Plotting vs. Pantsing

What They Mean, and Why You Should Know The Difference

First of all: Happy October! If you read my latest post, you know how much I love fall in Colorado - unlike spring, we actually get some warm weather without 60-mph winds!

Now to business. If you've ever participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short), you know what I mean by Plotters and Pantsers - and you know that once October arrives, November is looming right behind it.

For those of you who might not be familiar with NaNoWriMo, here's the tea: Every November, writers all over the world set aside time to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That amounts to 1,667 words needed every day.

The good news is, there's no competition - over who finishes first, who wrote the most the fastest, or whose writing is the 'best'. The point is to get the words out, whether they're coherent or not. (You can always edit later!)

In order to write as much as possible during November, it helps to know what kind of writer you are - i.e. are you in the Plotter camp or Panster camp? You may already have an idea, but let's break down the definitions so you can be sure.

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Plotters

A Plotter often has dozens of notebooks or documents chock-full of ideas for stories, plot bunnies, notes on worldbuilding and plot, character profiles, and/or a detailed outline of their current project with every known event and sometimes whole scenes written down. Granted, this is a pretty extreme case, but if you like to know everything about your story and characters before you start writing the book, it's a safe bet that you're a Plotter.

You may not write EVERYTHING down all the time, but keeping notes makes it easier to keep track of things - and keeping track of things is the only way to get anything done. By the time you write your first chapter, you already know exactly what characters are going to show up and how they develop throughout the story. You may make changes to your outline from time to time, but your story itself will almost always follow that outline.

If this is you, then congratulations! You're a Plotter, and you probably love the idea of preparing for NaNoWriMo by outlining your entire book and writing down every detail about the characters during October.

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Pantsers

If the above sounds like a tedious, unattainable torture trial to you, don't fret: Not every writer is a Plotter, and Plotters aren't the only ones who get things done either.

If you hold ideas in your head but rarely write them down, if you like to start new projects based on a fleeting idea, if you don't mind writing without a clear ending in mind, or if you find yourself writing a twist that even you didn't see coming, you're probably a Pantser!

I'm definitely in this camp, known thus because we like to fly by the seat of our pants when writing. There's not much planning ahead of time, and if something unexpected appears in the middle of a scene, all the better!

Maybe you've tried outlining, but just haven't been able to keep it consistent - or you've tried using several different planning resources, and either can't stick to them or suddenly find yourself losing excitement for your story. That's okay. Plotting isn't for everyone, and Pantsers are more effective just sitting down to see where things go anyway.

This doesn't mean you can't have any plan at all - I usually know how I want my books to begin and end, with a couple of ideas for the middle, but it's still subject to change, and the rest comes on its own.

If this is you, then don't worry about planning much during October - just hold on to an idea that excites you, and on November 1, sit down to write it!

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BONUS GROUP: Plantsers!

Located in the misty, gray no-man's-land between Pantsers and Plotters live a mysterious group of writers who call themselves Plantsers; halfway between Plotters and Pantsers, they utilize many planning tools while leaving plenty of space to improvise.

If you're not sure you want to limit yourself to one camp or the other, you might be a Plantser - whether you're a little of both, or you haven't figured out which one you are yet. This is perfectly fine, and that's why the third camp exists! Feel free to write things down as often as you want, in as much detail as you enjoy, but you don't have to stay within those boundaries if your ideas take you somewhere else.

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This is by no means an official, end-all rulebook for what makes a Plotter or a Pantser; it's just meant to help you find your type and understand your own writing process a little better, which will help you in the long run (not just for NaNoWriMo)! These are my conclusions based on what I've observed among my author friends, but if you have something to add, please mention it in the comments!

NOTE: I love NaNoWriMo, because it gives me more opportunities to get together with other writers and push hard for a short-term goal. However, if you've never done it before and want to try it, I should let you know that the NaNoWriMo organization isn't a Christian endeavor. They take great pains to remain politically correct on their website and in promotional emails (which is fairly easy to overlook, but it is there.) Just so you know. ;)

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Pantser, Plotter, or Plantser, I hope this gave you some ideas for how to tackle National Novel Writing Month this year - and how to embrace your personal writing process in the long run! I'll be posting once more in two weeks, and then I'm taking a hiatus during NaNoWriMo to concentrate on my current novel.

See you down at the docks, mate!

- Lydia