Hello my fellow monkeys!
Today, I’d like to talk about pantsers, and no I’m not talking about that jerk from ninth grade that humiliated you in front of your entire PE class. (How’s the psychotherapy going, BTW? )
No, the pantsers I’m talking about are those daring souls who choose to write their novels without the safety net of an outline. Some people call this organic writing, although I doubt they carry it at Sprouts or Whole Foods. Stephen King is probably the most successful pantser out there. He just comes up with a story idea and just writes the story as it comes to him.
On the other end of the scale are the planners. Planners outline their story ahead of time, selecting scenes for plot points in the story structure. How much they outline varies. Some carefully craft each scene ahead of time, detailing how the scene will advance the plot or character, where it fits in the overall structure, the exact date and time in the story line, etc. Others take a 3×5 card and write a phrase that serves as a reminder of what the scene is about.
I started out with my first two practice novels as a detailed outliner. I spent months shifting the order of scenes until it felt right. For my current novel, I decided to try a different approach and began with a general idea of the story arc and began writing by the seat of my pants. At about 20,000 words in, I ran out of steam.
To fix the situation, I went back and started analyzing the scenes I had written, only to discover that there were serious structural flaws. I then brainstormed until I gained a clearer idea of what should be happening at key points in the story. I then wrote out basic scene descriptions for the first quarter of the story.
So where does this put me in the pantser/planner debate? Somewhere in the middle. I don’t want to overplan and risk squeezing the life out of the story before it begins. On the other hand, it’s important for my writing to have a basic direction and structure to my story and have some key scenes planned out ahead of time.
If you’re not sure which method is best for you, try it both ways and see which produces better results. Keep in mind that if you’re an emerging writer like me, you may run into the same roadblocks in either approach. Having a sound understanding of story structure is crucial in both cases.
Now pull up your pants and get back to writing!
I think I’m somewhere in the middle, too, but in a different way. I like to pants my way through the first draft, then impose structure on it in the following drafts.
I like to plan a simple plot at the beginning, and then pants my way through to the end.
I am a pantser. I had an idea for the plot and some characters and a vague idea of the ending. My finished book ended up with a totally different ending and antogonist than I thought it would.
I told myself for the next one I would be a planner. I even downloaded a storybook program to help me plot it all out. But so far I haven’t created an outline for it.
I think a lot of us are somewhere in the middle. The best thing to do is try different approaches until we find what works for us.
Proud to be a Pantser. If I could ever get to the rewrite stage I may be more of a Planner. =]