The process of extreme organization might be your fancy. If you have ten pinterest boards for each setting in your novel, a binder full of character profiles and maps of your worlds, and 15 GB of your hard drive dedicated to actor and actress pictures for inspiration, then you might be an Organizer.

It's definitely a great way to map everything out and avoid inconsistencies in your novel, while staying true to character voice and style. The downside to this type of process is that it's really easy to over prepare. If you find that you plan and plan and research and outline but never write a single sentence of the actual novel, then this may not be the process for you.

I talked with AndrewDWallin about his methods from idea inception to finished novel, and was blown away by how productive he is with his writing. In the very beginning, he says "I start brainstorming "cool stuff". I make a list of any cool stuff I can think of -- anything from a character quirk, a cool setting detail, a conflict..."wouldn't it be neat if" stuff. Just whatever. Not everything makes it into any given story, but a lot does in some way, shape or form."

That ends up working as the outline for his outline, where he joins together said 'cool stuff' into a story. He expresses the importance that his stories have an outer journey and an inner journey, as in general plot and character growth. He says: "For me, if a story doesn't have both an outer journey and an inner journey, then I have a very hard time writing. Without those two intertwined plot arcs, I have a really hard time writing a story because I feel like I'm wandering around blind."

This is a great example of a writer knowing their process, and what works for them. He's identified what keeps him inspired, keeps him working, and rocks the shit out of it.

After Andrew starts writing, he says that things are likely to change, morphing and changing from the original outline. But he says that he knows going in that the outline is fluid and will change. As things change during the draft he tweaks the outline as he writes.

What I found especially interesting about his process is that he said that he uses his first draft as a 'vomit draft' and then starts clean on the second. So by the time he's starting the second draft, he's created an outline for an outline, written a draft to tweak the outline, and then is using the new and improved outline to write the second draft. It seems like a hell of a lot of work, but I'm in awe of his organization and self-awareness. He admitted to sometimes using up to five drafts before he was happy with the finished product.

How can I get started with this process?

Andrew's advice is to start small, do a very short 1-2 sentence per major plot point kind of outline. He says, "An outline like that is kinda like shorthand pantsing a story." So if you're coming from a pantsing background that isn't working for you, then this is how you ease yourself into getting more organized!

What if this process isn't working for me?

It's possible you need a little chaos in your life! Maybe your outline is too strict, and you're too close to this vision you have for your novel. You see it like this perfect movie in your head, and when you write the words down, they don't give you that same vision.

There are two main possibilities to chew over when this happens.

One, stop being so fucking hard on yourself. Everyone is their own worst critic. There's a writer that I look up to a whole hell of a lot by the name of JennyTrout, and I've been following her blog for a long time. At some point in my voracious reading of her work, she wrote a blog post about how every writer looks at their own work and feels like it's amateurish.

All I could think was, holy shit, this amazing author who I idolize and respect looks at her stuff and thinks its amateurish? I love her writing. Her books are like, professional and shit. But nobody thinks like that about their own work. And no matter how objective you think you are, you're not really seeing it through the reader's eyes either.

So when you have this amazing Hollywood thing in your head, and you just can't seem to see it in your prose, chances are, your readers will! We haven't pored over these words for months. We haven't edited and edited and over-thought every scene from every angle. We're reading it for the first time, with fresh eyes, in awe of your brilliance and criticizing our own work for being amateurish and not as professional as yours. Trust me.

Bottom line to this problem is that you need to punt your confidence machine into work mode, and stop being afraid of your writing and just write. To borrow from bioshock2013, you're all good, G!

The second thing to think about, once you have your self-esteem mantras securely in place, is that you might just have overdone it with your story. This is the reason that I'm not an Organizer, because when I do too much planning I just get bored of the story and never want to write it. So it's possible that you're just burning yourself out on your story.

What can help with this is shaking it up a little bit. Maybe try taking your characters on vacation. Grab your main characters and open up a fresh document, and throw them into a random situation. Maybe your Gunslinger from Gilead is working at a small-batch coffee roastery and cafe in LA, and he just found out that he got that stripper from a few weeks ago pregnant. What would happen? Hijinks ensue!

Even if it's just a few hundred words, and you never do anything with it, try writing some alternate universe fanfiction for your characters to breathe new life into them. You know, if missionary is getting old try doggy to add some spice to your life.

Check out Part Three - The Hybrid for more ideas on adding some pantsing to your life.

Huge thank you to AndrewDWallin for letting me pick his brain and giving all of this valuable advice! Head on over to his profile and check out his book Trespasser!