What’s your writing style? Are you a pantser, a plotter, or a plantser?
A pantser is someone who plans nothing out. They write as it comes to them and often bounce around. They might not write the plot linearly. There’s more freedom in this style of writing. Changes are more easily made because little is set in stone.
A plotter is someone who outlines, plots, and has a good idea of what will happen before they start writing. A plotter might have detailed notes on each character, as well as a synopsis that’s pages long and details everything. This style of writing is good for breaking up writer’s block because you already know what you want to write and how to get there.
A plantser is someone in between who might outline or jot down some notes beforehand but mostly writes as they go.
Writing styles change and adapt with our needs as writers. For the first 12+ years of writing, I was a plantser that heavily leaned toward pantser. I jotted down brief notes, concepts, and short sentences detailing scenes I knew I wanted to happen, but otherwise, I wrote as it came to me, bounced around to the scenes that excited me, and then pieced everything together. It worked okay for me, but I got terrible writer’s block because I never knew where I wanted the plot to go.
For my latest work in progress, I changed my method completely. I sat down, read various methods of plotting, and took tips from a few different ones. I spent an hour or so writing a one-line blurb of the book. Then I wrote the blurb. This gave structure to my idea. Now that I’m finished and wrote the end, of course, I’m going to go back and polish both more.
After the blurbs, I turned my attention to the characters. For my two main characters, I detailed their backgrounds, their appearance, parentage, culture, etc. This step took some time, but once I finished, I felt like I had a deeper understanding of these characters than I ever did as a pantser. As a pantser, I learned about the characters as I went.
Next, I took my one sentence and turned it into a paragraph, which became a page. One page turned into two pages, and so forth. Before long, I had two-fifths of the book plotted. I got impatient and started writing before my synopsis was finished, so I eventually had to go back and finish it once I got to the point I left off on.
Changing my writing style helped tremendously. I suffer from chronic pain, and it’s hard to concentrate sometimes. Planning beforehand helped keep me focused and prevented any writer’s block.
Surprisingly, I think I’ve been converted to a plotter. I doubt I’ll ever make notecards or draw elaborate pictures or family trees or whatnot, but getting to know my plot and characters before writing has been a huge benefit.
I’m not advocating for being a plotter. My point is, sometimes trying something new can have unexpectedly pleasant results. If you find yourself getting stuck often when writing, try a different approach. Your method should adapt to what your writing needs at the time. Don’t stifle your creativity by trying to force it to be something it’s not.
Maybe you’ve been a plotter all your life and it’s worked perfectly, but your latest book refuses to be plotted, outlined, or reigned in no matter how hard you try to beat it into submission. Try pantsering it up. Try just writing without a plan of where you’re going.
Creative writing is, well, creative for a reason.
What writing style are you? What are some tips and tricks you swear by?
If you haven’t already, check out the last blog post blurbs.
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