Crafting a Story

By Jamie DeBree 2026/06/29 Weekly News, Writing Notes

Lately when I’ve been writing, it’s felt different than it used to. Not bad, not good, just…different. And after months of trying to figure out what shifted, exactly, I think I’ve figured it out.

I am, at my core, a “pantser” (or “discovery writer”, as the polite term seems to be). I like to discover the story as I write it, for the most part. But before when I did that, it still meant writing linearly, and just going where ever the story took me, then trying to clean that up enough for publication.

These days, I still do that, but I find that I “discover” the story better after a few false starts, and then even if I think I have a good idea of where they’re going, I seem to have to write my way into the “real story”, which involves a lot of writing into the weeds and back.

I kind of think I’ve always done that, but these days, I seem to find my way back to the road, and then have the arduous task of cutting out the fluff that I had to write while I was looking for the plot. Before, I wrote lean, and had to bulk up the stories (and admittedly didn’t always do that well). Now, I write a lot of fluff, have to cut, and then have to go back in and add the depth that I find illusive (mostly because the details are in my head, but I forget to put them on the page when I’m getting the important story bits out).

Needless to say, I feel more like I’m “crafting” when I’m writing these days. I start with a general idea of what I want to “make”, grab a bunch of random materials I think might work, start bending and gluing and cutting and putting things together, decide what I’m doing isn’t quite working, but then getting an idea for what might work better, rinse, repeat, and if I’m lucky, I end up with a complete story when I’m done (that still needs some embellishment because I’m always afraid to use too much glitter, lace and sequins).

It’s not nearly as efficient as just starting to write, following the characters from point A to however many points I feel like tagging along for, and then finding a satisfying ending point – done! But it is rather fascinating and gives me a sense of putting together a puzzle at the same time I’m eavesdropping on multiple therapy sessions.

I just wish I could do it faster, because I’d really like the satisfaction of *finishing* and *publishing* new stories on a more regular basis. But hopefully, as I get used to this new way of working, I’ll figure out how to streamline the process.

It would certainly go faster if I would stop taking on side-quests, and focus on the main storyline….

Alas, there are too many good story ideas in the world.

Until next time,

Jamie

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Tagged on: crafting, plots, process, story craft, words, writing