Gardener vs. Architect

Erebus is going to be my first novel. The process has been exhilarating to say the least. Because this is my first work of fiction, I've been playing around with different ways to write the story. Even once I'm finished, I don't think I'll know my exact approach to writing books. In fact, I have a strong feeling that'll change with each book I write. 

I think George R.R. Martin put it best when comparing the two approaches with "gardeners" and "architects." I'm definitely in the gardener category.  I wrote the first draft of Erebus from start to finish without any outlining. In between drafts, I created an outline based on what I wrote and already I am far from that outline. 

And that's the thing with outlines, they are meant to be broken. For me, it's a useful tool to see how scenes are structured. But by no means am I married to them. New characters have already found their way into the stories, old ones have vanished into the background. It's exciting seeing a story take on a life of its own. 

Not everything is seat of the pants writing (although that first draft very much felt like that). I have goals. Things are placed with intent and I'm kind of just seeing where the story takes it. If it doesn't work, well, I end up revising. And that's okay. I've already had to rewrite the first two chapters of the second draft because a character found their way into the story and created a sub-plot that just didn't fit the rest of the story. 

Anyway, I found that very interesting from Martin, and considering I'm giving A Song of Ice and Fire another read, I wanted to share this.