Lisa Shearin National bestselling fantasy adventure

photo credit: Photography by Jimmy Allen Photography

Author Biography

I'm the author of the fantasy adventure series featuring Raine Benares, a finder of things lost and people missing.
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Influences

David Eddings, Raymond Feist, Terry Brooks, Raymond Chandler, Donald Westlake, Dashell Hammett

Favorite Books

Jim Butcher -- The Dresden Files, David Eddings -- The Mallorean and The Elenium series, Terry Brooks -- The Shannara series and The Knight of the Word series, Raymond Feist -- All of his Midkemia books, Stephen Donaldson -- A Man Rides Through and The Mirror of Her Dreams,
Glen Cook -- The Garrett Files,
Tad Williams -- To Green Angel Tower, Stone of Farewell, The Dragonbone Chair,
Scott Lynch -- The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies,
Tom Clancy -- Rainbow Six and some of his Op-Center books,
Rex Stout -- His Nero Wolfe Series,
Tess Gerritsen -- The Mephisto Club and The Keepsake,
Janet Evanovich -- Her Stephanie Plum series,
Dan Brown -- The DaVinci Code, Angels & Demons,
Margaret Maron -- Her Deborah Knott series,
Ilona Andrews -- Magic Bites and Magic Burns,
Rob Thurman -- Nightlife, Moonshine, and Madhouse,
Jayne Anne Krentz -- Sizzle & Burn and White Lies,
Stacey Klemstein -- Eye of the Beholder and The Silver Spoon,
Linnea Sinclair -- Down Home Zombie Blues, Games of Command, Gabriel's Ghost, Shades of Dark,
Connie Willis -- Doomsday Book,
Umberto Eco -- The Name of the Rose and Focault's Pendulum,
Raymond Chandler -- The Big Sleep,
Dashell Hammett -- The Maltese Falcon,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Sherlock Holmes series,
C.S. Lewis -- Mere Christianity,
Patricia Cornwell -- Kay Scarpetta series,
Donald Westlake -- Put a Lid on It, The Hot Rock, Money for Nothing,
Laurell Hamilton -- Guilty Pleasures, The Lunatic Cafe, Bloody Bones, The Killing Dance, The Laughing Corpse, Circus of the Damned, Obsidian Butterfly,
Katherine Kurtz -- The Adept series,
I also read medieval and Renaissance history, weapons, and historical biographies.

Favorite Authors

Jim Butcher, David Eddings, Raymond Chandler, Dashell Hammett, Donald Westlake, Terry Brooks, Ilona Andrews, Rob Thurman, Laurell Hamilton, Linnea Sinclair, Margaret Maron, Janet Evanovich, Rex Stout, Glen Cook, Tess Gerritsen, Tom Clancy

What I'm Reading

The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama, Burn Notice: The Fix by Tod Goldberg, Gabriel's Ghost by Linnea Sinclair, Dead Beat by Jim Butcher

Web Links

Plot a book? Or fly by the seat of your pants?

by Lisa Shearin

May 13, 2009, 4:09 am

It's constantly debated in writing circles, and every author has their favorite method. Write a full plotline before beginning, or write the book by the seat of your pants?

Me? I like the security blanket of a full plot outline. That being said, I usually stick to the basic framework of whatever plot outline I come up with, but it changes. Once I get into a book, new and better ideas pop up and push aside what I thought would have worked back when I was writing the synopsis. And yes, once you're published, a synopsis (or outline) is required for your agent to send to your editor to sell the next book(s). This is usually accompanied by the first three chapters of the book. But after my second book with Anne Sowards (my editor at Ace Books), she's fine with just a synopsis. She knows that I can deliver the book and doesn't need sample chapters to tell her that.

However, for Bewitched & Betrayed, the plot outline that I sent to Anne was pretty sketchy, like an Impressionist painting -- you could tell what the book would look like, but the details were kinda left up to the imagination. Yep, B&B is being written by the seat of my pants and I think it's going very well. The same was true with Armed & Magical. I had a detailed plot outline, but after determining that it didn't work, I ditched the entire thing and wrote the book from scratch based on a one-paragraph synopsis. It was my first National Bestseller.

So what is the best way? Plotter? or Pantster? Most authors, including myself, will tell you that it's a combination of both. It's good (and I believe necessary) to know approximately where your book will end, but there are plenty of ways to get there (much like a roadtrip). Don't go too far off the beaten trail, but don't be afraid to take a couple of interesting-looking left turns.
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