Writers sometimes divide themselves into plotters and pantsers. Plotters outline things in advance, and pantsers write as they go and the inspiration strikes them. An author friend prefers to call them “Discovery Writers”. Pantsers just doesn’t sound good!

When I started writing I was definitely in the discovery writer category. In my first book, A Recipe for Disaster, I had an idea for the end but I basically just wrote as I went along. I liked the result.

Then I decided to write a series around my first book. It became the Magical Recipes Series. The series had some family back story and a mystery element so I needed to be consistent as I went on to book two, A Secret Recipe. I began to see the importance of planning. I knew how the third (and last) book in the series was going to end, but didn’t have a solid idea for where to end A Secret Recipe. I needed to constantly check back on things in book one to see what I had said. I saw planning definitely had a place, especially when writing a series of books!

I participated in a class about Joseph Campbell’s book The Heroes Journey which helped me a great deal to look ahead and plan things out as well.  I’ll be honest with you, I’m not a great planner and I’m still a discovery writer at heart, but now I do some planning and will admit it helps me be a better writer.  

Sneak Peek – Prototype of the cover to “A Secret Recipe”, coming soon!