Planning Vs Pantsing
Every writer has a different way of going about producing their stories, but generally speaking we fall into two camps. You’re either someone who plans the story ahead of time, with outlines, brainstorming and perhaps a scene or two already written; or you fly by the seat of your pants and jump into the writing without second guessing your inspiration. Both have their pitfalls but both methods are also effective in getting your novel written. I’ve compiled some pros and cons of both:
Planning Pros:
- Can help identify the progress of the story ahead of time
- Helps avoid continuity errors in plot and character development
- Provides an outline to follow when writing
Planning Cons:
- Limits the writer to a predetermined plan
- Can cause creativity problems
- May stall the writer from actually putting pen to paper
Pantsing Pros:
- Allows the writer to harness their muse and act on instinct
- Offers the freedom of inspiration and change
- Isn’t bound by rules
Pantsing Cons:
- Can easily divert the story into confusing territory
- May lack flow and continuity in plot and characters
- Inspiration can end abruptly
Personally, I plan the story out, but when I get ready to write, I don’t often review my outline. During the writing process, I let inspiration take me away and allow ideas flow as they will instead of restricting myself to the pre-planned outline. However, if I get stuck or confused, I can easily refer to my original plan. It’s a tactic I call, planning pantser.
Which way do you write? What have been the pros and cons you’ve experience using your method?
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7 Comments
Planning pantster. I like it. I tried pantsing Nano but ended up with a plot hole that was impossible to work around. For Camp Nano in April I’m trying a ‘planning pantster’ type of approach.
Thanks! I think more people use that method than just me. Hope it works out for you!
I like “planning pantser”! That would be me.
I too have become a planning pantser, though I go the opposite way. I fly by the seat of my pants until I’ve found my story, then I go back through an iron out the details to make sure everything is flowing correctly.
No way! That is really interesting!
I used to be a panster but plot kept tripping me up so now I’m a planning panster. I outline a fair bit of the story but as I write I tend to come up with things that I never thought of during the planning stage so then the outline becomes more of a general guide.
The most plotting I do for the first draft of a story tends to be the major plot points: the inciting incident and the climax, maaaaybe a couple of other scenes. It’s not until the second draft that I sit down and actually make an outline in order to wrangle the story into something that actually makes sense. 🙂