Spontaneous Planning
As a writer, I’m sometimes asked if I’m a panster or a plotter. Do I write a novel flying by the sea of my pants, or do I methodically plan each scene or chapter?
It wasn’t until I started writing my second book, Follow Me, Follow You, and saw my writing pattern emerge, that I could reply: I am a spontaneous planner. I have my opening line, I have my end line, and I know who is speaking them, where they’re located and what they’re doing at that point. It’s very precise. I know I would like to write a twist into the plot, and I know which issues I will be examining throughout the story. I have the names of the characters, the meanings of their names, their family history, their jobs, likes, dislikes, their favoured expletive, if they indeed have one, their sexual preferences, beliefs and faith, and what happened to them the first time they got drunk. All the detail.
What I don’t know is the course their journey will take. That’s the spontaneous part. How will I guide these people through the story to reach that end line I’ve so meticulously planned?
A friend once said that writing a novel this way must be as exciting as reading one. I agreed. It doesn’t matter that I know the ending. I write romance and readers of romance know the story will have a happy or hopeful conclusion. It doesn’t stop the reader enjoying the journey.
Victoria Noble, the heroine in Follow Me, Follow You, is a planner. She thrives in a world of definites. She would read the last page of the novel first, to be certain of the outcome. Her sister, Juliette, is the one in the family who ‘wings it’, even in the world of business. However, as partners in the successful social media network site, EweSpeak, their differences complement one another. They balance each other out.
The hero of the story, Chris Frampton, is the adventurer; the impulsive go-getter who takes huge risks achieving his goals, spontaneity leading the way in his personal life. He loves being caught in the moment and going where the mood takes him. So far, it’s taken him from his home in Portland, Dorset, on the southwest coast of the UK, to LA and home again.
As a Hollywood action hero though, his risks are calculated. He would never attempt a motorbike stunt without first examining all angles, checking the mechanics of the working parts, or ensuring the only person he’s put in danger is himself. Chris knows how his stunt starts, visualises the journey he will take and prays it will finish with a positive outcome.
If he was flicking through a copy of Follow Me, Follow You, he’d hope for a happy ending, but would see the relationship pitfalls. Whether or not he’d do something about them would depend on his mood …
However we read or write stories, whether we know the ending before the start, dip in and out of the chapters, or turn each page in numerical order, words can take us on a wonderful voyage of discovery. And that’s a journey both pansters and plotters alike can take.
BOOK BLURB
You save me and I'll save you...
Victoria Noble has pulled the plug on romance. As director of the number one social networking site, EweSpeak, and single mother to four-year-old Seth, she wrestles with the work-life balance.
Enter Chris Frampton, Hollywood action hero and Victoria's first love. His return from LA has sparked a powder keg of media attention, and with secrets threatening to fuel the fire, he's desperate to escape.
But finding a way forward is never simple. Although his connection with Victoria is as strong as when he was nineteen, has he been adrift too long to know how to move on?
With the risk of them breaking, will either #follow their heart?
Choc Lit Paperback and Digital
Release Date: 7th September 2014
About Laura E James
Laura is married and has two children. She lives in Dorset, but spent her formative years in Watford, a brief train ride away from the bright lights of London. Here she indulged her love of live music, and, following a spectacular Stevie Nicks gig, decided to take up singing, a passion that scored her second place in a national competition.
Laura is a graduate of the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme, a member of her local writing group, Off The Cuff, and an editor of the popular Romaniacs blog.
Laura was runner-up twice in the Choc Lit Short Story competitions. Her story Bitter Sweet appears in the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Anthology. Truth or Dare?, Laura’s debut novel, was shortlisted for the Festival of Romantic Fiction Best Romantic eBook 2013 and the 2014 Joan Hessayon New Writers’ Award. Follow me, follow you is Laura’s first Choc Lit novel published in paperback.
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