Famous Pantsers

[Astro Pen]

I confess I am a total pantser. Plotting just won't work for me . I think that structure is actually intrinsic to the story telling process. It will happen naturally as the story evolves. I know others hold an opposite view, writing tutors are probably the worst for this.
Anyway I thought I would look up "famous pantsers" and see what company I was in, if any?
Pleasant surprise...

Which Authors Are Pantsers? (19 Examples) - Writing Beginner

Which authors are pantsers? Many well-known authors are pantsers. We’ll cover lots of examples in this article—19, in fact! The list below is as full and complete as possible. I’ll simply list the author’s name and identify one or two of their most known books, but these writers wrote many more...

www.writingbeginner.com

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

I'll add Ian Rankin to that list.

 

[Zach777]

I can't think of anyone else who isn't on the list already. I'd say pantsers are more common than people believe, but from my understanding, most people fall into a spectrum between pansters and plotters.

 

[sknox]

We writers are a funny bunch. I mean, do painters do this sort of thing?

I'm a sketcher! No, I'm top-down painter. Me, I just toss buckets of paint.

Or musicians? Sculptors? AFAIK, writers are the only ones so obsessed with this division between planning and diving headfirst.

Which reminds me of the wise saying. People can be divided into two groups: those who divide everyone into two groups, and those who don't.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Not famous, but I am a true pantster. I never know what the next page will bring - and I like it like that. But I think the more upmarket term for us is discovery writers!

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Ursa major]

It's just a guess, but John Scalzi might just be a bit of a pantser.

From his blog (June 6th 2024):

Email today from one of the folks at Tor, saying, hey, we’re doing in-house stuff about Old Man’s War #7 next week, can you give us a couple sentences on what it’s about? And I was all, sure, here’s what it’s about, and also, here’s the title.

This was, I will note, how I learned out what it was going to be about, and also, what it’s title is. Welcome to my creative process!

 

[Steve Harrison]

I believe Lee (Jack Reacher) Child is a pantser, though he's now retired and his bother has taken over the franchise. However, given every Reacher novel has the same plot, he may not be a good example.

 

[msstice]

Which reminds me of the wise saying. People can be divided into two groups: those who divide everyone into two groups, and those who don't.

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who use binary and those who don't.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I thought there were three kinds of people in the world. Those who can count and those who can't!

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

In other media.... Beethoven was a plotter, but I'm pretty sure Mozart was a pantser.