Characterizing the Plotter

     I've always been a plotter.  I spend weeks or months planning and plotting and outlining and sketching and bullet point listing before I ever even start writing the story.  Then, when I'm 'ready' I start to write.  I've always felt like this worked for me.  I like to have things lined up before I dive in. I'm a toe dipper in the cold lake too.  So when I started plotting out my most recent novel, I got sort of stuck.  
     I'd been thinking about my main character for a long time.  I'd written a few sketches of her.  I knew where her strengths were, and her faults and weaknesses.  I had a fairly clear picture of what her arc of change would be.  The problem was, I didn't know the events of a 'story' to get her there.  But this character just kept pulling on me, wanting me to write about her.  So I did.  
     I started writing.  Without a plot.  Without an outline.  Well, I sort of had one, but I knew going in that is was weak.  I knew that there wasn't enough happening.  I knew the story would never work unless I came up with more action and excitement and adventure.  And I knew I didn't have that yet.  But I started writing anyway.
     An amazing thing happened.  As I wrote about Sal, the story plot revealed itself.  I knew exactly what was going to happen in the story to bring her traveling along her arc.  I'd actually written four chapters before I realized what the external plot would be.  I had to go back and insert it into those early chapters of course, but it worked.  A plotter like me actually did a little bit of pantsing.
     Here's what else is amazing.  I love this book.  I love this character.  I feel like as the writer, I understand her at a level I never have.  I feel like I let her tell her story, instead of me forcing a story onto her.  Maybe it's all part of my progression as a writer, but I feel like I've turned a corner in how I craft a book, and in how I understand a character.  
     These baby steps of progress for me create leaps of progress for my work.

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