From my retreat --

As I look out, I see the wooden-railed back porch, and, from there, the lake. The sun on the choppy water makes the waves appear like shards of glass. I have been writing on my new novel for a while after making last-last-last minute edits on a previous novel while waiting for Richard to do a lookover at two more.

I had hoped to get more done today -- my usual daily goal is 2000 words; today is a 1000-word day unless I get a second or third wind. I've done good work though, on editing as well as starting a novel. I admit I had a head start though in terms of laying out the plot.

According to some writers I've run into at NaNoWriMo, there are three ways to go about writing a novel:

• Planning, or making a detailed outline;
• Pantsing, or writing almost stream of consciousness;
• or Plantsing, which is somewhere between the first two. 

I'm a Plantser. I don't want to use an outline so detailed that my novel has been written for me, nor do I just want to coast by the seat of my pants. (I did that for my first novel, which grew from a handful of short stories and a suggestion that I finally write the novel already. I've also edited and rewritten it N times, where N>5.)

So I had already plantsed this novel right before finals week. The titles of sections, chapters, and subchapters serving as my outline, and synopses of each piece serving as my plot reminder. This leaves me room to play with language and character -- I need to be surprised when I write.