Discovery, Surprise, and Fun When Writing

I am neither a plotter nor a pantser when I write my books, yet I do both.

Plotters blueprint their stories with outlines; pantsers don’t. Authors who don’t outline, “walk with their characters and listen to what they have to say,” to paraphrase William Faulkner.

As a mostly-writes-short-stories author, I don’t outline my plots but begin with an idea. I like surprises and going off in tangents along the way to see where the story will lead me. Sometimes I come to a dead-end and have to backtrack to a fork in the road and take a different path. I’m never daunted—the procedure is always revealing and fun. This explains why I don’t publish as often as other authors.

Novellas and novels are more about characters and less about plot. Since I write the occasional novella (I’m still banging away at the novel), I outline my characters and get to know the major characters better than I know myself. Unfortunately, it takes away the element of surprise (and therefore the discovery) when putting such predictable characters on the page. I have scrapped using some of these characters in favor of new ones whom I can walk with and listen to. Characters who are less detailed to me are like newly met people. As we get acquainted, they reveal their secrets. For me, that’s what writing books is about: the discovery. It makes the journey more fun that way.

I’m in the middle of my third Ridgewood Chronicles book, which has three longer-than-usual short stories about Vree Erickson. I know her very well—too well—and have scrapped parts of her bio to bring back those elements of surprise and discovery. I’m also trying out different plots, which has set back my planned finish date of October. Dare I say December?

Thanks for reading today’s blog.

As always, peace and love everyone. And be sure to read my books and explore my artwork.

Steve, 9/19/2025

This post “Discovery, Surprise, and Fun When Writing” copyright © 2025 Steven Leo Campbell at stevecampbellcreations.com – All rights reserved.