I've been having fun experimenting with extreme pantser where I don't even have control over the plot line and I have to write according to what others suggest 😅 it's been a growth process for a middle-line gal.
I have to say that’s both brave and clever. I think anything that exercises mental muscles in different ways is good.
With my flash fiction from my dreams, I ended up writing stories in genres I wouldn’t have tried otherwise. You’re taking that “otherness” to another level!
I love that this article expanded more on where the difference lies while giving examples and visuals😁. Writers shouldn't be put in a box labeled as plotter or pantser. We may prefer structure or discovery but we can always change our mind. Great article.
You said "Some folks will be strict plotters; others are so adept at juggling ideas that it all happens inside their heads, even epic worldbuilding fantasy—without the need for notes of any kind." as though these were two ends of a spectrum. But could not the creation and holding of all that information without actually writing it down still be seen as a kind of plotting? Surely plotting is not dependent solely on the jotting down of notes but also on whether some idea is followed and moulded into a more concrete form, even if that form exists only held in the head.
That’s a valid point, and it is a kind of plotting for sure. To clarify, I think the exceptional pantser starts out with a blank page and wings it, but that’s only possible if they retain ‘the plot’ in their head as they push to a conclusion.
If you didn’t, the result would drift. Interestingly, I’ve seen that cited as AI tell, inconsistent plotting, contradictions and rushed conclusions.
Without holding the whole, at least as far as you have written, in the mind, it’s not possible to create a joined-up story.
Everyone has a limit, I suspect, and that limit could be increased with training. My pants wall is ~20-30k. Still, if I’d written a dozen 20k unfinished projects rather than a handful, perhaps my limit would rise with practise?
However, your core point the difference between pantsing and plotting is “instruments” (notes, apps, etc.) is spot on.
Consider the origin, flying by the seat of your pants, ie flying a plane without instruments, which early planes often did not have. The saying is attributed to a pilot who flew from the USA to Ireland, sans any instruments.
Still to achieve this, his mind was plotting his course in other ways, as mariners did before him, the rising and setting sun, the North Star, etc.
So isn’t it a foundational presupposition in the original idiom?
I've been having fun experimenting with extreme pantser where I don't even have control over the plot line and I have to write according to what others suggest 😅 it's been a growth process for a middle-line gal.
I have to say that’s both brave and clever. I think anything that exercises mental muscles in different ways is good.
With my flash fiction from my dreams, I ended up writing stories in genres I wouldn’t have tried otherwise. You’re taking that “otherness” to another level!
I love that this article expanded more on where the difference lies while giving examples and visuals😁. Writers shouldn't be put in a box labeled as plotter or pantser. We may prefer structure or discovery but we can always change our mind. Great article.
Great article, and thanks for the mention!
🤣 it's been fun for sure!!
You said "Some folks will be strict plotters; others are so adept at juggling ideas that it all happens inside their heads, even epic worldbuilding fantasy—without the need for notes of any kind." as though these were two ends of a spectrum. But could not the creation and holding of all that information without actually writing it down still be seen as a kind of plotting? Surely plotting is not dependent solely on the jotting down of notes but also on whether some idea is followed and moulded into a more concrete form, even if that form exists only held in the head.
That’s a valid point, and it is a kind of plotting for sure. To clarify, I think the exceptional pantser starts out with a blank page and wings it, but that’s only possible if they retain ‘the plot’ in their head as they push to a conclusion.
If you didn’t, the result would drift. Interestingly, I’ve seen that cited as AI tell, inconsistent plotting, contradictions and rushed conclusions.
Without holding the whole, at least as far as you have written, in the mind, it’s not possible to create a joined-up story.
Everyone has a limit, I suspect, and that limit could be increased with training. My pants wall is ~20-30k. Still, if I’d written a dozen 20k unfinished projects rather than a handful, perhaps my limit would rise with practise?
However, your core point the difference between pantsing and plotting is “instruments” (notes, apps, etc.) is spot on.
Consider the origin, flying by the seat of your pants, ie flying a plane without instruments, which early planes often did not have. The saying is attributed to a pilot who flew from the USA to Ireland, sans any instruments.
Still to achieve this, his mind was plotting his course in other ways, as mariners did before him, the rising and setting sun, the North Star, etc.
So isn’t it a foundational presupposition in the original idiom?
Thank you for sharing your approach, including the images! Great article!