Are you a Plotter or a Pantser?

A “pantser” is one who writes “by the seat of their pants.” A plotter is at the other end of the spectrum, working out all the moments in the plot in great detail, from who’s in the scene, whose POV it is, what’s happening, and where and why it’s happening.

Plantser: a (lot of) middle ground

But, as you can see, there’s a lot of room in the middle of that spectrum. If your outline is vague, a line or two for crucial plot points, but the scenes between those points are filled in when you get to them in writing the draft, you’re a plantser, occupying the middle ground between a pantser and a plotter. If you write up character sheets, jot down a few motivations and goals, then start writing, you’re a plantser. If you do some research before you start writing word one and stop while writing to do more research, you’re a plantser. If you let your outline change, or even stop to revise it as you’re writing, you’re a plantser.

Writing is a creative endeavor. There is not one way, or even three ways, to be creative. There are millions. Totally unique and personalized to you, your experience of life as well as how you experience creativity. Locking yourself into one process can occasionally lock up your brain. So, if you’re getting stuck, whether you self-labeled as a plotter or a pantser, maybe take a moment to try a step from the other process and see if that doesn’t get your pen flowing again. Here’s a couple tips. See what works for you.

Stuck pantser? Add plot

If you’re a pantser stuck in a corner of your plot, what you might need is a little certainty about where your characters are heading. Here’s some questions to answer that might show you a path forward:

• What’s blocking their decision-making?
• Where can you add it a few scenes back?

Now, go back and add it. Then in the current scene, put it in their hand (or their head, if it was a mental block). Don’t worry if it doesn’t feel smooth. Editing will take care of that.

A lot of pantser are “writing the movie in my head.” But like dreams can sometimes be strings of images, your zero draft may be leaving out some of the connective scenes.

If a character will need a pickaxe to get through a wall, they’d have to have found it, think it might be useful later, pick it up, and add it to their supplies. But they might have missed it their first time through an earlier room. Similarly, if a character needs confidence to face a villain they haven’t defeated before, they need to learn that confidence in another situation somewhere earlier to be able to possess the confidence when the villain finally appears.

Stuck plotter? Try pantsing

Adding pantsing into a plotter’s process means brainstorming. You have to list every possible outcome for a scene. Apply no judgment. Consider the reasonable (including failure) as well as the absurd and physically impossible. Then, choose a couple and plan what would be needed to write them in. You might discover something about your characters or the story that you didn’t know before.

Through allowing this, you may discover that your block was because the characters were being forced through a plot point that neither truly fit them nor their goals. It’s better to write a variant on a trope than to shoehorn a character into a hole that doesn’t fit them.

Happy writing!

~ Lara

If you still need some help working through a block, give me a whirl.