Plotter vs. Pantser Tip#11

Dear Storyteller,

Have you ever heard of Plotter vs. Pantser Tip#11?

Generally, it’s said that writers fall into one of two categories: a plotter or a pantser. Knowing which plotting style you connect with may help you achieve finishing your story more quickly and efficiently.

Let’s see which one you are…but first, let’s check out some definitions that will help you better understand what each one is…

What is a Plotter?

This post, Plotter vs. Pantser Tip#11, follows nicely on the heels of Don’t Stress Tip#10. Remember when I said that some writers are planners? Well, I could have substituted planner with plotter.

A plotter is someone who has a super nice outline, measures out the details, executes some great scene breaks, and knows ahead of time what the ending will be. Or, generally speaking, this is how it is. Essentially, it helps you pre-plan your novel so that when you get to the writing stage, you don’t necessarily have to consider what comes next, you just write because you’ve already laid out your story for yourself.

There can be some very complex means of diagramming your story, or some very simplistic means. A quick Google search will let you in on some of the best ways; there are a ton out there. But the most complex way would be creating a very detailed outline of your story, including character arcs (how the character changes throughout the book), scene by scene details of what happens to the characters along the way, the ascending tension of your story, the climax of your story, the descending portion of your story, and finally the ending or resolution.

Whew! I’m tired just listing all those, which I will be honest…I don’t know that I got all the terminology 100% correct, but I tried my best.

Does this sound like you?

Does plotting your whole story excite you? Do you have a detailed understanding of where you’d like your story to go, what characters are in your story, and what you want them to learn about themselves and others, and everything you’d like them to accomplish along the way?

Then congrats! You, my friend, are a plotter! 🙂

If you haven’t already heard about it, there’s a great resource out there for you called Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. You can find it here on Amazon.

Jessica gives a good run down of a more formulaic approach to story writing. She does describe herself as more of a plotter; however, if you’re a pantser (we’ll get to your exact definition in a minute), you might still find some useful tidbits of information to help you advance your story just the same.

So, if you’re looking for an exact, step-by-step explanation of how to pre-plan your novel and then just sit and write it, you might really find this resource very stress-relieving.

Now onto our next definition…

What is a Pantser?

This is a strange term for literally just waking up each morning, taking a seat before your computer, opening that doc or page file and pounding out whatever comes to mind next. It’s kind of like “flying by the seat of your pants.”

Basically, there’s no real plan. You just sit. And write.

Simple. Basic. Easy. That’s it.

Does this describe you?

Do you love to wake up every morning, sit down every afternoon, or embrace the quiet of every evening and just…write whatever comes to mind? Are you more of a free spirit? Do you love the unfolding of the unknown and following wherever it leads?

Then congrats! You just earned the title of Pantser! 🙂

Because you’re such a free spirit, there aren’t really any guidelines to give you, other than a lot of The Writer’s Nook tips you’ve already read (and hopefully enjoyed!).

For you, it’s more of a question of how to keep those creative juices flowing. There’s not really that much more to say about the title of Pantser, except that during my own writing journey, I found most professional, veteran writers didn’t have much to say either about how to “pantser” (is that a word?) your novel. I guess this technique is so freeing and invidually owned that you can’t really totally direct someone else on how to use it. As a result, most writers who are Pantsers just stick to providing tips and tricks…which, I guess I fit more into that category. And yet, I’m truly learning as I go as well. I’ll keep adding my discoveries on the more detailed aspects of writing a story as they come about…speaking of which…I have one about how to make your novel something readers love to devour…I discovered this by happenstance and then found a cool YouTube video to back me up! Yes, the veterans do it, too! I’ll try and share that one with you next. So, I apologize if some of the writing tips might be a little more random from here on out.

So, what if neither fits?

While the writing world describes Plotters and Pantsers as the traditional choices of preference, my opinion is that there’s actually a third option, which is the idea that it’s quite possible to fall directly in the middle of these two categories.

What would you call yourself then?

If you’re not finding yourself 100% a Plotter or a Pantser, then maybe you’re a Plantser?

Haha. Okay, lame joke, but still, you kinda get the picture.

That being said, if you’re a Plantser, then you can lean either way: more of a plotter with some pantsing thrown in, or perhaps mainly a pantser with a little bit of organizational planning tastefully integrated.

Which am I?

I’ll be the first to raise my hand and say that while I do lean more toward the Pantser side of writing, I can lay a pretty good claim on the Plotter side of things as well.

You can see from this pic on the right that I do my fair share of plotting, anticipating, and planning how my story will progress and where I want my storylines to go (I”ll talk about this more in an upcoming post!). In this case, the plotter side of me is more of a fallback because I’m not at a computer. So, I don’t have the opportunity to unleash everything I’m thinking and feeling onto the page.

Man, I’ll tell you, though, this is the worst when I have dialogue racing through my head and I can’t get it down fast enough with pen and paper. Those are the times I ask myself why I don’t just carry a computer around with me…and while Notes on my iPhone is a good backup plan…it’s just not the same as being able to adeptly weave the words quickly and efficiently onto the page via the computer…

So, which are you?

Are you a Plotter? A Pantser? The Plantser who’s somewhere in between? Which title inspires you to get all those amazing ideas down onto the page?

Conclusion…

In the end, it’s best not to get too hung up on the titles. The goal of this Plotter vs. Pantser Tip#11 post was just to share a brief definition of each term because it is something you will hear a lot in the writing world, and it’s something that may help you get your story done more efficiently and quickly, if you can recognize your plotting style preference.

I think the more people you learn from and the broader your scope of understanding, the better off anyone is. That being said, if you want to look up more about Tip#11 Plotter vs. Pantser from a variety of different sources, check out the following authors for more insider tips and tricks: Abbie Emmons, Jerry B. Jenkins, Bethany Atazadeh, Brittany Wang, and Mandy Lynn.

When I was first really thinking about publishing, I really wanted to know about other writers’ journeys. These ladies (and Jerry!) helped me a lot. It was really just inspiring watching their YouTube videos and hearing their perspective on writing and what worked well for them.

Before you go…

I hope this segment helped you a little in knowing perhaps a tiny bit more about yourself, what your writing title would be, and that, per my usual recommendation, you don’t have to fit into any one category. You can always be in between, like extroverts can have an introverted side and introverts can have an extroverted side.

Life’s a mish mash of everything and anything you experience and how God made you. Embrace it. Love it. Live it, and hit repeat. Because I’m convinced that everything you experience in life somehow carries over into every story you weave. It’s that inspiration or heartache or fear or joy that brings authenticity to your story. Don’t be afraid to let it shine the way you need to through either plotting, pantsing, or plantsing. 🙂

Miss a tip?

Check out my other posts for The Writer’s Nook here.

Until next time…I hope you gleaned something useful from this Plotter vs. Pantser Tip#11 post to implement in your own journey. Take care, God bless, and see you in the next post! xoxo