Today I’m welcoming Kathie Giorgio back to my blog for a special guest post on plotting and pantsing. Take it away, Kathie!

Whenever someone asks me if I’m a plotter or a pantser, a gardener or an architect, I cringe. I hate all of the terms, because it just puts the writer into too neat of a box. For those not familiar with the terms, a plotter is someone who plans their entire piece, whether it’s a story, novel, short or long memoir, often writing an outline, before ever setting down the first word. And a pantser is someone who writes by the seat of their pants, just putting down whatever comes next in their imagination. J.R.R. Martin changed the terms a bit with gardener or architect – a gardener being someone who watches things grow, and an architect planning everything out on blueprints before something is built.

In my own reality, I am both of these. I use them both to produce what I feel is the best I can do. And I really can’t imagine doing one without the other.

I’m a huge believer in the creative process, and of course, my writing fits under the term “creative writing”. It’s an imagination thing. When I start a new piece, it’s often created from something small – an idea I had for a character, a sentence I overheard in someone else’s conversation, a headline that I read. Basically, something that just happens to pass me by, and I reach out and grab it. I never know the ending to a story or novel until I get there, and I almost always have to rewrite the beginning because the end ended up someplace I never expected. In this way, I am definitely a pantser…I write whatever comes. In a first draft, the words are fresh, they’re interesting, and I’m as eager to see what happens next as I hope my readers will be. I’ve often had the experience of a minor character stepping forward and taking over the entire show. And I let that happen. Because who knows what the actual story might be? It could be great!

Let me give you an example. I collect clocks, and one day, while driving home from my favorite clock shop, I thought how cool it would be to live in a clock museum. By the time I got home, I had an idea for what I thought would be a short story collection. It would be set in a clock museum, and the owner of the museum would move between the stories, choosing a clock to wind, and then I would write a story with that clock as the central symbol.

I sat down to write this collection, but as I did, my clock museum owner, James, kept demanding more and more time. Eventually, the entire book became about him, with the odd-numbered chapters telling his story, and the even-numbered chapters becoming complete short stories about the clocks in his museum BEFORE he owned them. That book became The Home For Wayward Clocks, my first novel, published in 2010.

If I’d fiercely stuck with my idea, my plan, I would have lost the book. James would never have stepped out of his path from clock to clock, in between the stories.

So: First draft? Pantser. Gardener. Let’s see what grows.

But once the first draft is done, I put on my plotter hat. I now know where the story or book is going to end up. I likely have a beginning, middle, and an end, but the path is probably curvy and hilly, with plenty of exits to check out side-of-the-road spectacles. Now that I know the end, I can sit down, before I even start the second draft, and build a map. The map will show where I went completely off course, careening after an idea that didn’t pan out. A swift highlight, and a cut, and it’s gone, and before I start to write the second draft, I have a straight line. Well, not straight, of course, but the upside-down check mark of what illustrates a story’s rise and fall.

All of my work goes through at least 20 drafts. Usually, after putting on my plotter hat and creating the road map, I then start the next draft, and undoubtedly, somewhere along the way, my imagination will blow off that plotter hat and I’ll go spinning through possibilities again, and have to redo the map again before the next draft.

So: In between drafts? Plotter. Architect. Let’s build that road map.

But: Drafts 2 – 20: Plotter/Pantser, alternating.

For me, this works really well. My first draft is always willy nilly, and there have been many times I’ve sat back in my desk chair and thought, What the hell was that all about? But then, when I create the road map out of my no-GPS mess, I see what it’s about and settle down to write more, correcting the rise and fall into a cohesive story. When that imagination wind shows up again and blows my plotter hat off, I’ve often discovered incredible things in subsequent drafts, things I would have missed if I stayed strictly with the road map. But following the road map helps me to cut the extraneous stuff, the what-was-I-thinking stuff, and gets me to the end of a story that not only works, but exhilarates.

Sticking with either of these things as my definition of myself as a writer, just calling myself a plotter or a pantser, would make me miss the treasures and potential of each.

So: What am I? A plotter or a pantser? Neither. I’m a writer.

Let’s hit the open road!

About Kathie Giorgio

Kathie Giorgio is the author of seven novels, two story collections, an essay collection, and four poetry collections. Her latest novel, Hope Always Rises, will be released on February 28, 2023. She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in fiction and poetry and awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, the Silver Pen Award for Literary Excellence, the Pencraft Award for Literary Excellence, and the Eric Hoffer Award In Fiction. Her poem “Light” won runner-up in the 2021 Rosebud Magazine Poetry Prize. In a recent column, Jim Higgins, the books editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, listed Giorgio as one of the top 21 Wisconsin writers of the 21st century. Kathie is also the director and founder of AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop LLC, an international creative writing studio.

Check out Kathie’s latest release Hope Always Rises

In Heaven, there is a gated community for those who end their lives by choice. This is a complete surprise to Hope, who ends her life one morning on the banks of the Fox River in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Hope has always dealt with deep sadness. From childhood on, she visited therapists, doctors, alternative medicine practitioners, Reiki artists, etc., to no avail. In Heaven, God reassures her that he knows what caused the sadness, but he won’t reveal it yet.

All community residents are required to attend weekly group therapy. Hope’s first group is led by Virginia Woolf. Several of the book’s chapters tell the stories of other members of this group.

Filled with many moments of striking humor, uplifting realizations, and difficult challenges, Hope finds her way in Heaven. She meets many people like herself, who help her restore her forgotten artistic talent and passion, and God himself, who is amazingly human in the most inhuman of ways. Hope finds understanding and forgiveness, and most importantly, friends.

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

ISBN-10: 1685132421

ISBN-13: 978-1685132422

ASIN: B0BV36PQKL

Print length: 342 pages

Purchase a copy of Hope Always Rises by visiting Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Bookshop.org. Make sure you also add Hope Always Rises to your Goodreads reading list.

Follow Kathie’s Blog Tour

April 24th @ The Muffin

Join us as we celebrate the blog tour launch of Hope Always Rises by Kathie Giorgio. You'll have the chance to read an interview with the author and win a copy of the book.

https://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com

April 26th @ Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews

Stop by to read Lisa's interview with Kathie Giorgio.

https://lisahaselton.com/blog/

April 27th @ A Storybook World

Join Deirdra as she features Hope Always Rises.

https://www.astorybookworld.com/

April 29th @ The Faerie Review

Join Lily as she shares a spotlight of Hope Always Rises.

https://www.thefaeriereview.com

April 30th @ Madeline Sharples' Blog

Stop by Madeline's blog to read a guest post from Kathie about selling 14 books to traditional presses in 13 years.