Plotter or Pantser or Plantser?

[mel]

Heya, everyone!

As I've been writing my draft, I've been constantly referring to my outline. I prefer to outline before I draft anything, even as simple as a bulleted list, but I'm curious if you all have different perspectives on outlining your work before you write. Are you a plotter? A pantser? Or even a combination, a plantser?

I'd love to get a glimpse into each of your guys' creative process!

 

[X Equestris]

Plantser inclined toward Plotter for me. I outline, even if the outline never leaves my head, but I don’t wed myself to the outline. It’s like a roadmap. I know where I’m headed, I know a route to get there, but I won’t refuse to take alternative routes if one of those turns out to work better.

 

[Set2Stun]

I am a big time pantser. It's a lot of fun to see where things go sometimes. For example, in my latest novel I had a character who I intended to appear in two chapters to advance the plot, but after writing those chapters, I just fell in love with him. He became the third-billed character and secondary antagonist in the story, and he sticks around til the end. Has an arc and growth and everything.

For plotting, I don't do very much. I'll jot down the main premise/hook, some notes about the main characters, and that sort of thing for a few months before I start writing the novel. I might have 3-5 major plot points in mind when I begin, but everything in between I will do on the fly. I also write from beginning to end; no pausing on this or that thing and moving on with other chapters and then circling back. All linear.

That's just what's worked for me, of course. It's all so very personal and no single method is the "best" method. It's always a fun subject to discuss, though !

 

[tde44]

I am a big planster. Can't really start writing a novel until I have at least a basic premise and major turns defined. This includes a beginning and an ending as well as motivation for at least the main character. BUT - I will often veer course as I go including key aspects of the start/end and character backgrounds.

Sometimes the outline will be bullet points. Other times - like the one I am working on right now - was a 2-page list of bullet points accompanied by a dozen pages of notes on my ideas to help guide my writing.

 

[Naomasa298]

I used to pants everything. Now it's very rare - only in one particular style of story do I do that.

I have discarded pants when writing.

 

[Banespawn]

I'm somewhere in the middle. I plan, but the amount of planning varies by project.

With my latest project, I have ideas for the story going forward, but nothing very specific. Nothing I'm married to. The story is currently progressing along two different timelines. My plan, once I get past the current scene I'm writing, is to jump ahead in the older timeline to show another period of the character's past. The only thing I know about that period is that it was bad for the character, and it's something he doesn't want to reveal to the FMC in the present. That's it. I expect it will encompass 3 or more scenes, but I have very little idea what those events will be.

 

[Sandor]

Plantser, maybe a plotter. I use Scrivener, so I end up using their notecard feature to organize the story. I tend to think things out and put them on the page, but I also kind of let the characters tell the story for me if that makes sense.

 

[Tbaron1756]

I am a mix of both. Before I start a story I plot an outline but I pretty much always veer away from it as the story and characters speak to me and tell me directions they need to go.

As the outline changes I will make a new outline and when that chances I will make another. I have burned through 5 outlines for one Novella.

 

[Louanne Learning]

I think I may be a pantser? My stories change so much as I am writing them and what is needed becomes more apparent.

I do start with a general idea about what the story should be about, but even that gets refined.

 

[Naomasa298]

Pantsing can work very well. I imagine Cujo was almost entirely pantsed, considering how high King was when he wrote it.

 

[Homer Potvin]

Pantsing can work very well. I imagine Cujo was almost entirely pantsed, considering how high King was when he wrote it.

That was the one he said he had no memory of writing in On Writing, right?

I pants to plot. No idea what I'm doing when I start but gradually formulate a plan and then tend to stick with it with about 20-25% room for improvisation. Kind of like music where the chord progression and melody are fairly rigid but the notes between are up for interpretation.

 

[Naomasa298]

That was the one he said he had no memory of writing in On Writing, right?

Yep, that's the one.

 

[Night Herald]

I'm a pantser at heart, but my process has changed over time.

Most of my stories start from a flash of inspiration, an image in my mind. I just have to dive in and capture it the best I can, start feeling out a context for what's happening. More isolated scenes will pop into my head during that time, and then it becomes a huge game of connect-the-dots and fill-the-blanks. Depending on the story I can spend a very long time in the ideation phase, and I always come back to it.

Then I just write drafts, refining what I have and fitting new ideas as they come. Plot is an afterthought, I prefer to let it emerge as organically as possible while I build up the world and characters. I take lots of notes along the way, but generally speaking I will only make any sort of outline much later, usually a loose one.

It's not an efficient process, but it's what I find most enjoyable. The wonder of discovering a story as it unfolds, the challenge of unfucking the tangled messes my methods invaribly create, the joy of epiphany, the deliciousness of unfettered creativity in flow state... Can't put a price tag on that.

But it would be super neat if I could also consistently create coherent plots and finish stories in a reasonable time. Much as I love my novel series, the juice does leak out over the years and I get a bit bored working on the same stuff. I have lots of stories to tell and I can't afford to spend decades spinning my wheels with each one.

There has to be a way to make outlining work for me, where I don't lose much of what I get from discovery writing. I have some thoughts on that, which I'll try to implement for my next big thing.

TL;DR: I'm a pantser with a dash of plotter, still looking for my optimal workflow.

 

[Tallyfire]

Most of my stories start from a flash of inspiration, an image in my mind. I just have to dive in and capture it the best I can, start feeling out a context for what's happening. More isolated scenes will pop into my head during that time, and then it becomes a huge game of connect-the-dots and fill-the-blanks. Depending on the story I can spend a very long time in the ideation phase, and I always come back to it.

I loved your description! This is what I do, described much better than I could have managed. I’m mostly a pantser, write from a flash of image/an idea and greatly enjoy watching the scene unravel, discovering the world and getting to know the characters. That’s one of the best parts for me. Once I’ve got enough material I tend to go back and plot parts, mix and match scenes. I could never track “words written” because I write so much in exploration, and through that the world and everything else comes into focus. Later I’ll scrap most of the writing and save a paragraph or two to go into scenes that have had more planning behind them. My first drafts are really just “throwing clay onto the wheel,” as the metaphor for creating often goes.

I’ve yet to properly finish a story, though, so I imagine my style will change over time. The only story I finished was Nanowrimo one year where a land of faerie invaded the town I was living in. That was fun to write, but it’s only good for the occasional giggle now unfortunately.