Writing Styles: Are You A Pantser or Plotter?

My love for writing and the world that came with it started quietly on my grandmother’s porch at ten-years-old. I had been an avid reader since I learned how to, but the writing bug didn’t bite until the summer after 4th grade. Books like Gulliver’s Travels gave me a sense of adventure and a curiosity for what might be out there in the world beyond my tiny reach of Reserve, Louisiana. Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret taught me that I wasn’t alone in the pre-teen years of my life. Whatever the genre, books have always been a guiding force for me. As a child, stories would formulate in my head, seemingly out of nowhere. I’d either sit and watch them play on the screen of my mind or I’d write them down. For some reason, they always seemed to pop up in the summertime while I was sprawled out on that front porch– Maw-Maw’s porch.

            Looking back on those times, I’ve realized that I am a pantser at heart. There are two different kinds of writers: pantsers and plotters. A pantser is someone who writes by the seat of their pants. Stories come to them and they pen it to paper as it unfolds. There is little to no outlining involved. It’s a messier, but freer journey. On the other hand, a plotter is someone who outlines aspects of their story before they start. A plotter begins with the left side of their brain (logic and reason) and a pantser begins with the right side (creativity and instinct).

          It’s all based on your personal preference and your personality. Here are some clues to determine which you may be…

Signs that you are a Pantser:

1. Scenes appear in your head with no structure. 

2. Characters, sometimes with names and/or physical descriptors, pop into your mind. At times they will bug you until you put their essence down on paper.

3. You have a preference for spontaneity in your creativity and you may tend to approach life in the same way. 

Signs that you are a Plotter:

1. You prefer to outline the story using character descriptions, plot points and scene-by scene summaries before writing.

2. You may take it further than outlining by building the world in which your story will take place through graphs or diagrams.

3. You have a preference for logic and reason and you may tend to approach your life in the same way.

Although I am a pantser by nature, I had to become a plotter when I wrote my first non-fiction book, Many Voices One Truth (mainly because the traditional publishing process required it). Now my writing process reflects a combination of pantsing and plotting. A plantser if you will. Most writers start as one or the other, but then may eventually grow into a plantser as they gain more confidence in their writing.

Pros of being a Pantser:

1. Freedom in exploration: You let the story decide where it wants to take you. There is no fixed outline to determine where you should go. Pantsers technically plan and write at the same time.

2. Discovery: New ideas may unfold that you discover mainly because you have the flexibility and freedom to.

3. Acceptance of the journey: Pantsers tend to be more open-minded towards what ends up on the page, acknowledging that developing a story takes lots of time and lots of drafting. 

Cons of being a Pantser:

1. Prison Corner: Without direction, we Pantsers can end up writing ourselves into a corner and getting stuck there, leading to unfinished and abandoned projects because we don’t know where to go next.

2. Inconsistency: Without structure, we may write in elements that are not consistent with what we’ve written so far. This can lead to a lot of frustration in back-tracking to make the new material fit. 

3. Writer’s Block: There is really no such thing as writer's block per se. The condition is really a result of brain hemisphere jumping. If one side of your brain is busy planning and the other is creating, we may experience fatigue once that imaginative juice runs out. The left side of our brain wants to solve the problem, while the right side doesn’t want to force creativity. This tug-of-war creates the paralysis known as writer's block. It’s more of a symptom of being mentally overwhelmed. Slow down and break down the issue. Do you need to take space from it or is there a problem to think through? Once you navigate the problem, the right side of the brain just needs a jumping off point to get back to work.

Pros of being a Plotter:

1. Direction: Plotters typically do not write themselves into a corner because they have planned out where they want the story to go. If they do, outlines provide a map for the story as a whole that can provide a way forward. 

2. Less editing: Although no first draft is ever perfect, plotters have less revisions along the way. 

3. Less Writer’s Block: Plotters are less likely to get stuck and are more likely to retain their focus due to Pro #1.

Cons of being Plotter:

1. Rigidity: Plotters often find it hard to deviate from their carefully planned outlines. 

2. Overthinking and Overplanning: Plotters can sometimes get so involved in the brainstorming process that they never quite make it to actually creating the project for consumption.

3. Resistance to needed edits: When a project is so well-planned out, it may be difficult to see plot holes or weak choices that need to be improved. 

If you have just begun your writing journey, you may heavily identify with one or the other. Beginners who are pantsers revel and take pride in their ability to create on a whim.  Plotters take pride in their efficiency and organization skills. Most people eventually find themselves somewhere in the middle. You may start out with an outline and then find yourself winging it along the way or vice versa. It may be beneficial to consider your writing process and see how you can add or decrease your level of structure in a way that would be most fruitful for you. In any case, be you, the you you are now in your journey and allow for the development of yourself as a writer.

Happy Writing!