{"id":652,"date":"2013-03-22T10:49:08","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T15:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/?p=652"},"modified":"2013-03-22T10:49:08","modified_gmt":"2013-03-22T15:49:08","slug":"planning-vs-pantsing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/22\/planning-vs-pantsing\/","title":{"rendered":"Planning Vs Pantsing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/22\/planning-vs-pantsing\/pants\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-653\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-653\" alt=\"pants\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/pants.png?resize=150%2C150\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/pants.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/pants.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/pants.png?zoom=3&amp;resize=150%2C150 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Every writer has a different way of going about producing their stories, but generally speaking we fall into two camps. You\u2019re either someone who <b>plans<\/b> the story ahead of time, with outlines, brainstorming and perhaps a scene or two already written; or you fly by the seat of your <b>pants<\/b> 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\u2019ve compiled some\u00a0pros and cons of both:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><b>Planning Pros:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Can help identify the progress of the story ahead of time<\/li>\n<li>Helps avoid continuity errors in plot and character development<\/li>\n<li>Provides an outline to follow when writing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><b>Planning Cons:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Limits the writer to a predetermined plan<\/li>\n<li>Can cause creativity problems<\/li>\n<li>May stall the writer from actually putting pen to paper<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><b>Pantsing Pros:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Allows the writer to harness their muse and act on instinct<\/li>\n<li>Offers the freedom of inspiration and change<\/li>\n<li>Isn\u2019t bound by rules<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><b>Pantsing Cons:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Can easily divert the story into confusing territory<\/li>\n<li>May lack flow and continuity in plot and characters<\/li>\n<li>Inspiration can end abruptly<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Personally, I plan the story out, but when I get ready to write, I don\u2019t 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\u2019s a tactic I call, <strong>planning pantser<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Which\u00a0way do you write? What have been the pros and cons you\u2019ve experience using your method?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every writer has a different way of going about producing their stories, but generally speaking we fall into two camps. You\u2019re 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,53,62,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","category-outline","category-planning","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YHlB-aw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions\/655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}