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Michelle Ray's avatar

I plotted the crap out of my memoir, then wrote it accordingly. Once I finished and was ready to shape it into a manuscript, I “found” the arc and ended up cutting like 20,000 words and writing more. Good luck!

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Tom Gillard's avatar

I am definitely a panster, a free range chicken type of panster. I love following my creative urges wherever they take me. I feel like plotters are all the chickens inside the coop following all the writing rules. Rules that are not necessary out on the free range but essential if I want anyone besides me to read my memoir.

I have a 72,000 word rough draft of my memoir waiting for my attention. It has been on hold for many months now while I try to learn all the rules of the chicken coop.

The main problems with my rough draft are the scope of the story (40 yeas), POV consistency, and under development of key characters.

I have so much to learn. It is discouraging.

Meanwhile, short Substack articles from the free range beckon me to flee the coop and put the memoir rough draft on the shelf. For now, that is what I have chosen to do. A recent cancer diagnosis has also kept me from working on the much larger memoir project.

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