To Plot or Not to Plot Your Novel

Pantsers write by the seat of their pants. They may have a rough idea of the story in mind but generally fly where their imagination takes them, letting the pace be dictated by their characters.

Plotters like to know as much as they can in advance before committing to a page. They outline a great deal and can tell you in a flash their character’s favourite sandwich filling, should such an interesting question ever arise. (She likes cheese! Damn, outed myself as a Plotter.)

NaNoWriMo writers, those plucky folk who speed-write a novel in the month of November, probably employ the pantser method when building their word-count. There is something so free and delightful about letting your characters lead the way. A down-side would be the enormous amount of editing presumably needed to bring the story back on track, but some would argue that having something to edit in the first place puts them ahead.

Plotting allows for a tight-knit story but there is a danger of losing the excitement by being too tied to an outline. So I like to skip between both methods – I plot and follow a chapter plan, but allow a little bit of movement in order to let my characters sparkle.

How about you? Have you attempted NaNoWriMo?

Blog: http://jayneferst.blogspot.com/

Plotters and Pantsers: http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/817598-Writing-Styles-Pantsing-and-Plotting

NaNoWriMo: http://www.nanowrimo.org/   

 My blog: http://jayneferst.blogspot.com/