You will hear and see tons of advice on this topic, and much of it one sided. Clearly… my advice is going to be backwards. First, if you want to know what it is I do, then check out my post, “Why I Pants”
Many people are so heartfelt about telling you what you MUST do, and that there is no other way. I understand why people would do this, they know what absolutely works for them. They know what they MUST always do. They want you to follow the same protocol, because they know it so well. They know it works, what they don’t get… is that you are not them. You may never understand their process, nor why and how it works for them.
I heard one YouTuber say, “You must ALWAYS plot!” she was convinced that there was no other way. I’m on the other side of the spectrum— a ‘pantser’ (I fly by the seat of my pants, essentially). Whenever you write in a way that is wrong for you, you’re going to struggle more.
Actually, I believe so firmly in pantsing that I could have called this ‘Why Pantsing is Preferable’ and perhaps convinced you fully that my way was correct. I have very good reasoning behind why I pants, and many people would be derailed by my logical explanation of it. Yet, the truth remains, I am not you.
I want to clarify something about this topic for you. When it comes to choosing whether or not you should plot out every detail of your novel. The only answer I’ve been able to find that makes sense to me, and that I can recommend for you as well, is that you ought to experiment with both. Over time you’ll develop a style… uniquely your own.
My dad has said something along the lines of, “I’m not a dedicated plotter.” Basically, what he meant is that, yeah, he plots sometimes, but he leaves things so open to change that you could even call him a semi-pantser. He considers himself, therefore… neither a plotter nor a pantser. I like that he is so acutely aware of his own unique style.
Anyway, a lot of advice is phrased that way on the internet. ‘you MUST!’ Maybe you even start to feel guilty about pantsing. You wonder if you were really writing incorrectly all along. Then you realize that one of the best horror writers of the past century, Stephen King… is also a pantser, and you breathe a sigh of relief.
There are certain areas where absolutes don't work. You need to know what works for you. You don’t need me to tell you absolutely what you ought to do. Now, what I can do is tell you why I pants and how I pants, but that is by no means a recommendation that you do it too.
I have developed my style since I was 14-years-old (I’m now 30). I started by plotting, but I realized that as I would progress with a story, I would end up having to change my plot anyway. So over time I wired my mind to think 1, 2, maybe even 3 steps ahead plot-wise, while having a strong overall concept. This ensures that I would not lose massive amounts of story due to over plotting in the wrong direction. Yet, the strong concept keeps me on course throughout the novel. I work in a very elastic way.
My problem with over plotting is that I know my characters too well. In other words, if I over plot, my character might go, “Hey pal, I know that’s what you’ve planned out for me, but I would never do that… you see, I’m a mad-man and I would have killed him by now.” Then he moves my arm to grab a kitchen knife and holds it to my throat, “We can do it my way--we can kill him off and start pantsing from here… or you can just… die.” I’m like, “Wait, if you kill me— don’t you die too?” and he goes, “So?” and then I’m like, “Okay, we’ll do it your way.” Then another equally mad character enters the room demanding that I stick to the plot... and I put my face in my hands and start to cry.
My point is that, while I have something in mind that works for myself, I cannot in good conscience tell you what will work for you—and neither should anyone else. Perhaps your character is holding a knife to your throat going, “I don’t get what I’m supposed to do next, so either you figure it out… or I’ll figure it out for you!”
Well I hope you enjoyed the blog. Now you’re probably thinking you’ve stumbled onto the site of a crazy person. Well... you’d be right. If you’re new to writing, welcome… this is the type of madness that awaits you. Just, ya know… try to channel it productively.
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