Darkwriting: Beginning.

Most of us are familiar with terms like plotters and pantsers. A plotter is a writer who writes an outline first, a pantser is one who does not.

Dean Wesley Smith, who has had over 100 books of his published, calls pantsing ‘Writing into the Dark’ in his book of the same name. He says a lot of professional, published writers write this way. He says things like outlining are done in critical voice, while writing must be done in creative voice, with critical voice well out of the way. 

How do you write, as a ‘darkwriter?’ The plotter has the security of a sheaf of outline pages to clutch. What about the other folks?

What you need is some sort of idea. An idea about character, or setting, or situation, an idea about a conflict, a first line or a title to the project. Something like that.

This idea can come before you start to write, or it can pop into your head when you sit in front of a blank screen. 

Once you have an idea, you start typing. Fast, without engaging your inner critic. You need to do this in creative mode. Don’t let your critical voice ruin everything by nagging you about various ‘writing rules,’ things like foreshadowing, conflict, the ‘hook,’ character ‘representation’ (having enough token minority characters.)  Just write!

The down side of writing into the dark is that the first chapter you write won’t be perfect. You are exploring your idea, going where it leads. In chapter three or chapter five or wherever, you may find you need to change a few things. Sometimes this can be done by fixing— changing just the part that needs changing— adding or removing a character, for example. Sometimes you may want to redraft— write the chapter from memory, with the needed thing included.

In my current WIP, I did some redrafting of early chapters, and then I realized where the story was going, and started redrafting the whole thing. I have now redrafted those chapters and can move forward. 

One thing I added was a villain character, instead of having the opposition to the hero-character come from many different persons and forces. This makes the story more focussed. And makes a solution to the problem more realistic. 

Have you tried ‘writing into the dark?’ If you have always obediently outlined, but always bogged down and had real problems finishing the project, perhaps you would do well to try it. Stephen King describes once getting a sheaf of colored paper, and typing a first sentence about a gunslinger and a dark man. I believe the fellow may have done rather well with that project. Without an outline.

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FOR FURTHER READING:

Dean Wesley Smith: Writing Into The Dark: How To Write A Novel Without An Outline.

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