Before I write the Rough Draft

I started off my writing life as a pantser (AKA writing by the seat of your pants or with no outline) when I wrote my first short stories, novella, and even novel as a teenager and very early twenties.

However, for me, pantsing led to quite a few novels stalling and being abandoned in the muddy middle. Since I didn’t like abandoning that work, I started to learn about story craft and story structure. I started with Larry Brooks’ Story Engineering, and the circus tent structure. I’d plot out my circus tent points and pants my way to them.

I didn’t stop there, though. Like most authors, I’ve incorporated bits and pieces from many plotting systems into a system that works for me.

Before I outline, I start with a one-line story summary that I expand into a blurb like Randy Ingermasson’s Snowflake method. This blurb may get thrown out and re-written once the book is actually finished.

To do the blurb, I need to know who the victim is and where the murder will take place. I don’t need to know my suspects, but I do mention Sophia’s personal life.

For example, what’s going on with the bakery, Detective Benjamin Schmidt, and Sophia’s other friends? Also, the time of year is helpful to know at this point. Is there a Valentine’s Day plot? Cinco de Mayo? Christmas?

After escaping death at the coven’s hands, Sophia Bell has been forced to join them. Never mind that half the High Council wants her dead because of her spirit fox. 

At the Beltane celebration, Sophia’s enemies taunt her, and she’s not having it when her so-called allies use the fertility magic to try to make Sophia forget her fated mate and hook up with a random witch.

Things get worse when council member Betty Hayes, who wants Sophia dead, is strangled at the May Pole and the mayor forces Sophia to help the awful Detective Jaeger find the killer–or else.

Beltane and Blondies is the fourth book in the charming Gold Valley Mysteries series. If you like witches, fluffy dogs, and puns, read it now!

Beltane and Blondies rough blurb

Next, I start writing a lot of notes and spitballing with the husband. I come up with three or four suspects and their secrets and motives. I also start figuring out Sophia’s character arc and how those personal life subplots resolve.

For my purposes, subplot means any series of scenes or ideas that aren’t directly related to the investigation. Some subplots and characters spring out of “promises” I’ve made in previous books.

For example, in Cupcakes and Crime, when Sophia meets Benjamin Schmidt she is relieved it’s not the awful detective who investigated her mother’s murder. When I wrote that, I had no idea who that awful detective would be, and eventually, Detective Jaeger was created to fill that role.

If Sophia says she’ll never do something, then that also creates a tension that needs resolving in a future book.

At this point, I’m also trying to make sure I have a good balance of mystery and personal subplots. The book can’t be all about Sophia, the bakery, and her friends. But it also can’t focus exclusively on the murder or she’ll have no personal growth.

It also makes for a better story if the subplots and murder mystery plot intersect. Once I have an idea of all the moving pieces, I use the four act structure to create my outline. This keeps me from getting lost in the “muddy middle.” This structure breaks up the book into four roughly equal parts.

Between 20-25% into the book, there had better have been a murder and something to force Sophia to be involved in the investigation. Hopefully, by that point I’ll have also set up my subplots and introduced the suspects.

During the second act, the subplots get developed and Sophia starts her investigation.

About halfway through the book, there’s a reveal that forces Sophia’s investigation to change course. This reveal kicks off the third act.

During the third act, the subplots (the romance with Ben, learning about her therian nature, the curse on Makayla, whatever’s going on with Mama Ginger’s) should be chugging along and there should be some threats to Sophia’s life.

And since we all like Doris, I hope she’s made an appearance by this point.

The third act ends with Sophia confronting the murderer and something has either gone wrong or looks like it has gone wrong. Writing craft books often call this “the dark night of the soul” or the “all is lost moment.”

By the end, all the loose ends on the murder investigation have been tied up–with the murderer literally tied up or handcuffed.

I like to end the books with Sophia having a get together with a friend or someone and settling any doubts that the murder and everything has been handled.

Any remaining loose threads will be listed in document I usually title “To do for Book #”

I start the outline with Act I and mostly plot that out, then I jump to the end points of each act before filling in the blanks. Sometimes, I keep a separate document for the timeline and other times, I keep the times and dates in the outline. I also keep going back to that notes file (sometimes *those* notes files) for trouble shooting throughout the outline and drafting process. I label each point in my outline with the act number and the scene number within the act. And then there are notes about who/what/where and events within that outline point. Here are a few examples:

• 1.1 – Arrive at winery opening/wedding/paint night/party/bike race
• 1.4 – The body! 
• 2.1 – Hangover at bakery
• 2.1 – Dog park with Ben 
• 2.3 – Lunch with Doris
• 3.x – all is lost
• 4.1 Hope rekindles

If you’re a writer, are you a plotter, a pantser, or in the middle (a plantser)?

If you’re not a writer, do you like learning how writers create their books? Or does it wreck it to see the behind the scenes?