If you’re into penning fiction, it’s a classic debate: are you a pantser, writing “by the seat of your pants” and using creativity as your muse, or a plotter, carefully planning each stage of your novel beforehand? It’s instructive at least think about where you see yourself as a writer.
Let’s start with this Reddit poll by the r/writers community:
Similarly, a more tongue-in-cheek poll by the Australian Writer’s Centre suggests that 64% identify as pantsers to 36% plotters.
In each case, pantsers seem the most popular, yet pantsers are also the most denigrated (meaning, their reputation is more often attacked). Ada Palmer, an avowed plotter, offers this perspective on Tor.com: “The attitude is often that, if we have a river to cross, pantsers are people who just dive in and swim while plotters are clever enough to build a boat.” For perspective, she adds: “But it isn’t that I build a boat and they don’t, it’s that I build the whole boat first, while they assemble just enough boards to make the hull and hop on, carrying a pack of planks with them, assembling the rest of the boat during the process of crossing the river. That’s pretty clever too!”
I have tried both. Each has merits, and each poses problems. Here they are, from my perspective.
Pantser Pros & Cons: Writing by the seat of your pants is an undeniable thrill; it can make you feel free and creative and unbridled. You can take any turn in the fictional road unraveling before you, and that road occasionally leads to true inspiration.
But.
Not planning also means you could go offroad and find yourself in a plot hole from which you may escape only after much rewriting time. And to thoroughly mix metaphors: think of taking a nice long drive, sans GPS. You’ll end up somewhere, but probably not where you intended.
Plotter Pros and Cons: planning ahead is the essence of organization; you know where you’re going and who your characters are so you’re assured that endings will be reached and arcs completed, and you go confidently ahead with no further time wasted.
But.
Plotting takes tons of prep time. And when you’re finally writing, it steals some of that pure artistic thunder to be following an outline, doesn’t it? You can feel like a cook following a recipe book. Worse, since you’re locked into your own plan to make it work, you may not feel free to head down those tempting side roads when they appear.
Is there another way?
A solution might be to stay away from the polemics of the whole plotter/pantser debate and gravitate toward a middle ground: a common-sense melding of the two wherein the writer makes some plans by sketching out the basics while still allowing for plenty of creative freedom. Which leads us to a third term.
Here’s the Wikiwrimo definition for a plantser:
The Magic Violinist on The Write Practice clarifies that a plantser…
…enjoys planning out their subplots and character arcs, but during the writing of the novel, goes rogue for some chunks of the story.
Just for fun, here’s a much-retweeted chart dissecting these terms:
All things considered, on this chart I am probably closer to being a lawful plantser than any of the others. Not that it matters what I may or may not be. There’s certainly more than one way, and we writers are renowned for each finding unique routes for telling our stories. Experiment a little and discover what works best for you.
We used our vocab word, a verb, in reference to Pantsers. Do you recall its definition?
What is denigrate?
Click and hear its pronunciation as well, and it’ll become one of your own words.
Action Plan
Want to sink your teeth into my serial-length story about a haunted hunting lodge and the two out-of-towners who stumble across it? Check out The Lodge at Fear Summit, only on Kindle Vella. The first episodes are free.
Next Up:
#13) Good Conflict is Personal. See you in two weeks!
Craig
Denigrate is one of my favorite words, so is wisenheimer and per your suggestion, here are both in a sentence: there is always the talentless wisenheimer who makes it his duty to denigrate the efforts of anyone receiving recognition. Great post this week!