Re-Charting the Course

I failed miserably with most of my goals for the first three months of the year. I wrote consistently, at least five times a week which is a win and most of those weeks I put out 1500 words or more. All of that is a win, and I believe that no writing time is wasted. Even if every word you write is cut, that time was well spent because you stretched those muscles and hopefully learned how to write and create better for the next story. 
Still, I'm feeling a little dejected. I spent four years at college, two of which were spent in a creative writing program, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It was great practice for learning how to give and take critique to and from others. But I've realized over the past few months that pantsing a story is hard to do well. In all my time at school, I was told story = plot. Plot is the external events of a story. That much I understood. And I also understand that a character needs to change. But after reading Take Off Your Pants!: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing by Libbie Hawker and now while I'm currently reading through Story Genius by Lisa Cron it occurs to me that none of my classes ever taught me how to plan out a story very well.

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