Damn it feels good to be a pantser

So yes, last night I finished the third Downside book, and I'm mourning over on my own blog, so you can pop over and check out my insecure whining and self-pity there if you like.

But something really cool happened Saturday night, and even cooler last night, and I'm still quite pleased about it.

While writing part of the Climactic Battle scene Saturday night, I suddenly realized that I'd earlier skirted just up to the edge of something with my Bad Guy. I'd hinted at it but hadn't come out with it.

Because I didn't know.

I'd played "Show, don't tell" with MYSELF.

And once I realized the thing about him, I not only had a HUGELY more exciting climax, and a HUGELY creepier book (once I go back and hint more strongly), but a title for the book: DEVOURER OF GHOSTS. Which is so awesome.

I don't know how this happens.

Last night as I wrote the second half of the Huge Climactic Battle, I had my heroine doing something which she would normally do; a bit of magic that's part of her job. But I realized--actually, I don't even think I realized it, it just popped onto the page--that because of an earlier plot point, her action was much different than normal; had a much different source and effect.

Now, I thought I'd used that plot point already to its fullest potential. Not so. Not at all. The implications of it struck me as soon as that sentence was on the page, and suddenly I had something even bigger, something none of the characters had ever done or experienced. Ever. It wasn't a permanent change in her, but it was a Big Deal.

I don't know how that happened either.

But this is the thing I love about pantsing. Were I a planner I might have come up with that in the outlining or whatever stages. It's possible, sure. It was there in my head, after all. But somehow outlining never feels organic to me; I never feel, as I open my doc and get ready to type, that anything could happen and that I better be on the ball lest I get totally whiplashed by something and miss the chance to do something really, really special.

That isn't at all to say that outliners don't write exciting books; that's not even implied, not at all. Just that for me, the writing itself isn't as exciting, and that I live for those little "Oh! OMG!" moments when everything snaps into place.

It occurred to me not long ago that although I don't plan in advance, I generally do have some idea where the story is going. It may only be a particular climactic moment or scene, but I do have *some* idea of what the final battle will be. I never know who the bad guy is, though. So while I don't plan, I do know where I'm going and so have some idea what sorts of clues I need to plant or whatever.

But how those clues work, how a careless line of dialogue suddenly jumps back into my head later and becomes that basis for a whole plot-twist, or how a throwaway character suddenly becomes hugely important... I don't know how it happens. Honestly I'm afraid to think about it too much because I might drive it away.

I do often have to go back in and insert clues relating to the specific Bad Guy, or rather, I sometimes have to go in and beef up his/her presence in the novel so readers aren't like "Huh? Who the hell is that?" But in general the clues just appear; since I know what my bad guy is doing, essentially, I can come up with stuff that points to their plot pretty easily.

I start a book when I have a good idea of the characters and world, and at least a vague idea of the main conflict. Since most of my books start with a mystery, it's usually pretty easy for me to set that up: Look, there's a dead body. Introduce some characters. Do a little worldbuilding. Boom, suddenly we're a good 20k into the book and now new ideas are popping up, and we're off to the races. And once the book is done I reread it, and make notes about dropped clues or fine-tune the ones that are there, and it's done.

I don't know how it happens. But I'm so grateful that it does. And that's the other half of my so-sad-to-be-finished post.