What Type of Writer Are You?

Plotter, Pantser, or Plantser

There you are, sitting in your car, driving to work on your long commute. You’ve always had ideas, but this one hits you like a 2x4 to the nose and for once you want to get to work and watch the story unfold.

You jot down the idea on your phone, in an email, on a sticky note–whatever is available and save it for when you’ve got time. The day flies as your mind goes wild in the slower moments and you’ve designed characters, the atmosphere, and, of course, that one scene that spurred this drive has become so much clearer.

That little note of yours is several sentences long and your excitement hasn’t left by the time you leave for home. You picked up dinner and ate on the way home to make more time for you to write. By the time you sit down in front of your computer or notebook, poised to start and then… Nothing.

All of that inspiration, those ideas that drive, vanishes at the intimidation of the blank page.

We all have faced that dread while staring at the blank page. I’ll admit before I started this blog, I did the same thing. Heyo! I’m Kat and I’m an indie author and writer by trade. We ALL have faced the blank page with varying degrees of horror or watched it drain our willpower within seconds. Anyone who writes has at some point, no matter your writing style.

Some need the outline from our school days to encourage us to write. Some, like myself, can’t stand to write the outline in the first place. I’ve seen plenty others use the sticky note method or programs to help them with keeping tracks of plot points. These are all tools that we use to help motivate or keep ourselves on track. They are also the basic line that points you down either the path of a pantser or a plotter.

You could also need a good mixture of both tools to help you write. By the end of this blog, you’ll learn what the differences are between the two writing styles and where you fall on the ever-debated line. Let’s talk about plotters first.

Sticky Notes, Timelines, and Outlines.

You were likely the one to ace the school projects and papers because you always had a clear, concise outline that you were able to follow to the letter. Even if you couldn’t write the paper itself, at least you knew exactly where it was going and the topic for each section.

I have absolutely nothing against this method. When it comes to my novels, though, there’s no way that I can build an outline for them. My characters tend to walk away with my story no matter how much structure I have planned. Case and point: one character was supposed to have a redemption arc. The next thing I realized was that the character was dead just before it came to fruition. Talk about a variation from the outline.

Plotting or plotters tend to like the structure of an outline or sticky note scenes, storyboards. You name it, they have all the fancy tools they need (and yes, sticky notes are fancy to me and my horde of half-filled notebooks). Having the structure of their book allows them to be able to keep their vision moving forward and their characters as on track as the characters themselves allow.

This style of writer knows a varying range of information, be it scene to scene, chapter to chapter, or beginning–middle–end. And they have the power to be able to write these things down in order and follow it as close as possible. This, my friends, is a superpower in my opinion. I have become a plotter only when it comes to blogs and I still can’t follow the outline I write to save my life.

The ones who are by far the most impressive are those plotters who know the key point to every scene in their book. They have envisioned them all and have written them down in order. Those I term the Super Plotters. The next level, are those that know what each key point in the chapter is but allow the characters some of their own license to play and twist the plot. The level beyond that is the General Plotters. They know how the story starts, what the climax is, and where the book needs to finish. These levels also extend to characters and their creation as well.

I wonder if any of these levels sound like how you think. There is a level of rigidity that comes with being a plotter of any level, which, sadly, can be met with multiple rewrites of the outline. Where this does help the most though is in completing the manuscript you’re working on. Now I say that and must defend my writing style. 😊

Grab the Rope and Hold On! We’re Going for a Ride.

“Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.” ~Stephen King.

One of the greatest pantsers of our time is absolutely right when it comes to writing. This is as a pantser or plotter. Writing is always difficult at some point, whether you plan or just write. Pantsers get their name because they ‘fly by the seat of their pants.’ That’s not always how it feels when I write, and I’m sure there are others with this writing style that can agree.

But I can tell you that when I wrote the character’s death that I mentioned above, that was a lot faster that I was anticipating. One second, I was mid-scene watching and taking my notes as the characters went through their battle. The next, I was staring at my computer screen shrieking, “You’re DEAD?! Why are you dead?!” My poor husband couldn’t figure out what I was talking about from the other room. That’s just one instance of how unpredictable pantser writing can be though.

As a pantser, we usually have one scene, one goal, or one question to solve over the course of our story. That’s about as far as we plan. The only tools we have are our imaginations. The plotters have just as wild and crazy ones as we do, don’t think otherwise. But in having only one thing in mind, we can easily lose steam or become stuck on our way to answer the question. That’s where the quote from Mr. King comes in.

These are the writers who have always struggled with outlines or writing courses in school because they were always required to stick to the outline they built or were given. These are those who never usually have a plan in life, let alone when writing. These are those who also could have everything planned so much that the only thing they have freedom in is their writing.

Here are the levels of pantser that I have found. The very definition of the word pantser. This person has one thought, and that’s this one scene they need to get to. Things get rather elaborate and over the top as they fly by the seat of their pants towards their goal. This includes every plot hole possible before they get to that one scene because they need to write that ONE scene.

The next level is the Goal Oriented pantser. While these people do fly without proper wings, they also have the story engrained in their system enough that they are simply able to make it suddenly appear on a page, plot holes and motivation included.

Can we see why we pantsers get a bad rep? A lot of us have over a dozen unfinished manuscripts or single scenes written out. I have three manuscripts that are still in progress, with two more on the idea block which are outside of my current series. There is one enormous benefit to writing this way, though. The first draft, once completed, becomes our outline for the next draft because as we edit, we have an easier time with changes that can come instead of being confined to a specific point-by-point outline.

I wonder if any of these levels sound like how you think. There is a level of freedom that comes with being a pantser of any level, which, sadly, can be met with multiple unfinished manuscripts. Where this does help the most though is in editing the manuscript you’ve finished. Now that I say that, I need to let you in on a secret.

There are those who have been termed plantsers. This is the secret level between pantser and plotter. Let me shed some light on the secret in between level.

The Outliner with Frequent Flier Miles

It could also be termed as the Frequent Flier Who Knows of the Itinerary. That all depends on if you start as a plotter and add elements of a pantser or vice versa. Those Goal Oriented pantsers or the beginning-middle-end plotters tend to find this gray area between the lines as a plantser. You have some things that are in fact planned out, but the sections between tend to fly wherever the characters take it.

As I lined up for you, there are two levels here. One where you lean more into the outlining side than the free form. This writer has specific scenes in mind to reach through their story and want them at evenly spaced intervals to make the flow that much better.

Then there are those that lean towards the loose plan and goal while just writing down whatever the characters are choosing to do in the moment. This is my style more often than not.

There are plenty of days that I am rereading my previous work to understand where my characters were headed to reach the end goal. I read StormBringer: The Isgradine Trilogy over a dozen times while I was writing the second book in the trilogy, so I could do three things.

1.      Verify that all my information was correct.

2.      Make sure I was closing plot holes as I went.

3.      For inspiration. To continue to the end goal which happened in the third book.

I did the same thing when it came to the final book, The Heart of Isgradine: The Isgradine Trilogy, and then I was rereading both the first and second book. I had the goals for each book in a beginning-end style outline in my head. Nothing was written down for that outline until I was writing the third book and needed to have everything organized in some fashion.

My new series is much the same. There’s an end goal for the series. I had planned out some of the characters and I spent countless hours writing and rewriting drafts that were half finished (my pantser won on those drafts and they were ultimately scrapped). Then I thought of the goals of each book in the series as beginning and end and I have three manuscripts for it finished now.

This is why the rule of a writer is always keep writing. You can easily change styles to suit what you need to accomplish. Much like myself when writing blogs versus writing my novels. Everyone has a different writing style, you just need to discover what works for you.

Which One Are You?

By now, you can get a decent picture of the three different writing styles. Plotters love the structure of outlines, timelines, and plotting. Pantsers love to fly free until they reach their scene or answer. Plantsers have some goals in mind and need some loose structure to reach their scene while they watch their characters waltz, trip, scream, and love through their book.

So which one did you find matched you best? You can leave a comment below, but if you do, don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter. You’ll receive tips, tricks, and writing prompts in your inbox once a month from me.