The Plantser Delimma
As many of you know, I'm working hard on the third book in the Aeon Project series. As a bit of background, Aeon Project is in conjunction with Takamo Universe (a MMORPG that will offer players stories for more immersion in the gameplay universe). In any case, these are complicated stories that are not only romance-driven, but also highly politically charged. There is an entire canon of information already written for the universe and that means... staying within the rules of an established history.
I'm a pantser. This means I don't normally outline or plan my stories much more than knowing what's going to happen in the next chapter. Most of the time, this method serves me well and I don't have too much trouble keeping up with the story. For Aeon Project, however, I decided that there was just too much to keep up with in my already-busy brain. How was I going to keep up with everything and maintain my spontaneous and often dramatic twists and turns in each story? I decided that I would need to build a comprehensive timeline of the series, incorporate important details in the history and make sure my dates, times and ages all lined up, and work from there.
And.... I screwed up. I discovered that some (albeit small) details of book 1, An Enduring Sun, didn't line up with what I'd decided to do in the rest of the series. AHHHHH! But, thanks to Takamo Universe having already pulled the series down to revamp with a new publisher, I had the perfect opportunity to make the minor changes needed so everything fits together the way I want. This was a REALLY close call!! Now I know why authors with very large series keep story bibles and series bibles to keep all the details straight.
This little foray into plotting isn't going to keep me away from my pantser tendencies, as I can already see myself adding to the timeline I put together. That's the fun in writing fiction! These characters are dynamic and full of interesting history themselves so it's not hard to go off on tangents from time to time. I can't wait for everyone to meet Ren, Vex, Sevyn and Q and all the other wonderful characters of Aeon Project.
Hopefully, I can learn from this project and become a better author with the ability to both plot and pants whenever the story calls for it!
Real Writer Out!
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Several of my universes are converging into one, and it's getting difficult to remember who fits where and when. I'd love to chat about what programs or methods you're using to keep everything straight.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the delay with this response. And actually I'm doing a horrible job with this. Thanks to a very detailed game canon wiki, and a timeline the devs helped me nail down, now I'm back on track!
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