Hey everybody, we're doing something a little different today. I am at Manie's house and we are so excited to do a collab together. As we were talking today, we were just finding out that I am a platter and she is a pancer, which I just blows my mind. Okay, I know that I talk about plotting a lot. So I was like, can I please pick your brain? And then what we're going to do is Manie is going to have a video on her channel, picking my brain about plotting. So this is going to be fine. So, Mandy, before we get into this, would you just tell Manie it's a little bit about yourself? Okay, so my name is Mandy Lynn. I also have a YouTube channel. I am the author of these three books. I've got Essence I Am Mercy and she's not here, which may or may not be out by the time this video goes up. And I also am the creator of all through to the Academy. And I just make a lot of YouTube videos. She does a lot of awesome stuff you guys. So if you're not already following her, which I'm sure a lot of you are, but if you're not already, you should definitely go check out her channel and all her wonderful books and offers. So anyway, are you excited? I'm excited. Okay. We haven't told each other what questions we're going to ask each other. So this should be interesting. My first question is, have you always been a pancer or have you ever tried more formal plotting before? Like, did you always know that you were a pancer? So I like, like I was saying earlier, I'm a planster. I do a little bit of both. Essence was a completely pants novel. I just sat down and started writing. I'm Mercy. I plotted out and then ignored it. The plot about halfway through. And then she's not here. You heard the very long-winded explanation. I would say that's a very much pants novel that about halfway through I started to plot, which is the backwards of what I did for I am Mercy. So I've done a lot of plotting and I just don't listen to the plotting. I do a lot of plotting in draft two. So I'd like, we'll write out chapter one, chapter two, what happens, but that's more just reference for myself. So if I forget, because I had the worst memory. So yeah, that's that story. Yeah, I'm sure. So like, when you're going through it, when you say like you do like a little bit of plotting here and there, it's almost like in your brain, or do you write anything out, or do you just like go for it, and then you're like, hey, I'm gonna write things out as I go. Like, what is that like? I'll either write it in a notebook or more commonly these days. It's either like a word document, like a working word document, where I delete, add, delete, add, because that's just how my brain works. Yeah, I go more fluid. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So second question is, what would you say are the biggest benefits of doing more of like heavy plants, planting, pancing? I'm gonna call it multiple, different things here. What are the benefits you would say and what are like the hardest points about it? For pancing. So the benefits for me at least is that when I, if I try to plot, I can only imagine my story going so far before I feel like I get stuck, because I feel like I really need to get into the head of the character and just start writing. And sometimes when I'm plotting, I get too excited to continue the plot where I just want to start writing. Whereas, pancing gives you that just the ability to just step right into the story and let the story and the characters do all the talking. So that's what I really like about it, but the downside is that sometimes you just get stuck where you write yourself into a corner and you don't realize it until it's too late. So then you have to go back and change things and fix things. So that's the biggest downside to plotting, pancing, sorry. Definitely not plotting. You don't get stuck when you're plotting. Well, I talk about that in your video. Sometimes you do. So in your process and you said it's sort of been different with each book, but how many drafts do you think you say you go through? Or is it, yeah, or each book, maybe how many drafts. Okay. So essence went through 10. I remember she went through like three or four. She's not here. It's very hard to count, because like I was saying earlier, I kept ditching drafts completely. So this is the fourth version of the story. Sure. It's maybe draft four of this version. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds about right. Okay. So how does editing work with the pants? Like because you're saying, because I know with me, with the plotting, we'll talk about this later, like I'm sort of going by my outline to them edit, but you're saying you have a lot of the story that's written, but not outlined. Do you do an outline after? Like what is that? So usually once I have like the book written, if I don't have to fix anything, like I was saying for she's not here, the first half of the story was a different story from the second half. So I had to go back and fix the first half. But if the story is cohesive, and saw the same story, what I do is that if I did have at least somewhat of an outline, I take that outline and I adjust it. So I actually outline my second draft. So I'll go in and I'll take chapter one. This is what happened in chapter one, chapter two. This is what happened. And I do that as I'm editing the book. That way, if I come to a point where I'm like, oh, did I mention this earlier is this a whoopsie I can look back a lot easier and kind of be able to spot if things are wrong, if things need to be fixed. And then it's also just really good, like for the third draft, fourth draft or whatever draft you're on, if you're like, oh, God, what happened? And then you can just look in your outline and be like, okay, that happened in chapter whatever. And then you can jump back to that chapter. Right. So there's more like plot heavies like after. Yeah, I'm just not I'm not good at being able to figure out what's going to happen. Once I know what's happening, I outline it, which is like really backwards, but it's what works for me and it works like pretty effectively. Right. Yeah. And sometimes, like I feel like I get stuck with the plotting, which again, we'll talk about, but like, yeah, it's like after I've written out a little bit more than it's like, oh, this makes sense. And then yeah, so sometimes it works backwards. So it makes you try guys. So with all of this, this is obviously we're talking about the area of your writing. But are you a answer or a planter in other areas of your life or it does like that overflow because we were just talking about our bulleturals guys, which I definitely want to do more videos on. I think Mandy should definitely do some videos on hers. But yeah, so you want to talk a little bit about that. So I'm a plotter when it comes to just about anything else. Oh, like serious plotter. So I was showing her my bullet journal because when it comes to YouTube, author, everything, my whole author link is in my bullet journal. Like everything is like documented. Like I work in marketing, digital marketing, where it's very much about the numbers and in the stats. So that's I track it like religiously. I try not to try it too much because you don't want to get caught up on it. But that's my bullet journal and then my like planner, my calendar slash planner. I have to do's for every day and I was showing her because it's a very messy planner that is scribbled all over but it's got so many stickers. It's got so many stickers. That's the best part. But yeah, so I'm a plotter when it comes to my life, panster when it comes to my books. Got it. Yeah. So any of you that are that watch my channel that are more of a panster, that's a cool question I'd love to know in the comments. Like are you a panster in your whole life or just in the area of writing? I'd love to know. Cool. So final question. Is there anything else that you'd like to share about panzing that we haven't talked about already or especially for anybody who is a serious plotter but might be thinking about hey like as many as talking I maybe want to try a little bit more panzing in my process. What would you say to them? I would just say I think there's huge benefits to panzing just because you do get to touch that I don't know not like uncharted but you can just go for it and let whatever you want happen happen. Like you really do let the characters do the talking. Like that's how she's not here like really shifted into the book it was because I let one of the characters do the talking and the story changed completely. Whereas if I tried to plot it which I was trying to do I couldn't make it work plotting so I just panced it and let let the story take its own shape. But I do think there's also benefits to plotting because then you don't get stuck. Like you don't drag yourself into a corner and then realize you have to restart the whole book which I've had to do multiple times. But it's all part of the process so we all have our own processes. Obviously I had my own process for each book because I am mercy I tried to religiously plot it but I gave up on the whole plot about halfway through the book because I'm like I want this to happen instead. So I think it's just being flexible with yourself and trying out different things is important. Right experimenting especially from book to book like you're saying you can't be different for every book. Yeah. Awesome. Cool. Many thank you so much for telling us a little bit about panzing and planting and all about your books and her new one coming out. It's in a hard cover. So guys um definitely check out Mandy's video now where she is going to interview me about plotting. So I'll have her channel and I'll have some of her other stuff linked below if you want to check that out. If you've gotten a lot out of this video definitely give it a like and subscribe and yeah we do lots of writerly things and also other platform stuff. So we hope to see you next week and until then have you ready. Do you let me show you guys. These are the bloopers guys. Also. Also. Also uh and also uh and also this is what happens. These are all the updates and also other platforms. That's what I want to say.