On being a pantser + publishing Valeria is an Alien

I haven’t written news here since May, which doesn’t mean nothing is happening … On the contrary, too much is happening, leaving little time to write updates.

Valeria is an alien – book cover and Kickstarter page now live!

First and foremost: I’m ready to publish my second book, Valeria is an alien.

The campaign goes live on Monday 21 September. Once you create an account on Kickstarter (click “Notify me on launch”), you’ll be able to support the book and pledge for a reward. You can pledge as little as £10 for the e-book, all the way to £100 for the top tier, including a VIP invite to the book launch party. 

I welcome all contributions, big or small – the Kickstarter campaign is still the best way to cover the direct costs of producing the book.

I love the cover. It was prepared by a designer based in Belgrade, who also created the cover for The Seed Vault. What do you think? It conveys the mood of the novel, described as “a black comedy about gender”. It’s not your regular romantic comedy, mind you – but there is a love story somewhere in there.

Valeria is an alien - book cover

On being a pantser

Creative writers usually fall into one of two categories: planners or pantsers. Planners like to outline a story before they start writing it. This can include a summary of chapters, key moments and beats in the story, and even an outline of what happens chapter by chapter. Pantsers, on the other hand, prefer NOT to plan much in advance, and discover the story as they write it.  

I tend to bounce between these two opposites in a conflicting way. Usually, in my day-to-day, I’m much more towards planning. This is considered a personality flaw in Southern Europe, but surprisingly well accepted in the UK. I don’t like surprises, and I’m good at visualising and projecting something before it happens.

In fact, planning brings me comfort and joy, as boring as it sounds. I enjoy the action of preparing, the anticipation of knowing what’s coming, and the outcome of completing it (assuming we’re planning something nice – not, say, a funeral). Whether we’re talking about work, social life, or creative projects, if I care about the job and it’s within my control, I will make a good effort to plan it in advance, and I will feel accomplished once the plan is executed. Plan, tick, next.     

So yes, my natural inclination is to plan what’s going to happen in a novel. However, to my absolute horror, every time I tried this, I lost the motivation to write it.

I had to take an alternative approach.

For books that rely heavily on worldbuilding (The Seed Vault, Hidden Planets), I research extensively, spending many hours reading scientific articles, sketching theories, and speculating about potential scenarios. This keeps my planning pangs at bay.

Alongside this research effort, I write about the world and the characters, and I think about potential plots. Crucially, I don’t commit anything to a structure, and certainly not a chapter plan (ugh). It’s more like a general map in my head, which guides me when I start writing, but doesn’t prescribe much. The characters are still in charge of the plot, and the research simmers in the background to reveal itself in interesting ways.

For books that require less worldbuilding, like Valeria or my latest book (The Wanting Machine – more about that later!), it’s even simpler. I start with an idea, two or three bullet points about what the book is about, and little else.

Writing Valeria is an alien was a virtual rollercoaster – super fun, and it felt like it was going on rails for most of the time, although I clearly couldn’t see the rails (they were somewhere under the wagon, and I was too focused on the story to notice them).

The story started with three bullet points, and despite my lack of planning and research (the exact opposite of the creative process for The Seed Vault), the characters and the gender topic were so alluring and fascinating that they almost wrote themselves. I researched the science in more detail only when particular scenes required technical scaffolding.

Another difference was worldbuilding – placing Valeria in London made it a lot easier to write. In terms of plot, I didn’t have much beyond the book title (well, is she?). At the end of each chapter, a hook presented itself naturally, making me come back to the story with growing curiosity. What’s going to happen now? I had no idea. And yet, it all made sense in the end.

Despite my approach, I’m in awe of planners. It’s a wonderful skill, being able to plan a story meticulously, and bring it to fruition. It might still take several drafts, of course, but it’s admirable. How can they do it? I wish my brain didn’t have a constant (sometimes warped and misguided) need for novelty.

Being a pantser doesn’t sound like an achievement. If anything, it feels like cheating. It’s as if I’m not putting any effort into figuring out what I want to write. However, yes, the editing process does bring some discipline and tidiness to the initial draft, shaping it into a story that sounds as though it had been planned from the beginning.

I’m embracing it – in creative writing, I’m a pantser. I didn’t plan for this to happen.