free ISBNs abound, if you’re willing to let the owner of the ISBN be listed as the publisher. I bought 10 ISBNs back when I cared. That’s the last money I’ll spend on them.

Let’s use CreateSpace as an example, prompted by a question on Linked In.

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Writers and Their Emotions

I’m going for a 60s health-ed movie feel in the title, in case you missed it.

Writing without emotion is pointless. If you don’t move your readers to feel something, you accomplish nothing. Even with non-fiction, teaching a topic requires moving your readers to care enough to latch on.

With fiction, emotion is everything.

It’s no wonder, then, that we fiction writers are a moody lot.

I have days of euphoria. I also have days in the doldrums. (Like when we have the rare phenomenon of 10 gloomy days straight here in the frozen north.)

A dear friend commented this morning that they were feeling down about their writing.

Steven Pressfield posted about the pure unadulterated panic induced by the research for his latest book.

It’s gonna happen. (more…)

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