I'm a plotter, in a pantser kind of way laugh

When I started doing fanfic, I'd just grab a premise, start writing, and see what happened. But over time, and with me starting to write longer stories, I found that I really like having a plot outline laid out before I start. Not to mention I was getting tired of writing the beginnings of stories and then not being able to end them.

I don't do really detailed outlines, but I do want to have an overall road map, and then as I go, I might sketch out the next few upcoming scenes with more detail. It helps me organize my thoughts. smile

I had a discussion with my husband the other day, touching on plots -- his understanding of A-plot (in a tv-show context) is just the one plotline that gets the most attention, with B-plot being the secondary story. Obviously, we don't use the terms that way around here smile I'm guessing that's because when the show was on the air, the plot that got the most screen time and attention was always the villain/action/crisis of the week, with the relationship stuff not getting as much time. Jimmy and/or Perry often had their own C-plots, too, with only a few moments here and there. But in fanfic, especially back in '95, when I started writing it, the relationship stuff was *the* focus of our attention <g> So the idea of "relationship = B-plot" kinda stuck, even when the B-plot part was really an A-plot. If you see what I mean goofy

PJ

"You told me you weren't like other men," she said, shaking her head at him when the storm of laughter had passed.
He grinned at her - a goofy, Clark Kent kind of a grin. "I have a gift for understatement."
"You can say that again," she told him.
"I have a...."
"Oh, shut up."

--Stardust, Caroline K