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Plotting vs. seat-of-the-pants writing
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I believe there are as many writing styles as there are writers.
Generally, writers fall into two camps, plotters and intuitive writers (sometimes called seat-of-the-pants writers). I am an intuitive writer. Of course there is always some overlapping of methods. I learned the term intuitive writer from author Alton Gansky. When he said that he’s an intuitive writer, my ears perked up. Intuitive writer sounds like a more purposeful and intelligent term than seat-of-the-pants writer.
From my understanding, when a plotter crafts a story they outline each point in the plot and then flesh out their story. I’ve joked that an intuitive writer plots as well—they just do it as they go along in the story.
As an intuitive writer, I have a clear understanding of the direction I want to press toward, and I know what the ending of the story will be. I know the types of situations I want to place my characters in and what challenges I want them to face. I often know some specific scenes I want to insert into the story. Sometimes I write a scene and tack it onto the end of the document, and when I reach the right point in the story, I insert it into the appropriate chapter.
However, I don’t have a definite “road map” that I follow to craft my story from point to point. As I get into the story, the characters and their situations dictate the way in which the story unfolds. I’m fortunate because I’ve never written myself into a corner. I follow my characters’ lead, and the story seems to grow organically from my characters and the settings into which I place them.
When I mistakenly thought there was a “right” way to write a story, I tried to turn myself into a plotter. It frustrated me and wasted too much time. I’ve accepted my writing method and am a much more relaxed and productive writer. Trying to force myself into being a plotter drained the joy from my writing. I’m more eager to sit at the keyboard when I know I’ll journey with my characters throughout the story.
That all said, there are plenty of plotters in the writing world. If you think that’s your tendency, there are tons of writing books and blogs to advise you.
Regardless of whether you’re a plotter or an intuitive writer, a helpful and fun method for developing your plot is a plotting party. A plotting party is when a few writing friends, usually those familiar with one another's style of writing, get together to hash out some book ideas. Each writer should bring a synopsis and perhaps their first chapter to give everyone a flavor of what direction they're heading in.
Plotting parties are great because they give you several ideas for plot points, scenes, and characterization. Just remember, like critique groups, plotting partygoers all have their own opinions. Don't feel that you must implement all their ideas. However, plotting parties often supply you with good jumping-off points to add interesting scenes and highlights to your novel.
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