7 Comments
User's avatar
Jamie B.'s avatar

Stoker's writing process is so fascinating! As a dedicated plotter (the thought of pantsing gives me a headache), I find his early notes quite relatable.

Monica Van Fleet's avatar

Same! I'm also a plotter. Bram's notes made him feel so much more relatable to me.

Jamie B.'s avatar

Yeah, it's so cool to see how messy his notes were. Makes me feel better about my messy notes, lol.

S. L. Linton's avatar

As I go through my own planning process (for the first time), knowing Stoker's method is really helpful.

Monica Van Fleet's avatar

I'm so glad! The process really was a revelation, for me. Starting with some deep work on your antagonist and their goals makes so much sense. It gives you so much built in conflict to play with.

E.R.Dyal's avatar

Thank you for explaining "pansters", cause I was too scared what was going to pop up on Google. Now I'm just scared it will apply to me, since all my teachers could not get me to make outlines. I can't do it.

That said, once I get started on a story, its up in my head 24/7 unfolding. God help me I have not learned to carry around a notebook to jot down quotes and scenes, so I'm stuck with scrapes upon scrapes of paper. If anyone tries to recover my thought process in the future, the conclusion will be uniformly, "Oh, they were ADHD alright."

Monica Van Fleet's avatar

lol! I always explain jargon because I think jargon is kind of bullshit. I'm glad it helped and this comment made me lol.

The right way to write your story is whatever *you* find comfortable and effective. If it doesn't work for you, throw it out.