Planner or Pantser?

[Faye HG]

I am a pantser, and have always been through writing my first sci-fi novel (which is being edited right now). Marc (the reader meets him in chapter one), introduced himself to me, and that was it - chapter one was written in a couple of hours in my local library in largely how it is now. I can only actually plan for a couple of chapters ahead, but then when I'm actually writing, everything can change. My characters know more than I ever could about the direction of my novel.
How much do you plan/flow with it?

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

I alternate between the two. There's a previous discussion here that gives an insight into the question too. Perhaps a mod could merge the two?

 

[Droflet]

My first two books we're loosely planned and I filled it in as I progressed. The third book is mainly pants and that's proving to be troublesome.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

I see writing a story like going on a road trip. When I do a drive across the country I know which cities I will stop in and at least one site or activity I will see. Everything else I do along the way happens on the fly. The same goes for my writing. I need to know where my characters are starting, where they will end up and some specific things they will do during the trip. I like to know the major events of my story, but the times between or what happens while the characters go from one location to another are written in the moment.

When I begin writing a chapter I know one or two main events that will take place. Precisely how or when they occur happens on its own as the story develops. Writing this way for me prevents writer's block. There is still the occasion where I don't know what to write for a section of the story, but I have the option to leave it and write the next section and go back after because I know where the story is going.

 

[Vaz]

Panster.

Planning sucks the joy of discovery out of writing, for me.

 

[Biskit]

Pantser - I have tried the planning thing and it was dire, both for my mental well-being, and the story. Planning is for straightening out intersections of threads. I had to do one a week or two back, a pair of characters split and meet up, but one took a day longer. Oops.

I used to just write, start to end, then edit/fix. For various reasons over the last few years I have often been force to deal with something else and the current work gets left in limbo. I then have to spend time re-reading the last umpteen chapters, just to get my head back in the game with the result that the opening is nicely polished by the time I'm writing the end. The downside is one character taking a day longer than another in the same plot interval...

 

[The Big Peat]

I alternate between the two. There's a previous discussion here that gives an insight into the question too. Perhaps a mod could merge the two?

This is me too at the moment. I'll plan a little to get me on my way, then pants beyond that point until I'm lost, then look at what I have and plan as much further ahead as I can, then keep pantsing once I'm out of plot until I can't, etc.etc.

I am moving steadily towards more and more planning though - or as I like to call it, being able to pants a whole novel in skeletal form inside your head/on paper in a very short period of time. Even where I plan though, I come across somewhere where I think "What was I thinking" and have to pants my way out.

I definitely know more about where the book is going than my characters do though. If the characters knew what was going to happen, they'd all take sick leave, and I'm not nearly as merciless as some here I could mention

 

[thaddeus6th]

Plannage, plannery, planmanship and plancraft are essential. I'm absentminded, so if I don't consider things beforehand I'd end up painting myself into a corner or (by accident) using six different types of currency.

I did write Temple almost entirely by making it up as I went along, which could be quite fun but also meant it took far longer than it should've. A week or two planning (or more for something wholly new) saves months of redrafting.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I try to plan but it never works out. My present book is close to finishing and I need to get my act together because I could probably finish it by Monday. I've written it in a time frame I'm happy with.

What I have found worked really well is to go away and think of a chapter when I'm stuck instead of ploughing on. My book has a pretty coherent, fairy well written in most places story. But I'm aware of tweaks I need to make etc

 

[Cory Swanson]

Panther, but I've currently been writing about a single world for about five months and am a bit fatigued. I'm taking a break and working on some shorts to get refreshed, then will finish up the book.

 

[cyprus7]

Panther, but I've currently been writing about a single world for about five months and am a bit fatigued. I'm taking a break and working on some shorts to get refreshed, then will finish up the book.

A pantser panther! I like it.

 

[Cory Swanson]

Oh geez autocorrect. Go Broncos!

 

[Faye HG]

I see writing a story like going on a road trip. When I do a drive across the country I know which cities I will stop in and at least one site or activity I will see. Everything else I do along the way happens on the fly. The same goes for my writing. I need to know where my characters are starting, where they will end up and some specific things they will do during the trip. I like to know the major events of my story, but the times between or what happens while the characters go from one location to another are written in the moment.

When I begin writing a chapter I know one or two main events that will take place. Precisely how or when they occur happens on its own as the story develops. Writing this way for me prevents writer's block. There is still the occasion where I don't know what to write for a section of the story, but I have the option to leave it and write the next section and go back after because I know where the story is going.

This sounds exactly like how I write!

 

[Faye HG]

Pantser - I have tried the planning thing and it was dire, both for my mental well-being, and the story. Planning is for straightening out intersections of threads. I had to do one a week or two back, a pair of characters split and meet up, but one took a day longer. Oops.

I used to just write, start to end, then edit/fix. For various reasons over the last few years I have often been force to deal with something else and the current work gets left in limbo. I then have to spend time re-reading the last umpteen chapters, just to get my head back in the game with the result that the opening is nicely polished by the time I'm writing the end. The downside is one character taking a day longer than another in the same plot interval...

I can relate to your struggle. Life got in the way with my current novel, and I spent lots of time just getting to know the story again via re-reading it all through. I know try to 'sit' with the story and characters on a regular basis, even when life is incredibly busy/stressful. I have found though that the further into the story I write the stronger connections I have with my characters. As Jim Henson said about Kermit "He is never too far away".

 

[Biskit]

I know try to 'sit' with the story and characters on a regular basis, even when life is incredibly busy/stressful.

I often find myself 'talking' to my characters, even when there is no chance to write because one of the downsides of keeping livestock is when they need things, they need it now and can't be put off while I write a few pages. But then I get back to the writing and find I've forgotten an important detail during those conversations away from the keyboard, or I need to go back and fix things because I've just added an important detail. Part of the problem is that when I have those 'offline' chats with my characters, I have the general concept of the story in my head, but the detail of whether it's Tuesday or Wednesday can get muddled.

 

[Faye HG]

I often find myself 'talking' to my characters, even when there is no chance to write because one of the downsides of keeping livestock is when they need things, they need it now and can't be put off while I write a few pages. But then I get back to the writing and find I've forgotten an important detail during those conversations away from the keyboard, or I need to go back and fix things because I've just added an important detail. Part of the problem is that when I have those 'offline' chats with my characters, I have the general concept of the story in my head, but the detail of whether it's Tuesday or Wednesday can get muddled.

How about carrying a little Dictaphone in your pocket and recording ideas/changes/notes as they pop into your head?

 

[Biskit]

How about carrying a little Dictaphone in your pocket and recording ideas/changes/notes as they pop into your head?

I did consider it, but so many of the non-writing jobs need two hands and/or involve moving real, raw manure, and in winter are done with gloves on. I'm sure the first thing that would happen is that I would drop the dictaphone in something nasty. Or one of the geese would try to eat it. Or the sheep, because they nibble everything. Fleece jackets with elastic draw strings are terrible - the sheep get a firm grip on the toggle, pull until they can't get it to come any further, and then let go, miraculously hitting the bruise from last time. As for the chickens, one of the cockerels has literally had my lunch off me because I wasn't paying attention.

I had to stop in the middle of writing this - rural broadband, best measured in bits/year and goes really flaky when the weather changes, or the humidity changes, or the temperature - but had a few further thoughts as I did the evening routine. Goose poo, as I discovered some years ago, goes through trousers amazingly fast when you slip and go down bum-first. My personal opinion is that it was trying to prove Einstein wrong about nothing going faster than light. Of course life in general suggests that when sh*t happens it happens fast. On the positive side, I am consistent - I both write and smooth slurry heaps by the seat of my pants.

 

[Faye HG]

I did consider it, but so many of the non-writing jobs need two hands and/or involve moving real, raw manure, and in winter are done with gloves on. I'm sure the first thing that would happen is that I would drop the dictaphone in something nasty. Or one of the geese would try to eat it. Or the sheep, because they nibble everything. Fleece jackets with elastic draw strings are terrible - the sheep get a firm grip on the toggle, pull until they can't get it to come any further, and then let go, miraculously hitting the bruise from last time. As for the chickens, one of the cockerels has literally had my lunch off me because I wasn't paying attention.

I had to stop in the middle of writing this - rural broadband, best measured in bits/year and goes really flaky when the weather changes, or the humidity changes, or the temperature - but had a few further thoughts as I did the evening routine. Goose poo, as I discovered some years ago, goes through trousers amazingly fast when you slip and go down bum-first. My personal opinion is that it was trying to prove Einstein wrong about nothing going faster than light. Of course life in general suggests that when sh*t happens it happens fast. On the positive side, I am consistent - I both write and smooth slurry heaps by the seat of my pants.

Funnily enough, when I was typing out that question to you I did think that if I was working on a farm with a dictaphone it would not work out as I would be covered in mad and cow poop, thereby totally ruining myself and the dictaphone! I bet you love having a farm and wouldn't swap it for city life though. I do love how you describe your life, have you thought about writing your story.

 

[Isaac Newt]

I am a panser as well. I write slowly, slow enough that I never really paint myself into a corner. I have an idea where I want my scene to go, and the main points that need to take place. Everything in between is really up to the characters.

For me, it is a rare thing for a character to have their own idea of what they would like to do, and go their own way, especially mid-scene. They do however sit down with me between scenes and discuss their future with me lol. It is an open dialogue, where nothing is off limits.

 

[zmunkz]

I'm something like 80% planner, 20% pantser. I outline down to the chapter, but then I invent the actual chapter content on the fly, roughly aiming for the bullets I want in there.