Confessions of a Recovering Pantser (or, My First Contest to Give Away Free Stuff)

pantser - A novelist who writes by the 'seat of the pants', not taking time to plan the novel before beginning to write.

plotter - A novelist who outlines the story before beginning to write.

 

Hi, my name's Kyle and I'm a recovering pantser.

For as long as I've desired a career as a writer (say about age 11 when I discovered Stephen King) I have always sat down and wrote. No planning involved. Just scribbled until I fashioned a shell of a story that I then rewrote until all of the pieces came together into a cohesive form. (Yes, the process was exactly as exhausting as it sounds.)

Last year, I decided change. After a study of how to plot (Save the Cat and How to Write a Damn Good Mystery being the two best books I found) I devised my own system.

Step 1: Build the world

Step 2: Develop your characters (the world influences who lives the world)

-       Determine character motivations

-       Determine character arcs

Step 3: Plot using the 15-beat method (see Save the Cat)

Step 4: Once you have everything worked out, write the actual story

I discovered two things about myself:

1.    I love world building and delving into the characters' psyche.

2.   Once I had finished steps 1-4, I was TOO BORED WITH THE STORY to actually write the darned thing.

I've tried letting the outline ferment for a month or so before returning to it. That helped to freshen it a bit, but not enough to rekindle my interest in the story. When it's all said and done, I like outlining and pantsing for the same reason: the thrill of discovery as my brain reveals plot twists in the same manner they are exposed when I read a book - one page at a time. Once an outline is complete, I dislike it for the same reason I never read the same book twice: I already know what's going to happen, so I am no longer emotionally involved.

I see the logic of being a plotter. It does save time and effort, but a third revelation about myself I noticed is the few short stories I've plotted first, and then wrote were … well, er … kind of lifeless. They lacked a spark of originality.

Does this mean I'll return to my pantsing ways?

Maybe.

Yes.

I dunno.

For now, I plan to vaguely sketch my ideas, but do the world building and discover the characters as I go along. Will that mean rewriting? Yes, but rewriting has never bothered me. I suppose that's because I discover something new each time I rewrite - hence, the story is still 'fresh'.

 

Are you a plotter or a pantser? The first person who leaves a detailed comment below before 11:59 p.m. on January 31, 2013 wins a free copy of Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. (Contest limited to residents of the United States of America due to mailing costs - sorry.)