Plotting and Pantsing

Plotting and Pantsing

Channelled WritingAre You a Plotter or a Pantser?

Last month I came across this question for the first time and had no idea what it meant at first. I came across it in an author’s forum which gives a small clue. It asks if you, as an author, plot your book in detail and then write it in linear sequence. Alternatively, do you just make it up as you go along?

It made me think about my approach and, at first, I thought I am a wearer of the pants. On reflection, I thought, “No I do have a plot, most of the time at least.”

Then the answer came to me. The question itself is flawed in my opinion and suggests than you can only choose one as your approach. Rather than an EITHER/OR approach, what I have done most recently gives the best of both worlds, by plotting and outlining a course AND/BOTH flying by the seat of my pants!

Soulwaves Soulwaves : A Future History

With my first novel, I had the main plot line nailed down for many years (15 or so) but not the very ending. The last and 100th chapter only came to me when I was writing chapter 98 or so.

The main plot chronicles the years from 2058 to 2109, when all life on earth is wiped out. That by the way is not a spoiler as it’s not the end or point of the book.

What lifted the main plot line was interspersing and intertwining the linear narrative, based in The Density, with a viewpoint from an other-worldly perspective from what I called The Void. This gives both depth and context in both space and time. The implication is an age-old concept that there is more to heaven and earth that we can possibly know and understand. The second plot line was completely ‘pants’!

By way of exploration, this ambient track takes readers to a place where they can actually experience what it’s like to be in The Void and observe the goings on in The Density.

Return to the Void

by Töm Evans | from the Soulwaves Ambient Album

Soulwaves Insertions iPadSoulwaves : Insertions

So this second book is bound in length by the number 12, with each short story inspired by the numerology of each number from 1 to 12. This then spills over to the 12 ambient tracks and the meditations inspired by each short story.

The overarching plot tells both the pre- and post-history of humankind. In a Cloud Atlas kind of way, some characters appear and re-appear down the timelines – as is the way with things.

Chapters 1 to 6 and chapters 11 and 12 were planned, in outline only, and plotted from the outset. Chapters 7 through to 10 only appeared in meditation on the days I’d planned in my diary when they were coming to meet me. So this book is mostly 2/3rds plotted and 1/3rd ‘panted’.

When it comes to the ambient album and the meditations, the ideas for them only start appearing after I delivered the previous track. Listeners experience how they build on each other and get more complex and audacious at the same time. Like the third book in the series, they are exclusively available to subscribers.

Have a listen to Insertion 1 : The Scroll and see if you can spot which elements I plotted in advance and what might have arrived ‘off the top of my head’.

 

The Scroll

by Töm Evans | Insertion 1

Soulwaves The Duadex ShadowSoulwaves : The Duadex

With the third book in the anthology, I am 75% in pants mode, running along with a loose 25% framework of a plot. As it is largely based millions of years into the future, on planets with weird and wonderful life forms, too rigid a plot would strangle the wilder fantasies and flights of the imagination.

The book is being serialised, in a Charles Dickens manner, as an audiobook exclusively to subscribers but I am thrilled to share one of the more bizarre chapters publicly here for the first time.

I hope these three different samples of my work show you how you can plot and pant at the same time. This mixed and selective approach, at the very least, works for me.

Active Channelling

For most of my non-fiction works, there is a rigid, mind-mapped structure which is populated with scribings done in the meditative state. Some call this channelling.

In my free course, How to Channel Your Book, I explain the difference between passive and active channelling. On reflection, active channelling is the plotting AND pantsing state. The only difference being that you bring an external intelligence and guiding hand into the mix. If you listen to The Duadex, you will hear concepts which have not from me but through me. The latest chapter that I’ve shared here, on where the first 12 Duadexes get delivered, is a good example of that.

Get access to the How to Channel Your Book course here

 

Seeding

by Töm Evans | Chapter 16 of The Duadex

Cataracts of the Third Eye

Cataracts of the Third Eye

Tom Evans CataractEarlier this week, as I shook the hand of the eye surgeon, Mr Simon Horgan, after having the second of two cataracts removed, I said, “No more eyes to do then”.

As soon as I said this, I realised that we all possess a Third Eye, also known as the pineal gland, or master gland. What’s more, it is easy to harbour or develop a cloudiness of vision in our Third Eye too. It’s also easy to remove it and to do this without any surgery.


cataractCauses

Cataracts in our ‘optical’ eyes are caused by a degeneration in the clarity of the lens. The primary cause of clouding of the lens is thought to be exposure over time to ultraviolet light, but it’s also thought that it can be brought on by smoking and diabetes. By the age of 80, around 40% of Americans have lens replacements. In the developing world, where treatment is not readily available, it is one of the leading causes of blindness.

Lack of clarity in our ‘knowing’ third eye similarly has many causes:

  • A sense of isolation and seperate-ness
  • A cynical and sceptical outlook
  • Excessive ‘self-talk’

Symptoms

So how do you know if your Third Eye is not ‘seeing’ well?

  • You feel lost or directionless
  • You can’t see the wood from the trees
  • You feel that the world is out to get you

Third Eye and CrownBenefits of a clear Third Eye

When we open our Third Eye, it is like gaining a new super-sense. It is also worth pointing out that René Descartes believed the pineal gland to be the principal seat of the soul. When it is clear, we get:

  • Clarity of vision
  • Improved claircogniscence and clairvoyance
  • An opening to channel

Cures

Fortunately the cure for ‘third eye impairment and blindness’ is relatively simple and painless. It involves two stages:

Firstly, recognising the role and existence of the third eye as a location for super-sensory awareness.

Secondly, moving your consciousness to the third eye by spending a few minutes each day in meditation.

Thirdly, working on and in what you are passionate about under your own steam, or ideally with others.

Insight for Sore Eyes

I am fortunate to live in a part of the world where I can get access to top class medical care. As a result, just a few months after diagnosis, I have clarity of vision back again. I could then see clearly that I have a beautiful mechanism available whereby someone who can afford it gains clarity of vision for their Third Eye and, as a result, someone who can’t afford it gets their eyesight fixed.

So in the second half of 2016, I started donating £40 from every sale of my Heart-full Living course to The IMPACT Foundation. This way someone who can afford it improves their Third Eyesight and someone else got their sight back.

Making an Impact

Since meeting up with the people that run the charity, I realised they do much more than fix eyes. They assist with education and with many other medical interventions. So going forward, I am dropping the single donation idea related to sales of my Heart-full Living course. From any sale of three of my self-study courses*, 20% of the gross amount will be donated AND all courses are available at variable price points to suit what people can afford.

* The relevant courses are Heart-full Living, The Magic of AHA and How to Channel Your Book

Check out my courses here …

lifeline express

Temporal Alchemy

Quarter 4 : Five Temporal Takeaways

This is the last of four sneak previews of what’s inside my forthcoming book, Managing Time Mindfully, published on the 11th December 2015

Temporal Alchemy
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Temporal Takeaway #1:
We can become hampered and restricted in how we operate in the present by what has occurred in the past. Past life regression is quick, safe and effective as a therapy and doesn’t require a belief in reincarnation for it to work.

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Temporal Takeaway #2:
We are as able to tune into ‘future memories’ as we are to past memories. This is how imagination and prescience works.

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Temporal Takeaway #3:
We are all natural channels and oracles. All the great artists possessed the ability to tune into divine inspiration.

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Temporal Takeaway #4:
Light bulb, or aha, moments occur outside space and inside time. They are whole mind and body events.

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Temporal Takeaway #5:
Time is as malleable a dimension as any of the three physical dimensions. The instrument with which we manipulate it is our mind.

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Managing Time MindfullyThese themes and more are explored in the fourth quarter of my new book, Managing Time Mindfully, which is published on the 11th December — the exact date of the next New Moon.

Order your copy today and get free access to the Your Perfect Day pack of meditations, to help you get more done in less time.

Get your copy of Manage Your Time Mindfully here

Your Perfect Day Meditations


Related Posts :

Publishing in Tune with the Moon
Quarter 1 : First Tickings
Quarter 2 : Perceptions of Time
Quarter 3 : Managing Time
November Moon Phases

The New Estate

vickiWVicki Wusche is already the author of three best-selling books on property investment. She explains how she came to publish her fourth book – The New Estate: Insights from the 22nd Century

“Now I first met Tom Evans was at a networking group I joined back in 2007. Shortly after I attended one of his book writing workshops. I have always wanted to write a book. My first books then followed primarily as a way to promote my business. They gave me a way to share the answers to questions I was being repeatedly asked – namely how I got started in property investment and how I have grown my business.

Early in March this year, I phoned Tom, as I occasionally do, for a chat. As we spoke, I explained that the first quarter of 2015 had lacked my normal focus and clear determination. He invited me over for a session and an opportunity to see if he could help me gain some more clarity.

When I left after three hours I had not only more clarity, but the outline and publishing strategy for a new book. A story. A major departure from my normal style or content.

Emerging from our session came The New Estate – a story about the future. It is a story about how we can change the future. A story of hope, and I hope inspiration.

Surprisingly, Tom not only helped me gain clarity in my business, but a better sense of a new direction that I was looking for personally. Even more than that, because of his experience as an accomplished author in his own right, Tom understood how the speed and power self-publishing process could help me get to where I was going in ‘no time at all’.

Tom suggested that rather than publishing this story through my existing publisher, I could create a wave and movement with more momentum with indie publishing. From the first conversation with Tom, the writing of the book, its editing and design, through to its appearance on the Kindle store took just five weeks.

Along the way, I found an easier way to write. I discovered that there are no (writers) blocks but just learnings. As a result of using Tom’s methodologies, the book literally just flowed as if I was taking dictation.

Time itself took on an ethereal quality. I would sit down to write and the next thing I knew, another 3000 words had popped out. I could not stop the words flowing once I’d truly connected to my Muse.

Everything just arrived perfectly formed. As a result, I now know that The New Estate : Insights from the 22nd Century, will play a key role in developing my business. At the same time, it will broaden my speaking profile to being one of a divergent thinker, thought leader and inspiration to business owners.”

What is Channelling?

In this month’s webinar on the 28th November, I’ll be explaining how to channel a book (or anything creative – be it words, music, art or even science).

In this short interview, Ursula O’Connnell asks who and what I channel and how I got into channelling …

and if you want to find out more, register for the webinar for free here