Reading Time: 3 Mins
I was a part of a discussion recently that asked, “Are you a Plotter or a Pantser?”
Meaning, do you plot out your manuscript meticulously or do you fly by the seat of your pants?
Someone introduced me to the term “Plantser” and I feel like, right now anyway, that is exactly where I fit in.
A good definition can be found here.
For my first manuscript I was definitely a plotter. There was so much happening and so much to keep track of, I needed to be fairly strict about it all lest I should do something to mess up the convoluted timeline I was trying to write about.
I also had specific and set times to write. I was working as a teacher in Japan at a school who, initially, for my first year, did not see the need for me. I had two hours of teaching to do a week in a 40 hour work week. The rest of the time was spent in the teacher’s office with literally nothing to do. So I wrote a book.
That rigidity to my schedule allowed for the plotter in me to take over and approach things more methodically and the result was, I think, a novel that was as tight as it was loose, a story that went every which way but when you wound the wires up you found they all led to exactly where they needed to be.
My second manuscript was much more by the seat of my pants. So much so that I wrote myself into a corner that took me thirteen years to find my way out of. I did not want to lose anything I had written so far because I liked these characters so much and I thought I was leading them towards some very compelling subjects, I just did not know how to work through those subjects delicately and properly.
When I finally had an idea on how to work my way out of that corner, I proceeded to plot out major points but write freely and just try to line what I was writing up with the mile markers I had set for myself.
And that’s the approach I’ve taken with my current WIP and, so far, it’s working.
For my current MS I have definitely plotted out some key points but I haven’t done so to the point where I’m feeling restricted when it comes to sitting down at the keyboard to actually write. This is letting me pick things up whenever I have the time or inclination to get the words onto the page. I think I’ve only just recently nailed a flow that works for me; I’ve averaged just under 2000 words a day this week.
I’m going to give it another week or two before calling this a success… maybe I am just in a part of the story that is carrying me forward with it and the methods behind the scenes don’t matter as much?
If I find that what I am doing is working consistently moving forward, I’ll put some more detail around the process here on the blog for sure.
What about you?
I’d love to hear from you in the comments; are you a Plotter, Pantser or, like what I feel I’ve become, a nebulous mix of the two just trying to find the right flow?
Definitely a plantser here, but leaning towards the panster side. In the past, I believed what I had been taught, that you need to have an outline. There was no story without an outline. The stories I wrote when forced to outline were not very good. I got around it by writing the story and then going back and creating the outline. How were they going to know, short of actually being in the room when I was writing it? For years I struggled with this (and other stuff, but let’s keep to this). It wasn’t until I read Stephen King’s “On Writing” that I finally felt recognized. King’s book gave me permission to write without an outline. It would still take me fixing a few other things before my writing really began to take off. However, I think that we should do whatever works for us as writers in the service of getting the story written.
Excellent that you found the inspiration to move away from a formal outline and agreed, there is no right or wrong. Do what works best for you. Hilarious, actually, that you wrote outlines after the fact just to tick a box. 🙂