Plotters vs. Pantsers - pt 2

What is a Pantser?

A Pantser writes with minimal planning beyond knowing Who, What, and Where.

Quentin Tarantino is a pantser, as are George RR Martin and Stephen King. Even Mark Twain was a pantser. Pantsers write “by-the-seat-of-their pants” and sometimes are called “discovery writers,” assuming they discover the plot and who their characters are (and how they react to the events in the story) as they write. (And George RR Martin calls “pantsers” “gardeners,” because he believes writers can grow a story organically from "seeds" of ideas.)

One of my favorite authors, Harlan Ellison, was also a pantser, known for rapidly writing short stories in bookstore windows. On a typewriter!

I’m a pantser. I’ve tried being a plotter, but it doesn’t seem to work for me: despite good intentions, the story often takes a different turn. I even killed off Harlan Ellison in one of my stories…

I tell people I love to see my characters come alive and take the story in a direction I hadn’t planned. But is that what is really happening when a writer chooses to let the story develop without first generating an outline?

Lauren Sapala, writing in Medium(https://losapala.medium.com/what-pantsing-really-means-and-why-most-writers-have-it-all-wrong-a6430d6a5c79), thinks not.

She says “pantsing is not ‘making things up’ as you go along,” but is, instead, “intuitive writing, [which] involves… the writer going deep within themselves, bypassing the logical side of their brain…” The solution, she says, is “learning how to become more of what you already are: an intuitive writer who needs to learn more about your own intuition.”

If you’re a pantser and think you should be a plotter, Ms. Sapala has an explanation of that, as well: “Pantsing gets a bad rap… because there’s this assumption that it’s haphazard, disorganized, and that all real writers worth their salt know good and well that you have to do the hard work of planning a novel before you sit down to do the hard work of writing it.” She says, “pantsing involves just as much hard work as plotting.”

Victoria Schade, writing for Book Trib (https://booktrib.com/2024/11/01/pantser-vs-plotter-authors-debate-the-best-approach-to-writing/) says she “found that outlining limits the serendipity I crave when I’m immersing myself in the writing process. I love it when my characters surprise me…”

After pantsing a novel, authors often find effort is usually then required in editing the manuscript.

Ms. Schade polled fellow writers about how they wrote, and Eve Chung, pantser (and bestselling author of Daughters of Shandong) wrote “I discover my story as I write it. For all of my books, I start chronologically, but end up going back to edit chapters if I decide to change the plot. I usually begin my story knowing the ending (vaguely), and need to figure out how to get there.”

One of the other author respondents used both writing methods: Taleen Voskuni (author of Lavash at First Sight) wrote “…I’m a hybrid. I “pants” along for the first bit, and then, when I know the character and where the story is heading, I buckle down and plot out the middle bits.”

Julie Cantrell (NYT and USA Today Bestselling author and managing director of Story Summit) wrote she “let(s) the characters lead me. That does require more heavy lifting on the back end, but even when I have written an outline, the story always forges its own path.”

Literary agent Jane Friedman wrote on her blog (https://janefriedman.com/panster-or-plotter/) “…about half of published writers are plotters, and about half are pantsers. One is not the right way or the wrong way; there is only the way that works best for you.”

Shannon Baker (author of the Kate Fox Mysteries) says “Write the book how it works for you. Don’t let anyone tell you how you should work, but keep your mind open to what might help you do it better. Don’t stop writing, no matter what.”

And one other way to write is as a ‘Planster,’ a blend of plotting and pantsing.

Jay Wilburn, writing for LitReactor (https://litreactor.com/columns/story-development-for-pantsers) said “Pantsing allows a discovery process during the drafting of a story. Even the best outline is ultimately a ‘guess’ at how a story should flow. Character tendencies can change as a story progresses [however] there are some inherent risks to pantsing: It is easier to get lost or paint yourself into a corner [and] there is a risk of writing too many bridge or filler chapters while you "search" for the next story beat.

In the end, he says (as do many other actors and editors) “The best way to write any first draft is to finish it.”

So go ahead and pants the first draft, then be aware of the editing needed to tie up all the plot threads and have the story feel as if you knew where it was leading the entire time.

As I said above I killed off Harlan Ellison in one of my stories… until—in editing—I didn’t.