News From A Pantser

I’m a pantser. In writer-speak, it just means that I write by the “seat of my pants” rather than by following an outline. Outline followers are called “plotters.” Writers tend to live and let live regarding how we work. As long as we produce dynamic characters and develop plots, the process doesn’t matter.

But as a pantser, I’m dependent on my characters and how they choose to progress. If they decide to take some time off, I can either work on a different project or go back to the beginning of the book and start a rewrite.

I’m working on an initial draft/rewrite for book 7 of The Rose Collection. I started the novel with a character I’ve featured in other novels, Sylvie Stade. In book 6, The Art of Persisting, she loses the only home she’s ever known when Camp Galilee is sold, and she relocates to her parent’s hometown of Rhodes, California (the setting for much of book 1, Plague of Lies).

Sylvie also registers at a new school—the same Christian school her parents had attended. Since Sylvie had homeschooled while she lived at Camp Galilee in Crystal Falls, she was used to setting her own schedule and enjoyed the protection of parents who knew that just because someone was in ministry, it didn’t necessarily mean they were trustworthy. At the first real school she’s ever attended, Sylvie confronts bullying for the first time.

Sylvie’s voice is strong, and I love writing about her, but halfway through the novel, I realized I was missing a voice. This happens to me a lot as I write. I have a second story demanding to be told. In this case, I knew exactly who needed to speak — Sylvie’s mother, Denise.

Denise is special to me. She first appeared in book 1 and reappeared in book 3, No Longer Invisible, when she shared her story with the FMC, Julia Rose Williams. Denise is fearless. She speaks openly about her past victimization and her determination to keep any other teen ever experiencing abuse by a trusted church leader. She’s become a success as a businesswoman who uses her economic freedom to help abuse victims and provide for her family.

Her husband, Topher, is taking over the pastorate of the church they used to attend — and the scene of the crime committed against Denise. The goal of the couple is to change how the local church views women while exposing the dangerous teachings that enable abuse. When the family arrives to join the ministry, they discover that a church split has reduced the number of members. And not all who remain welcome change. Denise discovers that bullying doesn’t only occur in schools.

Even though I’m in the early stages, the emotional weight is already evident in the story. The issues surrounding women serving in the church are not new, and those matters begin to take root early in a young woman’s life. Sylvie’s Bible teacher and her coach go out of their way to treat their female students as inferior to their male students. Denise faces nearly the same struggles as she establishes her place as a staff instructor at the new church.

It is hard to stand up to what has “always” been accepted as church teaching.  It is even more difficult to be overlooked, unheard, and even despised simply for being a woman longing to serve in the local church.

I’ve got about ten more chapters to write (by the seat of my pants, of course), and then the months of rewrites and begin. Denise and Sylvie will say their piece and reflect the stories of other women who want nothing more than to exercise the gifts God has given them.