One of the questions many authors are asked along the way is whether or not they are a “pantser” or a “plotter”. While the terms are fairly easy to figure out, you may wonder why it matters. After all, if it’s just about writing a book, why would it matter how you go about it?
Knowing our quirks and styles can go a long way toward crafting our books. It can tell us what to look out for in terms of continuity, pacing and voice. While writing can often just be a flow of consciousness and the words may come easily, we do want to deliver a polished product to our readers. Once we’ve told the story in our first draft, we leave the world of pure creativity and enter into the realm of the mundane in terms of editing, checking punctuation, grammar and “hmmm, are my hero’s eyes blue or brown?”
A “pantser” tells the story that wants to be told, just letting the words come. He or she goes from the beginning to middle to end without stopping to look at punctuation, grammar and loopholes in the story. This author, as quite a few others will tell you they do as well, dreams her stories. I set an intention to dream a scene the night before, the dream comes and first thing in the morning, I write that scene. It may be disjointed and have the mosaic-like images we see in our dreams, but the emotions and next step in the story are there. Names and physical characteristics will change, what starts out as a café turns into a five star restaurant, a book store into a movie studio and back again. The story is told. Many pantsers will tell you that the characters tell them what the story is about. NanoWrimo, held each November, is a great venue for pantsers because the goal there is to write 50,000 words in thirty days. Writers don’t stop to look at sentence construction, whether they need a semi-colon or a period or what a character has ordered for lunch beyond saying something like “a burger”. It’s when the author goes back in after that first draft that we learn it was a well done burger with blue cheese, extra pickles and a sourdough bun that made the heroine’s mouth water.
After the pantser has told the story he or she needs to go back in and carefully check his punctuation, review grammar, ensure continuity and flesh out any gaps, especially in research. The author needs to pay special attention to details for mistyped words such as “form” for “from” and “teh” for “the”, etc. Perhaps the greatest challenge for the pantser is making certain these elements are met as well as the story flowing in a make sense fashion.
A “plotter” on the other hand knows pretty much everything about the story from beginning to middle to end. She writes steadily, making sure the correct punctuation is used, scene breaks occur at just the right point and when the hero and heroine will share their first kiss or the sleuth will stumble on a key clue. The plotter will generally at least outline the story, breaking down each chapter as a segment of the outline. One well known author diagrams out not just the story itself, but knows each character’s history and family connections. The heroine’s first cousin, Mica, may be someone who got into all kinds of scrapes with her in her early years but the reader may never meet Mica. She’s simply someone who contributed in some way to who the heroine is today. What’s important is that the plotter fleshes out her characters, who they are, who their friends and family are; every detail worked out even down to where a character went to school. The way this particular author plans out her entire story allows her to essentially make her first draft her final version—but keep in mind she’s been writing best sellers for a long time. That does not mean you cannot do the same, just keep in mind you may need to do a few passes before your book is ready to submit. Perhaps the greater challenge for the plotter is showing emotion in the stories rather than simply following an outline.
There are, of course, those that fall in between where an author will fully research elements of a story before sitting down to write. My current work in progress is one such book. Beginning in 2012 the heroine is transported back to 1860 and on to a clipper ship. It was important to research the ships themselves, their route of travel from the east coast of the United States around the Cape and northward to San Francisco. What happened to the ships, how they were broken up for their lumber to build homes when they arrived in California was fascinating to read. More than that were how the captains and crews kept up on current information, how fresh meat and other foods were provided once they were at sea and the role of women on the ships. Yes, there were often women on the ships! Captain’s wives were not at all uncommon aboard the ships.
The mechanism for the time travel also required research into the elements of a particular stone. Language, clothing and foods from that relevant time period were other aspects that needed to be verified. It made more sense to have all this information readily available before beginning to write the story. The initial phase of writing the story was definitely in plotter mode—the telling of the story has definitely been that of a pantser.
Whether or not you are a pantser, a plotter or somewhere in between the end goal is to tell an entertaining story that draws in the reader and transports them along with your characters.
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