Reassurance for the Pantser Writer

I’m what they call in the writing world a “pantser,” a writer who doesn’t plot her novels in advance but rather dives into every new story with only a clear picture of an instigating incident, and perhaps, a few fully formed characters in mind.

I’m friendly with a writer who is a plotter; she always writes out a very solid map of her mystery stories before she starts writing. Outlining makes a lot of sense for tight mystery novels. The reveal of whodunit at the end means specific clues and actions have to be placed strategically throughout the story.

 Working without an outline, a pantser’s imagination must take the lead. We imagine a husband who falls asleep in the middle of a dinner party his wife has planned for his promotion at work, and we wonder: Where is this couple headed? We ask ourselves, Why? Then we write to find out the answers to our questions. 

Plotter or pantser, one isn’t better than the other. Both methods will get the writer where they want to be: The End. But, both have drawbacks.

A plotter might feel compelled to stick with a storyline that doesn’t feel authentic to her characters, while a pantser may not be able to see her way clear of all the options her imagination can conceive. And, with false starts and going down paths that lead nowhere (or nowhere good), a pantser will often put in extra hours reining in and shaping her story until it reaches its proper conclusion.

For this pantser, however, the potential within the characters that pops into my head, or the vivid scene I see reminds me of the way life is really lived: we may have a sense of what we hope to accomplish with our time on earth but often we don’t know what’s around the corner until we reach the corner and peer around it. I can’t imagine writing differently.

 If your inclination is pantser, and you need a nudge to that finish line, here is the method that works to keep me persisting. Every time I sit down to write each new scene, I re-read what I wrote the day before, face the present day’s blank page, and ask myself, “So, what happens next?” Sometimes the answer is unmistakable and certain. The characters appear and guide my pen, their actions and their dialogues flow like the ink from it. 

On other days, you might have several answers to the question of what happens next, and it’s not clear which one will work. My advice is to try one, any one, and just keep writing. There’s nothing wrong with having to change course. You’re a pantser, after all. You already know this process is going to take some time. Give yourself that time to find the right way forward.