I love this picture. It’s the plains of the Bowland Forest in Bleasdale England. I took it myself the day we visited the area. In fact, I love this picture so much it might actually be the cover of the next book! But don’t hold me to that. As I learned when writing my first book, The Gathering Room - A Tale of Nelly Butler, sometimes what I think is going to happen, isn’t exactly how it turns out in the end.

Let’s talk about this picture for just a minute. What dominates the photo is the hill in the background. This hill is called Fair Snape Fell and you’d do well to remember it along with the notch you can see in the ridge right about in the center!! So far it’s playing a very prominent role in the first 10 chapters of Book 2 (yes I’ve written 10 chapters already! That’s 17,000 words!) Strangely until I traveled to England and stood on this plain and saw this area for myself, I really had no intention of Fair Snape Fell even being in the next book! Oh I had seen it’s name on Google Maps. Thought it was a quirky little name in a British sort of way. Thought it might be cool to include the name somehow but I honestly didn’t plan on writing much about the area that sits in the shadow of Fair Snape Fell, let alone 10 chapters worth!! And yet….here we are!

Recently I was talking with someone about how my day spent writing had unfolded and she said to me “I just find the whole process fascinating.” That really caught me off guard, because “writing” just comes so naturally to me I don’t think of it as a process let alone one that someone would find fascinating! I just sit down and I write. I literally sit in front of my computer and watch the story unfold in my mind and I write what I see. Which I learned makes me a Panster. What is a Panster? A Panster is a writer who has little to no outline for their book. They just have an idea and start writing. They write by the seat of their pants!!

Many writers draft out how their story will unfold. Some do storyboards, fill the walls of their offices with how each scene will play out. Others use index cards or spreadsheets. There are as many different ways of drafting a story as there are writers writing them. Unless of course you are a Panster. Then you just sit down and write. That’s exactly what I do…I just write. For those that know me personally you know I’m an extremely organized person. I take organization to a cosmic level! Everything in my “real” life is orderly, efficient and structured. I am the Queen of Lists!! Everything I do has to be laid out in a List first! I start my day each morning by making a list of what I need to do that day! So how is that I don’t write that way? I have no idea.

Before I started writing Book 2, which will be the prequel to The Gathering Room - A Tale of Nelly Butler, I had a vague idea of what the story would be about. I was aware of the ancient timber circle located in Bleasdale England and knew that I definitely wanted to incorporate that in someway. I knew I wanted to fictionalize the fascinating real lives of the Blaisdell family from their origins in Bleasdale England to their arrival in what would become the State of Maine. And I knew that in doing so it might help explain how Lydia Blaisdell found herself at the center of what would become the first documented ghost sighting in America, or at least in a fictional way. But what that was actually going to look like…I had no idea! I honestly believed and still believe as I’m currently writing, that it will unfold just exactly as it’s supposed to. Is that a little weird and supernatural in it’s own way? Oh probably!

Take Fair Snape Fell for instance and the ancient timber circle that would have sat in the foreground. My original thought for Book 2 was that I would mention the ancient circle in a prologue. I would use a prologue to kind of lay the ground work that the Blaisdell family has this mystical origin that stems from this ancient circle. A couple of pages at most, then the rest of the entire book would be about their journey out of England and across the ocean to the new world. Well here I am 10 chapters and 17,000 words later and I’m still on the plains of the Bowland Forest! That’s a pretty big prologue!! The story has unfolded into a much deeper, more gut wrenching understanding of the family origins and their connection to that circle and Fair Snape Fell. Any thoughts of a prologue are now out the window!

So what’s it like to actually write as a Panster? I’ll give you an example. Tell me this doesn’t give you the chills! It did me! This week I was writing about the main character standing in the ancient circle. I can literally see it in my mind. The plain similar to the picture above only with these giant timbers driven into the ground to create the circle. As the character is standing within the circle, the sun rises over Fair Snape Fell. As it breaks the ridge the beam of sunlight shines through the notch in the center and directly into the ancient circle, similar to what we know about Stonehenge on the Solstice. It’s an awesome sight and my fingers are flying across the keyboard trying desperately to accurately describe what I’m seeing when all of a sudden, in my mind, the beam of light shines on an ancient symbol carved into one of the timbers. Wait! What? Where did that come from? An ancient symbol? I did not plan this. Of course I didn’t I’m a Panster, I just write. I don’t know anything about ancient symbols!! I push back my laptop and stare at the screen. What kind of symbol? What does it mean? How will that play out in the overall story? Who’s idea was this??

Hahahaha I’m not kidding you, that is exactly how it happened. Life as a Panster! I write what I see! So dear Readers, it appears that we now have an ancient symbol that will more then likely weave its way through the whole story! I’ll give you a hint….in some ways it resembles a ring!