Art by Alison Hunt
(Just a quick note before we kick off the June posts that will be connected to Do I Need to Use a Dragon?, which will be out on July 4th. Everything will be excerpts from various sections. Just to give you a taste of what’s going to be in the book. Enjoy.)
Authors love to talk about process and how they came up with their creations, so plotting and pantsing come to the forefront quite often. It’s common for a person to bring up how they created something and somebody with an opposing style steps in to either criticize or declare how they work differently. This causes friction and an argument can develop because the two people end up thinking they are under attack. Thankfully, it isn’t common for the fight to devolve to such an extent, but be aware that wading into these waters can result in you getting pulled into a debate you didn’t see coming. You have to love the passion of authors when it comes to their own works and technique. That’s how you know the person is serious about their path and stories.
You can figure out what a plotter is from the word, which does seem a tiny bit insidious. This is why I sometimes use ‘planner’ instead. Well, that and I keep getting the words mixed up since they’re synonyms. A plotter will spend weeks, months, or years preparing for the moment they will write their story. They will spend hours researching whatever they might need. Character biographies, monster descriptions, plot synopses, outlines, calendars for other worlds, and all manner of material are created if needed. This is extra true for fantasy and science fiction authors who may have to create an entire world from scratch. A plotter will enter the writing phase with confidence and many times there will be a focus on continuity. You may work slower because you are repeatedly checking your notes to make sure you haven’t accidentally switched an eye color or used the wrong goblin type. With all of their planning, a plotter may feel that they don’t have to rewrite or severely edit because they have made sure all of the scenes and characters are essential. In their mind, they have effectively eliminated most of the extraneous stuff during this initial stage. The tension and anxiety many authors feel are used up during the planning, so they can be more relaxed.
Pantsers are fairly relaxed from the beginning. They may be nervous about where the story is going to go, but it comes with an excitement for the unknown. To be fair, it isn’t like they don’t plan anything at all. All pantsers I have talked to admit that they have an idea of where they want the story to go and what to do with the characters. They know what their heroes and villains look like for the most part too. So, it would be better to say they do minimal planning before diving right into the story. This grants them a freer style because they are letting their mind run with the concept. It can take longer to do this stage than it does for a plotter because one can run into a twist that leaves the story in a rough spot. This requires going back to rewrite or taking a moment to figure out where this will put everything. It’s like a pantser puts a jigsaw puzzle together after single look at the picture while the plotter needs to have the box cover on hand at all times.
There are flaws with both schools, so don’t go thinking one is better than the other.
Legends of Windemere 