You Want Me to Do What?

I will gleefully admit that for most of my writing life I have been a pantser. I’ve only recently given serious thought and any effort to exploring the joys of outlining. I blame all the pretty pictures of grids floating around my little corner of the universe.

And it’s not a pretty, easy fit for me. I think that’s because I’m a character driven writer and storyteller and plot is not my first and foremost love. So I’m finding it a little difficult to quantify my major plot threads at the beginning of the process. Plot Whisperer has a great post on plot-lines, plot writing, plot planners, and one writer’s pre-work and success story.

Has anyone converted recently to outlining from pantsing? Is that working for you? Thinking of going back? If you outline, do you know the entire plot and all the plot-lines before going into your actual writing?

Writer's blues

What I've found, when I'm tired, is that my writing default is passive. It's lazy and it's wordy with an inelegance that makes me wince. I'm at that point with the novel. Nothing seems to flow or fit in terms of sentence construction or word choice.

It's all clunky and very grating, wordy and talky, and it just drags.

And that just depresses me. Feeds my lethargy and my writerly bad habits which are never very far from the surface. It's a vicious cycle.

What's your default? Is it good and does it make you a happy writer?

What do you do to kick the writerly blues? Or to kick start your work when your default isn't what you're looking for?