I have found myself in a few conversations lately about the merits of being a plotter or a pantser, with interesting insights on the two different concepts. In reality, the conversations always comes down to how we are all different and how there is no one way to get the initial draft on paper. We all do what we have to do to make the writing happen, but it is interesting how many of us have multiple tactics up our sleeves. Sometimes, we're forced to change gear and try something else.

So, which really is better? Well... It would seem that the answer is nowhere near as simple as the question.

The Pantser

For those who are not familiar with the concept, a pantser is one who has no idea what they're going to write when they sit down to write (or stand to write for those with standing desks). They may or may not have a loose idea in their heads, but they really don't know where the story is going. They just let the mood take them where it wants to go. They are literally crafting the story by the seat of their pants.

Pantsers are also known as discovery writers, because they discover their story as they go.

Stories developed by pantsers tend to evolve in an organic way, taking twists and turns that even the writer didn't see coming. However, pantsers are prone to writer's block, becoming flustered when characters suddenly want to go into a cave and refuse to come out. It can lead to unfinished stories, or event worse, stories that are confusing to read.

But there are many successful pantsers out there, including Stephen King.

The Good Side of Pantsing

In general, pantsing can be more freeing. There are no constraints on where a story has to go. If you don't know your characters well enough yet, this could be the way to learn who they are.

The Bad Side of Pantsing

Pantsers generally face more editing and revisions, simply because the story failed to hit the desired beats, or characters aren't as well refined in the beginning of a manuscript as they are at the end. However, plotters can face these issue too.

Another issue that many pantsers face is when the story derails down some tangent and just refuses to come back. Writers can easily lose interest at that point, and the story is never finished.

The Plotter

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the plotter is the writer who works out all the details for their stories long before they sit down to write. They'll have a plot outline, character profiles, the landscape of their worlds — all of it. For some writers, having the clear picture of where a story is heading keeps them focused.

With the likes of Brandon Sanderson and Dan Brown being successful plotters, one can understand the allure of plotting.

Stories written by plotters have a clear direction to the story elements. You know right away what type of story that you're reading, and you know what to expect. However, sometimes the writing can seem forced, as the writer desperately tries to stick to their carefully structured plot, instead of letting the story go where it wants to go.

The Good Side of Plotting

As I mentioned above, plotting can help a writer focus, moving through the plot a scene at a time. Depending on the methodology employed by the writer (and how their brain works), writing that story could be just a simple matter of giving it flesh and color. The plotting might have already built the skeleton.

If you are working on a series where the story progresses from one book to the next, plotting can be highly beneficial, so you can see how the books all fit together. Plotting can also be beneficial if you need to take a break from your writing because life just keeps getting in the way. A plot can help remind you where you had intended to take the story. Or, if you're working on an episodic series, where each story is self-contained but in the same world as the previous ones, your plotting will form your story bible, detailing character traits and things about the world, so you can be consistent.

The Bad Side of Plotting

Because our brains all work differently, there isn't a one-size-fits-all method to plotting. K.M. Weiland has several resources aimed at outlining and plotting, including workbooks, but others will swear up and down about the Save the Cat! model. Then you have the snowflake method, flow charting, mind mapping, gantt charts, and the list goes on.

Trying to work out which way will work for you really does come down to trial and error. As one of my writing buddies, Grace Lawler, said in a recent discussion about this, some methods are so detailed that they just take away the will to live. She said this just before explaining to us the plotting method that she has found that worked for her.

That's really the biggest downfall of plotting. Some writers find that if they plot too much, it takes away their creativity. The story has lost that shiny new feeling, and they no longer want to write it. And some writers get flustered when the characters rebel from whatever you had planned and they insist on taking the story in a different direction. (Curse the characters who want to write their own stories!)

The Plantser

In listening to the writers around me and reading about the writing processes of some of the big named writers, I've come to the conclusion that majority of writers fall into the plantser category, being a hybrid mix of a plotter and a pantser. Brad Thor and Mary Robinette Kowal are both plantsers, plotting a certain amount of their stories, but allowing the pantser to discover the specifics. I have even heard recent comments from Brandon Sanderson where he confessed that he's had to learn to let go of his rigid plotting and sometimes embrace the pantser that was dying to set free all these years.

It would appear that as a writer progresses through their writing career, they start to develop a process that isn't 100% plotter or 100% pantser, but somewhere in the middle. It's a spectrum, and no one method is the same.

As mentioned above, plotting is highly beneficial to working with series, but sometimes, it's much more fun to discover how the character makes it from one side of France to the other in 10 minutes. You might know that it needs to be done, but the details are the elements that take even the writer by surprise.

My Process

I, myself, am a plantser with strong pantser tendencies. I NEED that bum-in-the-chair-and-barf-up-the-story draft, after which I'm able to identify my core plot points and who my characters really are. However, for crime fiction, I NEED to plot out the crime elements: the key evidence and what little thing will lead to catching the bad guy. If I don't plot out the crime elements, I will find myself making the logic leap that makes no sense to a reader. However, any details that revolve around the emotional arcs for the characters need to be pantsed, even in the rewrites. It's those scenes that seem to be the only ones that survive from the barf drafts, with some version of them making it into the final drafts.

So, my process is plot the core action, but pants the emotion.

It's important to understand the Writer in You.

Everyone is different, so to work out a writing process that works for you, you need to understand the writer in you. Far too often, we see what others are doing, seeing how productive they are, and we try to emulate them, only to struggle or fail. But by forcing ourselves to look at our own hopes and dreams, and our own processes, we learn how to become just as productive.

The Writer in You workbook is designed with that purpose in mind. There are no right or wrong answers, because it's all about discovering who you are as the writer. This workbook is free to download.

Whether you're a pantser, a plotter or a plantser, always remember that you're a writer.