Plotting vs. pantsing
I love the plotting vs. pantsing debate, truly.
The ways that people can be creative fascinate me, and plotting and pantsing share some basic DNA, but are largely very different processes.
Because of these differences, it’s important to know the pros and cons for each and how both can effectively engage in both the writing and editing stages of writing a novel.
What’s the difference between plotting and pantsing?
Plotting and pantsing generally aim for similar results but with different approaches. For the record, I don’t think one is better than the other, but one could be better than the other for a specific project. Different people almost certainly have a tendency towards one or the other.
It’s important to remember that just because you are a plotter for one project, it doesn’t mean that you can’t be a pantser for another.
It’s always case by case.
Let’s start by talking about plotters and pantsers and defining their approaches to writing.
What is a plotter?
A plotter is someone who goes into the writing process with a structured understanding (usually in the form of an outline) of what they’re going to write. Sometimes (though rarely) they are called “planners”. Logically, they plot their stories thoroughly.
They usually have a clear idea of what the beginning, middle, and end of their books will look like. They also have a strong understanding of who their characters are, what their quirks are, what they look like, and what they will do in any given situation.
The benefits of being a plotter
Certain types of stories lend themselves wall to a “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” approach (more on this later), but sometimes this borders on impossible for other stories. Science fiction stories and fantasy, in particular, are very often difficult (if not impossible) to write without planning.
Empires, kingdoms, economies, a bestiary of unique creatures, and generations of characters are like intricate puzzle pieces that fit together in specific ways. Without planning, characters might vanish, events might be forgotten, the names of locations might change, and all of these things can lead to confusion for the reader.
Plotting these stories in advance allows the author to handle a lot of complexity in a story with very little overall stress.
The use of character sheets are not uncommon here, as these can help keep characters consistent.
Character sheets
A character sheet can be as simple as three or four basic “traits” or as complicated as dozens of features and complete backstories. Here’s an example of what a character sheet could look like:
Name:
Age:
Alliances/Enemies:
Occupation:
Hobbies:
Height/Weight:
Quirks:
Having a quick guide like this can keep characters internally consistent throughout the writing process of a book, and makes revisions a little easier because there is a guide to follow.
The problem with plotting
Being a plotter has some really convenient benefits. Having guardrails for your writing can help you to avoid extensive and complicated revisions and will help you to ensure that your characters and story make sense. The downside is that, by heavily structuring your work in advance, you can lose some of that spontaneity that can happen in the writing process.
Because of the more static nature of plotting a novel, sometimes deviating from that plan can be challenging because a plotter may feel like altering or removing one piece creates a cascading effect. While this may not be the case for all plotters, the reality is that some plotters have a very hard time with this sort of change.
You cannot be both chaotic and static at the same time (though there are ways to get the pieces to blend).
“[Plotters] usually have a clear idea of what the beginning, middle, and end of their books will look like. They also have a strong understanding of who their characters are, what their quirks are, what they look like, and what they will do in any given situation.”
What is a pantser?
I’ve heard it said (more than once) that “a story just needed to get out and onto the page”. There are lots of variations of this sort of sentiment. Sometimes authors will speak as if their characters are living breathing entities that dictate events to the author instead of the author controlling those events.
For a pantser, the writing process is far more organic and freeform than it is for a planner. Character traits tend to be malleable, character alignments (and even entire character histories) may turn on a dime, and the hero might become a villain on a whim (or because it would be cooler).
The benefits of pantsing
Fundamentally, writing a story is a creative endeavour. Because it is a creative process, sometimes there are moments of creativity that cannot be planned for. Those “lightning in a bottle” moments can be of immense value to the end result of a story. They can be what truly sets a novel apart from others of its genre.
By not allowing the creative process to be constrained by heavily structured plot outlines and character sheets, pantsing allows for more pivots and adjustments to the narrative and characters in a story. When a plotter is faced with major changes, it often requires a sort of “back to the drawing board” approach to the story.
Too many planned pieces makes change difficult. But, without a plan, growth or change can be relatively painless during writing, but can lead to a very complicated editing process.
The problem with pantsing
Writing a novel requires a degree of internal consistency so as to not lose the reader. While the writing process might be free-flowing and organic, there tend to be two significant issues: writing yourself into a corner and the editing process.
Writing yourself into a corner
The biggest problem with not having a concrete plan is that you don’t have a destination. Without a particular direction to move in, a narrative can get confused and aimless. When you’re pantsing your story, for every moment where you write something delightful, you will no doubt run headlong into significant troubles with your narrative.
The worst case scenario is that you write yourself into a corner and are unable to easily work your way out of it. For example, imagine killing off a character in Chapter 4, only to realize in Chapter 11 that you needed them to come back. Then you have to write a way to make them alive again. Or not kill them. Planning would have avoided this issue completely.
The narrative comes to a grinding halt because of the cascading nature of writing as a pantser.
Editing a pantsed book
It is rare that a pantsed novel fully makes sense when the first draft is completed. There will be tangents that got lost, characters that disappeared, and idiosyncrasies in the writing that are normal when writing is done on the fly. This is a strong argument in favour of a bit of planning at the start.
It happens.
As you can imagine, this is less common when things are carefully (or even just moderately) planned out. The first set of revisions to a novel that was pantsed is usually significant compared to a book that has been planned out.
Is this a rule? No, of course not. But on the whole, the volume of work to address structural and story-related elements is almost certainly less for plotters who have thought carefully about the twists and turns of their stories.
“It is rare that a pantsed novel fully makes sense when the first draft is completed. […] This is a strong argument in favour of a bit of planning at the start.”
How to write as a plotter or pantser
It’s important to realize that either method of writing is fine.
One may appeal to you more than the other—you may even fall in a space between these two methods, the fabled “plantser” (more on this below)—but neither of them is wrong. They do, however, require an understanding of how to write effectively.
As we said before, both of them have the same goal in mind, but have different ways to get there.
Both want to write a novel; one is asking directions, the other is reading a map.
Know what you’re writing
I can’t stress how important this is, because knowing what you are going to write can ultimately force you into one camp. As we mentioned earlier, certain genres are very difficult to pants. With that said, you can certainly try to write a nine-book epic fantasy story, but be prepared for the writing process (and subsequently the editing process) to take a very very long time.
Time management
Because writing is an exhausting process, many a novel has been left to gather dust, incomplete, because of burnout. There are lots of reasons why people may stop working on a novel, but included in that list is losing motivation because there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.
Without concrete targets and goals, sometimes an author can feel like they’re just spinning their wheels and not getting anywhere. The trick to this is to have a clear set of expectations of what the writing process looks like based on the kind of writer you are and then what the post writing process will look like.
Planner time management
Royal families need to be organized. Magic systems need to be defined (or if they aren’t going to be defined, the scope of what they can do needs to be internally consistent). Kingdoms need to make sense. But as a planner, you’ve already figured that out—all you need to do is write it. The process will take time as you’ll be referring to your notes often, but progress will be continuous.
There’s a very low chance for a planner to run into writers block in the same way that pantsers do. Planners have the added benefit of being able to sit down and write for specific increments of time as they largely follow a plan. Editing is the same, and usually far easier because most of the major issues were resolved in the planning stage.
Planning a novel means that your plan can fit into a schedule effectively and that progress can continue, even when you’re busy with life.
Pantser time management
If you’re a pantser there’s a high probability that you’ll have a first draft faster than a planner, but the downside will be that it will need significantly more work after the first draft is done. Plan accordingly.
Set aside time to do a read through of your book, a few chapters at a time, and start taking notes. After a week or two of this, you should be able to get through your first draft. Review your notes and start going through, chapter by chapter, fixing the major issues (little things can be left for the time being, though taking notes will help later).
Once you’ve addressed major systemic issues in your book (major character inconsistencies, plot holes, etc.) you can move on to smaller and smaller issues. Give yourself actionable and achievable goals when you sit down to revise your book. “Review Chapter 4” is better than “Edit for a while”.
The “plantser”
Somewhere between the two other styles, the plantser has a general sense of where they’re going, or may know specifics about the story before they start writing. This might be scenes, snippets of dialogue, or even how the book ends. The plantser gets the best of both worlds, and this goes to show that sometimes even a minor amount of planning can resolve many headaches.
But there are downsides as well. You gain a semblance of order in the way you write, but you also give up some of the off the cuff creativity. While you lose some of that creative flexibility to let the story mold itself, you gain a decreased amount of editing time and a lower risk of writers block.
But everyone is different and writing styles vary from author to author. Choose what works best for you! We’ll cover the plantser in greater detail soon, but I encourage everyone to dabble a little in what the other camp has to offer. If you are a pantser, try a short story with a plan. If you’re a planner, do writing exercises that encourage free-flowing creativity and stay away from your character sheets. See where it takes you.
Good luck with your writing.
