NOPs, OPs, and the Others

There are two kinds of authors: NOPs, OPs, and the Others. (Yes, that was three, and yes, that was intentional.)

I still classify them as two because the Others are a strange hybrid of the two, and often are as lost as OPs and as informed as NOPs. But I am getting wayyy ahead of myself!

There are several kinds of planning- none, some, and a lot. OPs don't plan at all. Others might. NOPs always do, so there's that distinction. But the way they plan is the real divider between the two categories.

OPs are Outlining People. They get an idea and nurture it until... well, until they think they're ready to plant it. That can be days, or years. Most of the time, it's years. Outliners tend to be perfectionists, so everything has to be just right before they can do anything with their story. They have their strengths: they can add a lot of depth, and then write faster because they have a plan. However, they may or may not add years to the writing process, and then changing the story, if need be, is a disaster. OP stories tend to be plot-oriented, since outside events are forcing the main character to do this or that.

Some use the basic pen and paper outlining method. One statistic said that the average outline length for a novel (80,000 words) is 50 pages. Wow! One way I've recently heard about is using notecards, summarizing key scenes on those and then keeping them handy for whenever. Sounds good to me.

J.K. Rowling spent 5 years outlining the Harry Potter series before she wrote a single scene or made a single penny. 5 YEARS. And look how she turned out! James Patterson tells any inexperienced writer to 'outline, outline, outline', and Christopher Paolini did just that- and became a bestselling author at 17.

Then there are the NOPs. Some people call them 'seat of the pants' writers, because they just sit down and crank out a story. They just need one snippet to start- they take an idea and run with it. The benefit is that this is much simpler- hey, no need to waste paper and time outlining! One mystery author said "My readers are discovering the story for the first time- why don't I get that same suspense?" However, that same author admitted to scrapping the first 200 pages of a novel because it had been blabbering- without a plan, she didn't know where to go with her story. NOP stories tend to be character driven, since the character is what ultimately decides what happens. It's her story, anyway.

Horror legend Stephan King is a seat of the pants writer. It's no biggie- just be aware that the NOPs have their own problems.

And then there are the Others. The people who don't fit into either category.

I'm one of those people. 

Fine, fine, I'll admit it. I walk a fine line between both. I'm neck deep in my second major book (Traitors!,  The Chronicles of the Keepers) (name is a maybe) (that's a definite maybe) and I never finished my outline. I got, oh, a third of the way down the first page? To be honest, I didn't know how to outline five plot lines simultaneously, and I didn't know what to put in that outline. I knew the beginning, the backbone of the middle, and the end.

That was it.

That didn't stop me. I wrote what I knew and then started pulling things off the top of my head, whatever fit. So... am I an outliner, since I knew some of the story, or not, because I didn't know large portions of the middle?

I'm one of the Others.

My first book is definitely plot-oriented; Kohath, my main character, really has no choice in anything that happens to him. The second book, however, leans toward character driven, since I relied heavily on what I thought they would do next.

My next book, The Silver Knight, Book 1 of the Chronicles of the Keepers, (yes, I wrote them out of order. I didn't do enough back story, not enough planning. How ironic.) I'm going to try to outline. I've already started two pen and paper outlines, but now I think I'll try my hand at the notecard method. Wish me luck!

Are you a NOP, an OP, or one of the Others?