Realizations About My Work-In-Progress Novel

Hey, everyone!

Today is about a realization I've had about my writing and where I'm going from here with my novel-in-progress. But first...
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Recent Reads

The last book I read was Sadie by Courtney Summers. And man, that book was hard to get through (I'd been on a reading streak and had read my last 2 books in like a day and 1/2 each, but Sadie took me five and 1/2 days to finish). I really recommend you read it. Content warnings for Sadie if you decide to read it: pedophilia, rape, murder.

My next read is going to be the Inheritance cycle by Christopher Paolini. I read Eragon many years ago, and hopefully I'll like the rest of the series as much as I did book 1!

Cartographical

I'm really excited about today's map, because it's one I designed! It's still got a few things I've got to fix, but I really like it. It's a map of my novel's world (well, not the whole world). Here it is:

(Link to a more high-res version)

​What do you think?

KEY

• Red text = body of water (that says Jorunian, not Forunian)
• Dark blue text = continent
• Black text = country/region
• White text = capital city (except Port Galm Fi)
• Yellow line = approximate national border

Eventually, I'll recolor it to be paper colored and/or black and white, so it can actually go in a book, but I really like how it is!

Realizations About My Work-In-Progress Novel

My WIP is a YA fantasy/adventure novel currently entitled Knotstone (previously Kalmok's Revenge). I'm pantsing it.

For those who don't know the difference:

• Plotters, or outliners, plot their stories intrecately / use an outline before writing them
• Pantsers, or discovery writers, write without a plan, or at least without an outline. The term comes from the phrase "flying by the seat of your pants."
• Plantsers are in the middle - the very middle middle.

​The thing is, unlike most pantsers, I actually skipped around a bit and wrote about 6,000 words of future scenes. But now that I've discovered more of the story since then, I've determined taht I no longer like most of how those scenes are. If I am to keep drafting, though, I must keep them in the story so as to still contribute to my word count (the end goal is 80K-100K words, so likely 90K).

So I've come upon a realization: I need to stop drafting, for the time being. I've relabelled what was once Draft 1 to Draft 0.5 - the new Draft 1 will be a heavily edited version of the third-of-a-novel that I already have written. Then I will continue to write by the seat of my pants, likely with much improved writing, until I theoretically hit a point at which I will have to, once again, make myself stop drafting and edit what I've written.

Therefore, when the first draft is complete, it should read more like a second or third draft, whish should lessen the amount of drafts I need overall and - as a result of the process, not necessarily the fact I just stated - my enjoyment of writing (specifically drafting) should be greatly improved.

Some of you may ask, "Why don't you just outline?" Here's the thing. I've tried outlining, on previous projects, and it simply doesn't work for me. Many pantsers might tell you that they encounter certain difficulties or flaws in their writing when outlining that doesn't happen when they pants, but that's not what it is for me. When I try to outline, all my creativity seems to mysteriously disappear - I can't think of a single thing to write about. But when I just sit down with a blank document, sometimes it takes awhile, but eventually, the ideas will come and the words will simply flow out of my fingertips. This never happens when I try to outline.

Of the writers who read My Mind & I, I ask you: Are you a plotter, pantser, or possibly even plantser? And what's your writing process?
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Thanks for reading!

Sorry all my posts are so short - I'll work on that. What do you think of the map, and of what I'm now doing for Knotstone? And do you have any feedback/suggestions/criticism? And what's your next read / what are you reading now? Be sure to leave it in the comments or in reply to the email you've received if you're subscribed (thanks for subscribing, the seven of you!).