In this video, at around the 50:30 mark, you can listen to Carrie Vaughn and Song of Ice and Fire (better known as Game of Thrones) author George RR Martin discussing their approaches to writing and referring to “architects” and “gardeners”, which is an analogy Martin has used before instead of “plotter” and “pantser”. Comparing architecture with gardening doesn't make a lot of sense (it's not even an "apples versus oranges" metaphor; it's more like comparing apples with bricks). But if we think in terms of landscape architecture (as opposed to building architecture) we can have an analogy that gives us a spectrum of different writing approaches, rather than the more dualistic argument of pantsing versus plotting.

The Landscape Architect

Like a professional landscape architect who has to produce an extremely detailed blueprint of their proposed design, sometimes down to the actual species and number of plants that are to be planted in each section, the author on this end of the spectrum first plans out their book in great detail. This might particularly apply to a non-fiction author who has to get approval from a publisher, or a traditionally-published fiction author sending in a proposal for several books in a series. Authors of fantasy, science fiction, and historical novels might also be in this group due to the world-building and research aspects of these genres. If you enjoy developing character profiles/biographies, in-world encyclopedias, and what I like to call fictionaries (fictional dictionaries) pertaining to the world of your book(s) then you might fit somewhere in this section.

The Landscape Gardener

A little more hands-on from the beginning, this author creates a relatively quick sketch before digging in to the work itself. This author probably has a lot of experience and now knows where they can take shortcuts. Like a landscape gardener who takes soils samples in order to work with or alter the pH of the soil or the drainage conditions, authors in this column continually analyse their market and know their genre extremely well.

The Sculpture Gardener

Like the artists in charge of beautiful public and private manor gardens which require a great deal of vision and a lot of time pruning and shaping and attention to symmetry and elegance, these authors spend a lot of time on rewriting and editing to create a true work of art.

The Botanical Gardener

These authors pay strict attention to themes and/or accuracy. They might collect notes on, or write about, a bit of everything, but they are well organised and logical in their output.

The Farmer

Working hard to produce a large volume of nourishing work that brings in an income, writers in this field might be producing articles, text books, early reader books, quick chapter book series, or even what was called “pulp” fiction in the past. To be this prolific requires a solid system, professional tools, and commitment to regular high-quality writing that needs as little editing as possible. Farmers cannot operate without the back-up of their families or paid staff since this kind of workload leaves little time for distractions such as holidays, leisure time, or even housework.

The Vegetable Gardener

Perhaps less prolific than the farmer, these are authors who are working to produce books as quickly as possible, but they also have pesky loads of laundry to deal with. Concentrating on getting the words right as much as possible in the first draft can help to cut down on time-consuming rewrites, getting those books out to harvest on a regular cycle.

The Constant Gardener

This is the writer who must write, who cannot breathe without writing. Daily “morning pages” are like fresh air. Getting words on the page is the only goal. But with all this time immersed in the work, this author notices everything that needs attention and the necessary pruning and shaping happens organically. Just as new projects arise out of this gardener’s awareness of how their garden is used and enjoyed by others, so the author using this approach understands what their readers want and need and tries to bring joy and usefulness into being by the way they shape their works.

The Weekend Gardener

Like the average person with a day job who escapes into their garden on the weekend, these authors have other commitments that leave them only a very specific window of time in which to write. These authors would benefit from keeping detailed notes and a solid planning system so that they can easily pick up where they left off and get writing. It also pays to aim for clean copy in the early drafts to avoid spending precious hours on rewriting and editing.

The Cottage Gardener

The cottage gardener doesn’t do much planning, instead choosing plants mostly on a whim or through long experience and trial and error. They may be set in their ways, or willing to plant anything once. They might take cuttings from plants in a friend’s garden. Likewise, the cottage author is attracted to a variety of different genres, doesn’t plan much beyond the initial idea and perhaps the ending, may abandon a work-in-progress in favour of a new idea, and usually prefers to let the characters and story develop organically through the writing process. Some might enjoy writing fan fiction, or building upon classical stories and motifs, or collaborating with a co-author or illustrator.

The Wildflower Gardener

This author does no planning whatsoever. They arrive on the garden of their page and scatter the seeds that come in the moment. The plants of their words are allowed to grow where they will and the author does little more than the equivalent of watering, nourishing, and any obvious weeding (always bearing in mind that what looks like a weed today might be the prize of the garden in a few weeks). The wildflower author is content to soak up the beauty of placing words on the page and enjoy the surprise of what those words become. Many poets find themselves in this column.

Over to you. Have I left any gardeners out? Where do you fit in such a spectrum? Has this given you (ahem) food for thought? Are you using the most beneficial writing approach for the body of work you’re trying to produce and the time and resources you have to work with? Do you need to consider a different approach?

I want to do this without any nastiness towards my fellow authors - so, where the examples in question come from books, I am going to block out identifying details and show only the actual issue I'm discussing. I would ask commenters to please avoid shouting out the book title and/or author if they recognise the material (and I will censor comments that don't abide by this request).

I will, however, identify commercially-successful Movies and TV shows I use as examples. These have a slew of professionals working on every aspect of production and therefore I think it is fair game to call them on their weaknesses. Secondly, there is greater likelihood that popular shows/movies have already been seen, so spoilers are less of an issue, and there is more chance to learn from specific examples. I will attempt to create a non-spoiler generic summary, though.

First up is Horror. Kristen Lamb wrote a blog post explaining How Horror Fiction Can Make Us Better Writers. I both agree and disagree with Kristen's theory. Horror handicaps a story, by distancing the reader/audience. So, yes, it can make you a better writer because you have to work harder.  But a writer who doesn't understand this handicap can get stuck in a cycle of attempting to increase the body count and the gore level, more graphically describing violence, and inventing new and improved ways of shocking their readers.

I explain my reasoning in detail using the TV show Fortitude as an example, here:

The Problem with Horror - a Critique of Fortitude

and here is the spoiler-free summary:

For Drama's Sake, Don't Write Horror

I don’t think I’ve met a writer who doesn’t know what “Morning Pages” are—but just in case, here’s a footnote¹.

I haven’t written Morning Pages in years, but reading Kathryn Craft’s new book, The Far End of Happy, reminded me of this practice. Kathryn’s main protagonist, Ronnie, is a freelance writer and an ardent morning-pager (although it’s not referenced as such). Ronnie frequently wakes early in order to “center herself” by journaling.

A long-suffering friend, this journal, taking everything she’d thrown at it. The questions. The tortured answers. The pros. The cons. Moments rich with beauty. The long slow death of a dream... Today, more than any other, in these last precious moments before her sons awoke, Ronnie needed the ink to offer up its ever-flowing possibilities.”
~ Kathryn Craft, The Far End of Happy ~

I have numerous excuses for not continuing with Morning Pages since motherhood ate my schedule (along with the dog’s homework), but I’m considering resuming a mini-version that proved useful when I was delivering two blog posts per week: writing one page longhand on a particular topic. Pre-kids, I would decide on the topic the night before, sleep on it, and then free-write the article when I woke. These days I’m lucky if I get to sleep on anything, let alone an idea, and I’m left with the longhand option because my darlings have appropriated my computer.

This time I’m toying with the idea of writing flash-fiction during my computer-gone time. That is, if I can write to the tune of the Peppa Pig theme song...

What about you? Do you still write Morning Pages? Do you manage three pages every day, or is that a stretch? Do you do them on the computer instead of by hand? Do you choose to write something you can use (a blog post or your wip) instead of stream of consciousness musings?

¹ Morning Pages are the brain-child of writer and artist Julia Cameron. They are three pages written longhand of whatever enters the writer’s mind (the pages could even be filled with “I don’t know what to write” or shopping and to-do lists). The idea is to clear the mind of the mundane to prepare it for a session of real creative work. Eventually (Cameron contends a minimum of 90 days) the pages become both a journal of subconscious perspective and a brain-training system for sharpening focus and exercising free-writing.

No matter how crucial a scene may be to your plot, if it makes you go “ick”, don’t lead with it.

It seems obvious to me after it was pointed out, but at the time of writing and revising a particular story, it made sense to start at the “beginning”, even though I always found myself thinking and wanting to tell people, “Just wait until you get to Chapter Two. Chapter One’s not really how the story’s going to continue; it’s just establishing the start of the protagonist’s character arc.” Yeah. Lesson learnt.

Start with the first of your good bits (we’ll call this the “Just Wait Until... Point” or JWUP). These days of instant gratification and high-speed everything, an author has much less time than ever before to hook a reader. That doesn’t mean you should start in media res without orienting the reader first. The difference nowadays is that your  orientation (a view of the characters’ “normal” before everything changes) can and should only be a few paragraphs at the most. The inciting incident, which needs to be compelling, must occur in the first page or two, or you risk being put down.

There’s an easy (“easy”) fix way to judge this for yourself: if your Amazon Look Inside sample breaks before it gets to the JWUP, cut your beginning until the break happens immediately after the JWUP.

Just for fun, and a leap out of my comfort zone, I made a video of me reading an extract from "Maddie". Enjoy.

Rise of the Machines : Human Authors in a Digital World is the latest book by social networking expert Kristen Lamb. If you are familiar with Kristen Lamb's blog, you will recognise some of her wisdom and advice in this book, which acts as a consolidation of her tips on the social networking approach to marketing and promoting your author platform. Purchasing her book is a great way to thank her for the extensive advice she provides for free and to have all the best of her information in one place in an easy-to-read, follow, and implement guide.

Rise of the Machines covers much of what is still pertinent in Ms. Lamb's previous books on social networking and blogging (We Are Not Alone : The Writer's Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It's Me, Writer) plus contains new information and research, a healthy dose of history, and a serving of philosophy, all delivered with Kristen Lamb's tongue-in-cheek sense of humour and highly-readable narrative style honed through her dedication to posting on her blog five times per week for several years. In fact, she suggests such a rigorous blogging schedule as a training ground for developing a professional pace that will enable a writer to keep up with, and perhaps exceed, reader expectations of a minimum of one book per year.

Being yourself is key to using social media to develop a platform, and Kristen Lamb is sincere and genuine, warm and funny, and well worth spending some time with.

Here is the blurb for the book:

Be careful what you wish for.

When Madison Lane is given a magic wand, she wishes for the thing she wants the most – or so she thinks. As she tries to reverse the consequences of her wish she is pulled into another world and a quest to compensate for using the Wand of Rasputin. It is there that she discovers the real, terrifying cost of making a wish. And how impossible it is to control her own thoughts. One more wish and she loses everyone and everything she loves.

And now someone else is after the wand. Someone who will stop at nothing to get it. Someone with an unfair advantage.

Please join my mailing list here (or by filling in the form to your right) if you would like to receive updates, sneak peeks, and other happy news

For once was Erin light and fair
A lively burning dancing heart
Children playing in the dales
And friend and lover never part
Spring and Summer come and went
And Harvest brought an unknown chill
A thief stole in as wont and will
Sent by those whose blood runs dark
And fear through minds began to cry.

They welcomed him did Erin’s kin
Stranger within despite such cold
His face was worn but smile did break
And seemed he kind return less bold
But bird with him he held with angst
Raven eyes burnt menace deep
Through thought and dream-filled bitter sleep
All felt death at shoulder’s door
Distressed at nothing they could know.

Under mist's dark blanket tales
be told of dragons, wisps, and trolls,
And sprites of earth beneath the dire
crept still silent into holes.
The dark force slowly gained its ground
Pressure living in defeat
And aching monster hell to mete
They felt the call of evil notion
Hard in mischief deep undone.

Poem by Elle Carter Neal

Photos for this post are by the very talented Cornelia Kopp (aka Alice Popkorn on Flickr):
Orbs and Faeries
The Mystery
Once Upon a Time...
Looking for Inspiration

This book stumped me for a while in the search for its theme. Almost unbelievably, it was staring me right in the face. I had to change two characters to find it, but the wealth of additional subtext that opened up was so worth the extra work. It forms part of one of the book's twists, so I don't want to reveal too much, but the main theme is "taking responsibility for what you create" - very apt for me right now, on many levels from my writing to raising my children. Last year was a hard one, parenting-wise, and my son and I need to do some revision on our relationship this year, too.

We, as a species, tell and read stories in order to nut out a conundrum that is bothering us. If we stick to writing about the answers we've already found, only our reader benefits; if we write into what we're trying to discover, we benefit too.

Since this book involves a magic wand, naturally I was always going to use the wand symbolically and I also always planned to use symbolism from the Wands suit of tarot cards. I couldn't believe the coincidence, though, when I realised not only did I have fourteen chapters to my book, and fourteen cards of the minor arcana of the Wands suit, but also that the symbolism and reading of each card fits beautifully into the storyline of each chapter, in order. It made my day when I matched those up and got fourteen for fourteen. I then sat down to draw from the symbols of the suit - mainly fire and things that symbolise fire or are symbolised by fire - and came up with a number of scenes that enrich the plot by drawing on those symbols. It's such a thrilling process.

I've also had a chuckle at the hazards of using Find and Replace to automate edits. I came across a few instances of one of my characters wearing an intriguing item of clothing called a "Jameset". I scratched my head over that one for a while. The book is fantasy and the characters do don clothing from another world, so I could well have made the word up deliberately; it wasn't ringing any bells, though. Then I looked through my notes. About a quarter of the way through the first draft I'd decided to change a character's name from Jack to James and ran a Find and Replace - but I forgot to set the search to "whole words". Ah, well. Check, check, and recheck. And then hire an editor.

What about you? Do you love or hate the revision process? Do you graft in symbolism retrospectively, or do you plan everything, including the symbolism, up front?