Pantsing vs Planning?

[RcGrant]

Which one are you, a pantser or a planner? Tell me about your methods. I am particularly interested in hearing from people who switched from planning to pantsing.

Background: I seem to be stuck before I write. It sounds silly because I've written many things in the past with no problem. The issue arose when I completed a first draft of a fairly complicated first novel of a trilogy. I then didn't work on it for years. I've come back to it because I feel it is a worthy story. However when I wrote the first draft I knew next to nothing about writing. I have worked on refining the craft since. I figured the best way of tackling the next draft would be to do extensive outlining. Only a) I'm bored and b) I'm utterly bogged down in detail. But I still love the story and the characters.

The worst part is that it has seeped into other things I am writing. I am now second guessing myself with other ideas I want to start on. I keep thinking I need to do yet more research, more planning before I get started. In case the first draft is horrific.

It's zapping my creativity and enjoyment and I'm seriously considering saying to hell with it and just pantsing it (both for the second draft of the original novel, and other ideas I want to work on).

So give me some encouragement - if you are a pantser, how does it work out for you? What do you do if you get stuck? And to those who plan in advance and have outlines: how do you prevent yourself getting bored?

I'm also interested in what you write with. Anyone still do their first drafts by hand? I'm tempted...

 

[Mouse]

Pantser here, and I've recently signed two contracts for novels, so... go for it!

If I get bored, I do something else. If I get stuck, I do something else. Write what you want, when you feel like it.

I write on the laptop, but do scribble down ideas in my notebook which is by my bed.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Pantster here, too. Requires a lot of rewriting, though, but it seems to be working okay at the moment as I have representation. I can't plan well at all. But I still second guess myself a lot.

 

[Mouse]

Requires a lot of rewriting, though...

Depends. I don't tend to do a lot of rewriting.

 

[Boneman]

I think I'm a plantser: my whatif file grows and grows, I write ideas down as they occur to me, so end up with a jumble of scenes/ideas. As I'm doing that, I'm forming in my mind a roughish idea of where it's all going to go. Then I write and the pants take over. In my latest wip three of my ideas got dropped by the wayside, because the (?) creative side of me barrelled along and they became irrelevant.

If I get stuck, I now (which I never did before) leave that scene, start the next chapter and invariably the solution comes to me, so I go back to it. If I become bored, I work on something else, or I get depressed staring at the screen. Which is where I write.

I'd say Nike. Just do it. And enjoy it. If you lose your enjoyment and it becomes a chore, creativity goes out the window.

And good luck with it!

 

[Hex]

Pantser too, and what you describe about planning is exactly what happened to me when I tried to plan out a slightly complicated murder mystery (with dancing! and demons!!!) -- I completely killed any interest I had in writing it.

I think I always felt that pantsing was somehow inferior to planning and that "real authors" planned stuff -- there's lots out there about how to plan (partly because it's very hard to write a how-to book on pantsing). Then at World Fantasy Con I saw Robin Hobb on a panel happily confessing to being a pantser, and it seems to me you don't get much realer than that.

I like to know approximately what the end of the story is before I write too much of it, and perhaps roughly what goes wrong before the end but before any of that I need to have written at least three or four chapters to find out what sort of world my character lives in and what sort of attitude he or she has to it. Then I'll plan a little so I'm not -- hopefully -- restructuring too horribly in the rewrite. That way I enjoy writing, and really, otherwise, what's the point?

If you have enthusiasm for the story when you're not planning it, maybe just write and see what happens?

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

I'm like 70% pantser and 30% planner. I have to know where i'm going but let the story take its own shape.

I create a basic structure, based on one of several methods (7-point structure, hero's journey, 3-Act or 5-act, etc) or a combination. My current WIP i used the 7-point structure, and turned each point in the structure into actual scenes. I then create structures for the other major plot threads in my WIP and merge them with the story. I then let my Pantser instincts kick in and let the story take its own shape from there.

I only started this method on saturday, wrote like 2k words in like two hours and have reached the end of the story. But its far from a finished first draft, because I still have to implement sub-plots and other threads, and fill in the gaps and build the setting.

 

[Mouse]

I'm like 70% pantser and 30% planner. I have to know where i'm going but let the story take its own shape.

I create a basic structure, based on one of several methods (7-point structure, hero's journey, 3-Act or 5-act, etc) or a combination. My current WIP i used the 7-point structure, and turned each point in the structure into actual scenes. I then create structures for the other major plot threads in my WIP and merge them with the story. I then let my Pantser instincts kick in and let the story take its own shape from there.

I only started this method on saturday, wrote like 2k words in like two hours and have reached the end of the story. But its far from a finished first draft, because I still have to implement sub-plots and other threads, and fill in the gaps and build the setting.

This sounds like planning to me. To me, 'pantsing' is making it all up as you go along.

 

[HareBrain]

I pantsed my first two novels, in both senses of the word as it turns out, since they were left with massive insoluble structural flaws that meant they never saw the light of day. I planned my next one -- rather vaguely at first, increasingly rigorously as I went on -- and made a fair fist of it. But planning the sequel seems to have drained my enthusiasm for it, at least at the moment. The only bits I've really enjoyed it have been when something unexpected happened. But it's too complex to wing it, and now I don't know what to do.

So, I feel your pain.

(I seem to have ignored the instruction to give you encouragement, sorry.)

 

[Hex]

...now I don't know what to do.

Write something else?

 

[Ursa major]

I'm both: I like knowing where the story is going, but don't plot out all the points in between.

I seem to be stuck before I write.

This is a special type of pantsing: you're procrastinating, a form of lingerie....

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I just write - the couple of novels I have attempted to plan have turned out to be a waste of time. However, it does mean lots of rewrites.

 

[ratsy]

I'm both: I like knowing where the story is going, but don't plot out all the points in between.

I do this too. Although I haven't written a novel draft yet. After attempting to get a few novel ideas down into a draft I decided I needed more practice and skills. So I am focused on short stories at this time. I come up with the start, end and some key points to the story and then just write the flesh out.

 

[barrett1987]

I outline everything.
I allow myself to be lead by the scene when writing though. If a character wants to go off and do something different to how i envisioned it then i sit back and follow.

I'm 65k into my work and have had to rewrite the outline 3 times. I expect two more...rewrites on the outlines as i go. My outlines are usually one line per chapter.

 

[tinkerdan]

I'm in favor of outlines-mine is usually in my head-but it has to be an open and fluid outline or I get bogged down.

It is true that the characters begin to grow a life of their own and there are places where the outline interferes with what they would do. At that point you have to abide by the character rather than trying to steer things toward the outline. And hope they don't get themselves killed before the final act.

 

[thaddeus6th]

It varies a lot.

For my 'serious' fantasy, especially my WIP, I plan a lot. For Kingdom Asunder, my WIP, I've done a fair bit of world-building and planned each chapter, as well as the basics of the two succeeding books (it's part 1 of a trilogy, so I have the capacity to bugger it up if I don't get things set up nicely for parts 2 and 3).

For comedy, I have a vague general direction and make things up more or less as I go along. Unfortunately the best comedy moments seem to come from nowhere, so I think it's harder to plan, in that sense. The essential storyline can be planned for, but the humour less so.

 

[Nerds_feather]

Pantser, because I lose inspiration if I plan everything. But trying to become more of a planner, because my stories sometimes unravel due to lack of plot planning.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

This sounds like planning to me. To me, 'pantsing' is making it all up as you go along.

Ye, except that's the only planning i do. I work everything else out as i go along- the setting, characters, how everything ties together. I don't plan every detail of my WIP, just the important points of each plot thread and from there I just write and see where it goes, using the structuring as a direction, or goal.

So i suppose i should change my answer to 50-50.

EDIT: Mind you, i don't have problems with spoilers in stories, which i know pantsers don't like. I can be told the ending to a movie, or book, or series, and still watch it. Because for me its about the journey rather than the destination. Maybe that makes me a planner.

 

[RcGrant]

This is a special type of pantsing: you're procrastinating, a form of lingerie....

I really am, but for once it's not through laziness or lack of desire. I truly feel conflicted. This thread has thrown up some interesting posts though. Hex, a lot of what you said made sense to me. I'm just going to say to hell with it, pants it, and see what happens. I'm tired of feeling frustrated and conflicted.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

The first time I made a plan was for a story about two guys who were killing Neo Nazis and nailing them to burning crosses outside trees. (No idea where it came from sometimes my brain bothers me). The main characters were straight with families. I even took the names of four serial killers to call them Joseph Cream and Timothy Black.

Then I began to write a story (I used the beginning for a 75 worder)

"Detective Chief Inspector Joseph Cream sighed with contentment and fastened up his soft leather belt. He removed his polished leather shoes from their place on the shelf next to the bottles of cleaning fluid and sat down on a sturdy box marked flammable. "

He then went to eye up the backside of his sergeant. It was obvious the characters would not work in the story.