There’s only creating or not creating.
My writing style has changed in multiple ways over the years. Some of this reflects things I’ve learned along the way, some is influenced by other authors I’ve read or conversed with. My first editor didn’t just edit my first finished fantasy novel but taught me how to approach my characters better, how to handle perspective better, and how to be an editor in my own right.
I saw her influence about halfway into book 2 of Source Chronicles. The tonal shift, while probably not so obvious to anyone else, was utterly clear to me.
Over the next few years, thanks to her influence and assistance, I gained perspective and better analytics for my work. I continued, however, to write from the fundamental approach of being a pantser.
Pantsers vs planners
I’ve written about this before, but it’s still worth defining again.
Pantser is derived from the adage of doing work “by the seat of your pants.” A pantser typically sits down at the keyboard (or with a notepad and pen) and writes. You go with the flow and bang out/write out what comes to mind. I wrote all the Source Chronicles novels as a pantser as well as 4/5 of my Void Incursion sci-fi series.
For a long time, I believed that working from a plan beyond background world-building (such as I did for my Steampunk series, The Vapor Rogues) would stifle and lessen my creativity. The biggest problem with writing as a pantser, for me at least, was that the plot often took a backseat to character development, dialogue, action, and almost everything else.
A planner typically lays out the story they’re going to create before they truly begin writing it. This can take several different forms. From a simple set of guidelines to drive the plot from point “A” to point “B” to a chapter-by-chapter outline of the book(s) to be written (with or without dialogue, sentences for inclusion in the chapter, and more), plans are made. Then, once complete, the writer works from the plan to build their story.
When I started work on my Forgotten Fodder clone and conspiracy sci-fi series, I began with a plan. Worldbuilding evolved to plotting out the books, which then led to outlining each chapter. Before long, I had 4 books laid out before me, waiting to be written.
Contrary to my concerns, writing as a planner didn’t stifle my creative process in the slightest. In truth, it gave me greater clarity and improved my storytelling.
This showed me definitively that there’s no right or wrong in the creative process.
There is no right or wrong in the creative process
Was I wrong to be a pantser as a writer? No. I created multiple works as a pantser, nearly half my overall current catalog, in fact. While I’ve shifted my fiction writing to the planner process, I still mostly write this and my other blogs as a pantser.
Yes, I know how long these posts will be, and I have a central topic driving the essay. But apart from that, I sit at the keyboard and construct these by the seat of my pants.
Hence, the creative process that goes into my writing takes both the form of a planner and a pantser. Planning, for me, has become quintessential to my fiction-writing process. Writing as a pantser is how I produce 3 blogs a week (and used to produce as many as 6 blogs a week).
The creative process will take any number of forms. Sometimes they’re improvisational, other times they’re deeply thought out, plotted, and structured. Still other times it occurs somewhere between these extremes. Either way, the creative process is what’s important. There is no right or wrong in the creative process.
The creative process is about the work
Believe it or not, you are a creative person. You might not make anything big and flashy, but you are a creative. How you create, no matter what you create, is not important. What matters is that you create and do your thing.
The world grows and evolves via creation. Despite messages to the contrary, creating builds better for more people. Denying, lessening, restricting, and every artificial form of lack, scarcity, and insufficiency does nobody any good at all. You are meant to create, and there is no right or wrong in the creative process.
Overall, right and wrong are artificial constructs. They reflect rules, laws, ideals, traditions, and the like imposed by people, governments, societies, and so on. While there are universal truisms of right and wrong – which I’m not going to cover here – most are grey and flexible.
There is no right or wrong to the creative process. There’s only creating or not creating. That’s what matters. The work that you do or don’t do.
Art is subjective. One person’s masterpiece is another’s garbage. Some people love sci-fi while some do not. They are neither right nor wrong because there is no right or wrong in the arts. It is via the creative process and all the forms it can take that we have all the types of art there are.
So, the next time you’re creating something, and wondering if your creative process is right or wrong, know that this is only a judgment you or outsiders will make. But there is, truly, no right or wrong to the creative process.
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, I conclude with this: How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?
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