On writing: plotting, planning and pantsing

[AG31]

We need another category: Recorder. That is recorder of fantasies. The fantasy just happens, as fantasies do. My task is to put just the right words to make it come alive for other people. Almost all of my stories are recordings. The one where I had an idea and developed a plot (Naked) is my least successful.

Am I the only author in this category???? Whether yes or not, it's a real category!

 

[StillStunned]

Am I the only author in this category???? Whether yes or not, it's a real category!

A category of one is still a category!

 

[anthrodisiac]

We need another category: Recorder. That is recorder of fantasies. The fantasy just happens, as fantasies do. My task is to put just the right words to make it come alive for other people. Almost all of my stories are recordings. The one where I had an idea and developed a plot (Naked) is my least successful.

Am I the only author in this category???? Whether yes or not, it's a real category!

Conjurer perhaps is a better term. You pull a story from the ether already mostly full formed, and you jot it down. To record makes it seem like you didn't come up with it, that it was generated from outside you, but in this case, you did create it, it's just something that happened subconsciously that came unbidden to the fore and now you're compelled to give it shape and form outside the firing of your neurons.

 

[deathlynx]

I've gone both routes. When I first started writing I was all about pantsing (every time I see the phrase I giggle and think about sneaking up behind you lot to pull down your trousers! )
I even wrote a couple of novels with the technique (sorry, only around 70k words but that's still considered good enough)

As my writing has matured, and my concepts get more intricate and complicated, I have to make notes in the middle of story ideas to keep things straight. As the story progresses those became more prevalent until I now start a novel with about a paragraph per chapter. Things happen, and sometimes it's ends up a couple of chapters, but it's still more plotted than improvised.

Short stories, on the other hand, are still almost entirely spontaneous. I have a brief idea and I just write it.

 

[Britva415]

We need another category: Recorder. That is recorder of fantasies. The fantasy just happens, as fantasies do. My task is to put just the right words to make it come alive for other people. Almost all of my stories are recordings. The one where I had an idea and developed a plot (Naked) is my least successful.

Am I the only author in this category???? Whether yes or not, it's a real category!

I call it the Penthouse Letters category. I've been using that lately more for referring to a particular form of first-person narration, but it matches what you're describing, too, regarding authorial intent.

 

[deathlynx]

I just remembered why I used to avoid plotting so insistently. Back when I started writing, I found that my muse tended to dry up when I got the basic plot down on paper. The stories were in my head and wanted to get out but were satisfied with nothing more than an outline.

These days specific wording gets locked in there so I have to jot that down first, before I can get around to writing the rest. So I end up writing a point midway into it, and something near the beginning. Because it's clearly not all there, I've found I can (usually) go back and fill in the missing parts.

Just last night, on the ride home, the end of the story I'm working on plagued me (I've only just reached the sex scene) so I wrote that before bed. Today's the fun part...and looking to be much longer and in depth than I expected, now that I know how it ends.

 

[Randy_Lector]

I'm somewhere in between, I think. With pure pantsing I just don't do well. The story just wanders and I end up with substantial re-writes when the real story finally reveals itself to me. With pure plotting I feel constrained (though I know that's mostly in my own head).

Generally, I'll start with a non-detailed outline that feels right. Usually with some thought to what the plot twists are, dark moments, key scenes, et al. I don't go deep with it and think of it as my guiding star. This outline is kept at the bottom of the working manuscript along with character card type details (that also develop through pantsing).

From there, I pick a starting point (usually the wrong one for the final copy) and take off writing. I adjust the outline actively as the story comes alive so I can still have that goal-post in mind as I write.

Once, I kept the original outline and compared it to the final outline after the last word was written. They looked like outlines for different stories. It's usually still the story I wanted to tell; I just took a different route to get there than the one I expected at the outset.

 

[UnexpectedLuggage]

I, generally, write a little synopsis with the plot points that I really want to hit (along with character names and pertinent details). I'm still mostly winging it, though.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm a plotter, but I recognize that not everyone is a plotter, so my advice to new authors is: just write. Don't let yourself get hung up on methods. Just write and see how it goes and find out what works for you. Get the story done, submit it, and move on to the next story.