Road Trip Wednesday is a weekly blog carnival hosted by YA Highway. This week's topic is: Are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you like to make a detailed plan before you start a project? Or do you prefer to fly by the seat of your pants and make it up as you go along?
Funny you should ask. I talked about my desire to pants more, plot less here: I wish I was a little bit pants-er.
I have always been a plotter. My two completed mss*? Plotted. My old partially-written WIP? Really plotted.
But the new WIP that I cheat on my revisions with? PANTSING!
That's right. I wrote myself a pitch and I'm just pantsing it from there. So far. Who's to say that I won't flesh out an outline when I'm working on that one full-time.
What about you? Plot or Pants? And do you have envy of those who do the opposite of you? Because as a plotter, I've always envied pantsers.
*"completed" as in "having full drafts that may or may not still be revised a billion times."
15 comments:
I definitely think I'm a mixture of both, though I do like to have the first few and last few chapters outlined. I kind of wing the middle. :)
I'm a panster. But my last WIP I wrote slower, so I thought about many scenes before having time and energy to put on paper. (Virtual paper, that is.)
Good luck with letting your inner pantster come through...It is worth trying to see if it will work for you.
Meanwhile, I'm a pantster who wishes she was better at coming up with plots beforehand...esp. ones that follow "da rules"...I can't seem to do those.
I'm a mix but I always wish I could be more like a plotter. It seems revisions are much easier when you outline beforehand. Not easy, of course, but include fewer major overhauls. Do you already have a post on how you plot out your story? I'd be interested in hearing your process, since I haven't done it before.
I envy people who can outline! But pantsing can be a great way to loosen up and really find your voice, IMO. Good luck! :)
I am mostly a pantser, but I have to have a basic roadmap planned out in my head before I write or I just meander around and never get anywhere.
I find "pantser envy" to be a hilarious phenomenon. Like we're some manic pixie girls who are somehow so carpe diem... when usually I just feel panicked, like "where the heck is this going??" LOL. If plotting works for you (and it sounds like it definitely does!) Embrace it!
(but pantsing a little on the side sounds fun too :) )
I love the idea of giving yourself a pitch! I may try that one day.
I'm both. And I need to be. Every writer needs to find what works for them and just go with it.
Great post! I like the pants diagram. Neat. :)
Awesome that you're experimenting with branching out into a new style! I hope it works well for you :)
rofl @ your pants pic
I never would have thought it before I tried it, but a pitch was a great place for me to leap off for my second book. Now if only I didn't have to do revisions on my first book, so that I could actually work on that second book!
I like to start with a pitch too, and like you, I'm a plotter. I've tried pantsing and that manuscript turned out to be a mess that needed far more revising than it would have if I'd started with an outline. It's since been trunked. :)
I have a bit of pantser envy. It just seems so free and artsy! Life fun and not work!
@Tracey: thanks for the post idea! Although I'm not sure I'm the most efficient outliner/plotter. :)
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