Issue #1

Welcome to the first issue of Writing Into The Dark. So, I figured I'd start with why I'm doing this and what the name means, and then get into the thing I really wanted to talk about today, which is pantsers versus plotters, and the book that gave this newsletter its name.

This is where I'll be talking about the writing process, the actual mechanics of getting words down, and whatever stories I've got on the go. Some issues will be about craft, some will just be me reporting back on where things sit, and some will probably just be me thinking out loud about a scene that isn't working. I want it to be useful, and I want it to be honest, more than I want it to look polished.

Quick introduction first, for anyone who doesn't know me. I spent 20 years in uniform, first as an Australian soldier and then as a South Australian police officer. After that I joined the Department of Defence as a civilian for 15 years, and in 2011 I moved into the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, where I stayed until mid-2025 (that's when I finally became a full-time writer, for those keeping track).

So, two decades of structure and procedure and chain of command, followed by a career built on following the evidence, and then I decided to spend my days making things up instead. It's a bigger jump than it sounds like on paper, and it's part of why I picked the name of this newsletter.

Anyway, onto the pantsers and plotters thing, because that's what I wanted to talk about today.

If you've spent any time around writers, you've heard the debate. Plotters outline everything before they write a word, characters, arcs, twists, the lot, and then they execute the plan. Pantsers write “by the seat of their pants”: they sit down with an idea, maybe a character and a first line, and just let the story reveal itself as they go.

I'm a pantser, and the name of this newsletter is a nod to the man who gave that approach its clearest defence, Dean Wesley Smith, and his book Writing into the Dark.

Smith's argument is simple, but it took me a while to trust it. Outlining, he says, can flatten a story before it's even written, because you already know what happens, so the job becomes transcription rather than discovery. Writing into the dark keeps the discovery alive. You write a page or two, look back just far enough to keep things consistent, fix what needs fixing, and keep moving forward. He calls it cycling. The “outline,” if you can even call it that, is whatever ends up scrawled on a notepad next to him as ideas surface mid scene.

Doing it this way isn't easier, it definitely isn't. But it is honest about how a story gets discovered, one decision at a time, under some pressure, without knowing exactly what's coming next. That felt familiar. It's not so different from working a case or planning an operation with incomplete information, you build a rough sense of direction, then adapt with whatever the situation gives you.

That's the spirit behind this newsletter's name, and it's the way I write. Future issues will get into what that looks like in practice, including where it's working and where it's completely fallen apart.

Before I go, one more thing. Has anyone read my free short story, Revenants of Sophie? If you have, I'd genuinely love to know what you thought of it, good, bad, “David, what were you thinking”, all of it welcome. That story is where The Seventeenth began, book one in the D.I. John Bagshaw crime series, so if you've spent any time with Miriam and Mike, that short story is the seed it grew from.

Speaking of the series, book two now has a name: Dark Voices. That was it's working title, but I took a vote from colleagues and it stuck. I've got the cover designed too, and I'll reveal it soon, so keep an eye out for that one.

Next newsletter I'll talk about writing spaces, where I sit down and get the words out, and give you an update on the Dark Voices word count. Might even throw in an elevator pitch, if I can get it under a minute…

More soon…

David

PS: If you are curious about what I write then go to https://books2read.com/ap/xLXrLz/David-Kernot​