Hello, fellow creatives!
I’m thrilled to introduce today’s guest blogger Kathie Giorgio, author of eight novels, two story collections, an essay collection, and four poetry collections. Her latest novel, Don't Let Me Keep You, explores the nuances of motherhood through the lens of family dynamics. You can find more about Kathie and her newest book at the end of this post!
As we dive into National Novel Writing Month, a time when writers across the globe come together for word count challenges and the shared experience of a typically solitary pursuit, I thought it would be exciting to invite an author who knows a thing or two about turning an idea into a finished book. Today, Kathie weighs in on one of the most debated questions in writing: To plot or not to plot?
Enjoy!
~Kaecey
Plotter or Pantser?
by Kathie Giorgio
Whenever someone asks me if I’m a plotter or a pantser, or sometimes they use George R.R. Martin’s terms of 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. George 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.
"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."
In my own reality, I am all of these. I practice 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 it to be. 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 antique 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. To circumvent this, I decided the final story of the collection would be all about James, hoping that would settle this character down as he impatiently waited for his turn. But he kept pushing his way in, the scenes between stories growing longer and longer and more complex. Eventually, the entire novel 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 2011.
"If I’d fiercely stuck with my idea, my plan, my blueprint, I would have lost the book."
If I’d fiercely stuck with my idea, my plan, my blueprint, 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, or architect, 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. Before I officially put down the first word of 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 before the next draft.
"Now that I know the end, I can sit down, before I even start the second draft, and build a map."
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 often discover incredible things in these 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.
"When that imagination wind shows up again and blows my plotter hat off, I often discover incredible things in these subsequent drafts, things I would have missed if I stayed strictly with the road map. "
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. And both. But ultimately…I’m a writer.
Let’s hit the open road!
About Kathie
Kathie Griogio has written fifteen books, including novels, short story collections, essays, and poetry collections. 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, and her work has also been incorporated into many visual art and musical events.
Kathie is the director and founder of AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop LLC, an international creative writing studio.
She lives with her husband, mystery writer Michael Giorgio, and their daughter Olivia, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Three of her adult children, Christopher, Andy, and Olivia, live close by, along with her solo granddaughter, Maya Mae. One adult child has wandered off to Louisiana and lives among the mathematicians and alligators.
You can follow Kathie on:
Her website: http://www.kathiegiorgio.org
X/Twitter: @KathieGiorgio
Instagram: @kathiegio1
About the Book
Motherhood is a symphony, from the first movement, through crescendo after crescendo, to the finale.
Hildy Halverson, a genius in math and science, is pushed by her parents to step into a male-dominated field and change the world for women. But Hildy, enamored of the scientific force of the human body, and her own body’s ability to create and sustain life, decides to go against contemporary expectations. She marries young and raises a houseful of kids.
Hildy wants her children to choose their own life paths. As each child is born, she tells them, “You can be whatever you want to be, and whatever you want to be will be great.” Despite her efforts to not influence her children, Hildy does so, often in unexpected ways. Each child is introduced in that first private moment between Hildy and her new baby. This is followed by a chapter revealing that child’s life, years later. Woven throughout is an underlying grief over the death of the sixth baby soon after birth. That grief is more pervasive than any of them expect.
In this ambitious novel, the struggles and joys, fatigue and exhilaration of motherhood, are captured in the full panorama of family life. Hildy lovingly raises her children, then lets them go, finding herself along the way.
Title: Don't Let Me Keep You
Author: Kathie Giorgio
Publisher: Black Rose Publishing (October 3, 2024)
Print length: 230 pages
Purchase a copy of Don’t Let Me Keep You on:
You can also add this to your GoodReads reading list!
What Others Are Saying About the Book:
Don’t Let Me Keep You is a lyrical meditation on motherhood seven times over, gestating, unfurling with rhythmic, poignant prose. Over decades we see each of the Halversons through the eyes of the others, bringing into sharp focus how differently each member can experience the same family. The way children protect their mothers, the way mothers remain children themselves, and what a mess we can still make of things despite our best intentions. That we can choose to love each other regardless of who we turn out to be, no matter what.
–Maggie Ginsberg, author of Still True
Don’t Let Me Keep You follows a math prodigy’s unconventional and slightly obsessive journey through motherhood. Giorgio’s dynamic characters and complex emotional bonds turn this family saga into a propulsive page turner wherein motherhood as a career is an empowering choice. At once gritty, heartbreaking, and hopeful, Don’t Let Me Keep You shows the fallibility of the human condition through the haunting eyes of a mother’s love as she struggles with the age-old question, Am I a good mother?
–Marisa Rae Dondlinger, author of Open and Come And Get Me
"With delightful finesse, author Kathie Giorgio weaves a flawless web of family love that weathers plenty of storms, but still comes out shimmering. " ~Mary Ann Noe, author of Water the Color of Slate
The thing I love about Kathie Giorgio's books are the surprises. Her books are not like anyone's. They are fresh, unique, and wonderful. Don't Let Me Keep You is all that and more. This is a story about motherhood, childhood and family. Belonging, expectations, and the enduring power of love. Of course, because this is Kathie's novel, there is poetry, and vignettes. A cast of characters worth knowing. And many opportunities to reflect on our lives as parents and children. I highly recommend Don't Let Me Keep You.
–Karen E. Osborne, Author of True Grace and Reckonings
Have you read Don't Let Me Keep You? Or do you have thoughts on pantsing vs. plotting? Let me know by sending me a message or an email!
Happy Reading & Happy Writing!
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