Think about your favorite writers—the ones you return to time and time again—and I’ll bet you can identify certain thematic predilections they have. They return to certain concepts, even in stories that are otherwise very different from each other. Because they can’t help themselves. I’m no different, though it’s taken hindsight to make my pet-themes […]

Okay, plotting isn’t pantsing. I know I just implied that plotting was pantsing way up there in the title. But what I really wanted to say is that I don’t think the distinction is as vast as the common wisdom would have us believe, and here’s why. Plotters pant(s?) their outlines. Admit it: you thought […]