To Plot or Not to Plot Your Novel

1st June 2011
Blog
2 min read
Edited
8th December 2020

Are you a ‘pantser’ or a ‘plotter’?

amanda-carter

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/

Comments

Hello Aubrie, and thank you! I know what you mean – sometimes stories take off on their own, like a kite. As long as we keep hold of the string, of course. ;)

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Jayne
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Developing your craft
Jayne ..
03/06/2011

Hi Out On The Prairie. Interesting to hear how you develop your characters – thanks for sharing!

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Jayne
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Developing your craft
Jayne ..
03/06/2011

Hello Laura. That sounds like a good system you have going on there.

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Jayne
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Developing your craft
Jayne ..
03/06/2011