The Balance of Pantsing and Plotting

People frequently present the idea of plotting or pantsing as an either/or choice. But what I have found when listening to other authors and writers, as well as my own experience, is that we’re all somewhere in-between. Some writers outline as they go; others have a detailed outline before ever beginning the draft, but feel entirely free to change it as they write. And others may simply know the ending but don’t know how they’ll get there until they write the journey. Each and every one of us has a distinct combination of the two, and that combination may change depending on the project we are working on.

I myself have had a difficult time finding that balance, because if someone were to look at my life and my planners and my intensely detailed lists, they would assume that would flow into my writing life. And yet it doesn’t, (at least not nearly as much as I would like it to) it’s not even so much that if I write an outline I will feel as if I have already written the story and get bored by it, as so many pantsers will say. It is simply that most of the time I can’t see that far ahead. I have however, tried plotting out a project I call Project London, and technically I managed to do it. But when I went back later to do revisions, I realized the story lacked its soul. The characters were flat, and their relationships were horribly forced. Though now looking back, I can see the good that the story had as well; there was a good structure and clear direction, but all I could see at the time was that lifelessness.

So then on my next project (Project Folklore) I ran from any form of plotting at all. I didn’t know what would happen in the story beyond the basic premise. And this one had life; it felt truly real to me. And for the first time, I felt like I had written a story I needed to share with the world. But it isn’t nearly as covered in sunshine and rainbows as that makes it sound. While all that is true, the story’s plot was somewhat of a meandering dumpster fire. I had found life but not structure, and a story needs both.

I am looking at starting draft three of Project Folklore in August, so I gave draft two to beta readers, and in discussing this story with them I realized that so many of the problems they were pointing out I knew where there but I hadn’t wanted to get into the nitty gritty of fixing them, because I was scared I would squeeze the life out of it.

Which takes me to the project I’m currently working on, a high fantasy series that is strongly rooted in the Bible, and specifically Paul’s letters to the churches. Now it took me some time, but 60k words into what I’m now calling the zero draft I realized I couldn’t keep going with the little information I had figured out about this world, because my lack of planning was now affecting the life of the story. So I am now in the depths of world-building and research for this project. But I don’t regret those 60k words, as useless as they can feel to me, because without that I wouldn’t know what I want this world to look like, or gotten the ideas I did while writing it.

So, what is the balance? That depends very much on the person and project they are writing on the moment, as well as the stage that project is in. I’m glad I meandered in Project Folklore like I did, but it’s now ready for structure. I am glad Project London holds the structure it does, but it is now ready for life. But all that being said, I know as I grow as a writer and begin to see my strengths and grow my weakness I will learn to see where I need to plot and where I need to pantse.

As of right now, I have learned I need to pantse my characters because they are never who I think they would be, and to make them feel real, I need to fully step into delulu land. But that’s easy for me because characters are my strength. My weakness, however, is plot, and for it I need to step more into my plotter side, while still very much letting it ebb and flow with my characters’ decisions, because they are why I write. I still need to know what I happening in the plot so it can give my characters structure and purpose.

But I’m still learning, and I have learned the hard way that it will never simply stay one way; instead, I need to learn to move with the story I am writing, while also understanding the type of writer I am. And that, I think, is what each one of us needs to discover.