I talk about Pantsing often enough on this site that I thought it was worth properly laying out the whole spectrum — Plotter, Pantser, and the increasingly popular middle ground people call a Plantser — and being honest about where I actually sit, even if it’s not always quite where I claim to.
The Plotter
Plotters plan. Outlines, character sheets, sometimes entire spreadsheets mapping out a story before a single scene gets written. I have enormous respect for this approach, even though it’s never worked for me. I tried it once, in good faith, and watched a perfectly promising novel die on the spot the moment I tried to force it into a structure it hadn’t chosen for itself.
It began when I read a book for writers, titled Take Off Your Pants. The book’s theme was to turn Plotters into Pantsers. It recommended creating story arcs, character arcs, tension arcs, chapter listings, and all sorts of other things so beloved of the plotter.
I tried it on an epic fantasy novel. I created all these things and then consolidated them into the mind map you can see at the end of this post.
The story was dead water at 30,000 words. I couldn't write another word. No new ideas came, and I couldn't even extend my mind map.
It was only when I was on a writer's retreat and mentioned this to a couple of people that one of them said it was probably because all that work made my subconscious think I finished writing the book. If that was so, then there was no need to create anything more.
I threw away the mind map and all the spreadsheets and lists that I’d made and began again. I still haven't finished it, I will admit, but it is now 147,000 words long, and I know there's about 40,000 words still to go. It really is an epic.
I know many people who try to be Plotters only to discover that they are Pantsers.
The Pantser
Pantsers, or Discovery Writers, do the opposite: no outline, no plan, finding out what the story is by writing it. This is the camp I’ve always claimed, loudly and often, to belong to. Give me a word or a sentence, twenty minutes, and four or five hundred words will appear that I genuinely couldn’t have predicted in advance.
I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but this way, I have written around 600 short stories and chapters of novels over 14 years, totalling more than 2.2 million words. It works for me.
The Plantser
Somewhere between the two sit the Plantsers: writers who plan loosely, sketching a rough shape or a few key waypoints, then letting the Muse fill in everything else along the way. I used to think of this as a sort of indecisive middle ground, neither one thing nor the other. I’m less sure of that now.
So Which One Am I, Really?
Here’s the uncomfortable admission: having recently worked out that my Muse appears to be quietly plotting things behind my back, I’m not sure ‘pure Pantser’ is an honest label for me any more. There’s a plan. I just don’t get to see it until she’s good and ready to reveal it, scene by scene. Functionally, that might make me a kind of Plantser after all, except the planning isn’t mine; it’s hers, and I’m simply not getting invited to the meetings.
Moreover, it depends on what kind of book I’m writing. For fiction, of course, the Pantser mode is very much the preferred one. For nonfiction, on the other hand, I make a jump to the middle and become a Plantser. I will have my chapters, sections, subsections, etc., all titled and in order, but what actually goes into each part is very much in Pantser mode after all. I think it’s because I imagine I am talking to the reader, having a chat over maybe a beer or a coffee. I don’t need to be quite as formal in that case, and it gives me more freedom to be maybe even a little jokey.
Why the Label Matters Less Than I Used to Think
I’ve come round to believing these categories are less a strict taxonomy and more a description of where you personally experience the planning: in your conscious mind, on the page in advance, or somewhere else entirely that you only get access to in real time. Mine happens somewhere I can’t see. That still feels like Pantsing from where I’m sitting, even if my Muse might object to the label.
Plotter, Pantser, or Plantser — pick whichever one helps you actually finish the story. The label’s never been the point. The finishing is.
