When it comes to writing are you a plotter or a pantser?
I’m more of a plantser.
Something in the middle. But I’ll get into that later. When it comes to writing, and planning, a novel, there are many different ways in which writers can go about it, however, these different ways can usually be categorised into one of three different types: Plotter, Panster, and Plantser. In this blog, we’re going to talk about these three different types, exploring what they mean and the pros and cons of all of them. And perhaps, you might discover what type of writer you are.
Let us begin with the type that is the most self-explanatory.
The Plotters.
Plotter is a writer who painstakingly plans and outlines their stories before they start writing. If you are someone who spends a great deal of time fleshing out your outlines, character arcs, world-building and plot structure before you even attempt your first draft, then you probably fall into this category. Plotters value knowing exactly what is going to happen, who all their characters are, and the order in which things will occur before they settle down to writer. This means that when they go into the writing process, they already have a solid plan and intention for their story and this can save them a lot of time when it comes to writing their book.
There are many pros to being a Plotter. The obvious one being that you already have everything planned out in your story, all you have to do is write it. Having a laid-out plan also makes it easier to get over blocks and knots in your story as you already know how the plot will go. It is harder to get stuck when you know what will happen next. And, in some incidences, Plotters are able to get their books written quicker once they start writing.
The con to being a plotter, however, is that it can take a long time before you actually start writing. One of my fellow writer friends is a plotter and they can spend months and months plotting out their stories before deciding whether or not they are actually going to write them. They are also quite confined to their plans and when they get stuck or find something that they need to change, they end up having to redo their entire outline. And on some occasions, they redo and redo their outlines and never actually get to writing their novel.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have THE PANTSER.
The name pantser is believed to come from the saying of “flies by the seat of their pants,” which means to decide a course of action as you go along, using your own initiative and gut feelings rather than a predetermined plan. In the case of writing, this means to write without planning and outlining beforehand. Or, in the very least, planning only a little.
Freedom and discovery are important aspects of the panster writing style. Detailed plans and outlines aren’t wanted or often possible for these types of writers, as their writing style—for their first drafts in the least—re partly about discovering the story as they write it. They like to get lost in their story, letting their creativity and characters led them to their stories’ conclusions. Stephan King is said to use the panster style of writing for his works.
The pros of being a panster is that you get to writing quickly. The planning process is limited and it is a great method of jumpstarting your process and getting your creative juices flowing. You have the freedom to take your novel in any direction without worrying about the greater plan and have the flexibility to change things as they go. If you don’t like the way your plot is going, you can just change it. For incidence, if you don’t like a character, you can just kill them of without having to think about this will ruin a future plot point.
However, having no plan can make it easy for plot points to get lost and to become stuck. And if you get stuck, you have no ladder to help you get out. You have to create a solution out of a block, rather than follow an outline that leads to the desired conclusion. This can lead to multiple abandoned projects. Panster writers often leave one project for a new one, leaving many unfinished novels int their wake.
Lastly, we have Plantser.
Plansters are writers who are a mixture of Plotter and Panster. And this is the category that I would place myself in. I do plot my stories before I write them, however, my outlines are basic and simple, allowing me the freedom to pants my way through most of the writing. In my case, I like to have a basic understanding of where my plot is going and the characters, but I do not rigidly structure my work, rather let the story and the characters make their own way to one plot point to another.
Many plansters will come up with the important details that will drive their story ideas—perhaps it is their character arcs, or subplots, or their beginning, middle and end—but will go rogue, as it were, during the actual writing process.
The pros of being a Planster is that you get the best of both worlds. You get all the pros of being a Plotter and those of being a Panster: you are able to plot your work but also allow yourself the flexibility to change things up as you go.
Equally, you get all the cons of both too, as well as the issues of these two methods clashing on occasion. If you write too freely, then you will disrupt your planned outline and this might mean that you have to go back and redo parts of your plan. Or if you have planned too much, you may end up constraining yourself too much when it comes to actually writing.
All three of these methods are valid and valuable styles of writing. There isn’t one that is better than the other. There is simply the one that works better for you. As I have said before, writing is an individual and subjective process, what works for one does not work for all. And that is part of the beauty of being a writer.