If "pantsing" is writing without a pre-conceived plan, is there a name...

[AG31]

Pantsing is still storytelling, the intention is to have a story with a beginning, middle and end,

Would all you pantsers agree with this?

 

[StillStunned]

So I'm hearing you say, "No, my erotic fantasies don't involve plot and character."

My erotic fantasies generally involve my wife, if by "erotic fantasies" we mean prolonged imaginations to fuel arousal and/or masturbation. But the seeds of the stories I mentioned provided enjoyable mental entertainment, without necessarily leading to more "physical" entertainment.

 

[Britva415]

I doubt a plotter would call their process of turning an idea inspired by a fantasy into a story "pantsing." I don't think that that's what they'd call the process of ideating a story in the first place—whether from fantasy or any other source of ideas—"pantsing" either.

This might put a really fine point on it.

I wonder if "ideation" is the word you were looking for in your original post?

If "pantsing" is writing without a pre-conceived plan, is there a name...

...for the closely related phenomenon of recording fantasies? Fantasies that have already occurred?

"Ideation" can spring from more types of ideas and experiences and content brainstorms than just fantasies, but when a fantasy inspires an idea particularly for the purpose of writing, I think it fits. Like, the moment someone's mind signals them, "Hey, maybe I should write this one down" or "Hey, this would make a great story," that's ideation.

 

[SkyBubble]

...for the closely related phenomenon of recording fantasies? Fantasies that have already occurred?

Writing a story?

 

[StillStunned]

Would all you pantsers agree with this?

Speaking for myself, I would. Pantsing isn't "making it up as you go along", at least not the published version.

For me, pantsing means letting the writing take me where it will until the story forms itself in my mind. I go back and forth to bring it all together with a story arc. I've described my process as "plotting from the midpoint", and moulding like a potter at a wheel: at a certain point the story "clicks" in my mind, and I rewrite what's already there to fit where I'm going.

 

[Britva415]

I also noticed something @ShelbyDawn57 said about transcribing a fantasy:

I kind of agree that transcribing an idea that's already complete and just needs to be written down—without any further injection of new creative details—is writing something which has already been plotted. The very definition of "plotting."

And as to the question of whether "pantsing" automatically requires the writer to desire and seek a beginning, middle and end, that's a little narrow and I wouldn't be surprised at a(nother) pantser piping up to say that you can pants an impressionistic piece too. An atmosphere, a vignette in which nothing actually happens. And I would agree. So maybe the most salient point of all is that "pantsing" describes when the writing itself is a process of discovery.

Plotters complete this discovery outside of the writing process. One can use the pantser method to write other stuff which isn't "story" or "plot" or "characterization." But the pantser method is a deliberate sit-down for the purpose of getting something in writing which isn't planned at the beginning. To me, this is not at all what "recording fantasies" is. Maybe that isn't exactly "plotting" either, but I think it's closer to plotting than it is to pantsing.

Because in that scenario, the ideation already happened and now it's just transcription.

Can one actively fantasize while one is pantsing a story? Of course. This isn't transcription at all, though it does sound like it's close to the second thing you were originally asking about. Even though as you said you "imagine the process of 'pantsing' to be like having a fantasy," there's much more to pantsing than just ideating via fantasization.

 

[SkyBubble]

I've described my process as "plotting from the midpoint"

Many writers do the opposite -- know the beginning and the end, then fill in the middle. Both of those are valid.

 

[iwatchus]

Would all you pantsers agree with this?

Like @StillStunned, I agree with this. I am not always a pantser, but that is my preferred writing approach. I generally have in mind a handful of predefined points (one every 3-5K words usually) I am aiming for, but if the story goes in a different direction, I adapt. These midpoints are not gates in a slalom; the story does not have to hit all of them or even any of them.

But if I go wildly astray, I make sure I do see a plausible ending somewhere ahead. I stall the story if I don't.

Usually, I end up with a nice crescendo and a good resolution phase, but sometimes I need to adjust things to make it all work. I suspect as I move more to writing novels, I will need to adjust more, or plan more and hold myself to those plans.

 

[Britva415]

Speaking for myself, I would. Pantsing isn't "making it up as you go along", at least not the published version.

For me, pantsing means letting the writing take me where it will until the story forms itself in my mind. I go back and forth to bring it all together with a story arc. I've described my process as "plotting from the midpoint", and moulding like a potter at a wheel: at a certain point the story "clicks" in my mind, and I rewrite what's already there to fit where I'm going.

I, another pantser, am a bit the opposite: I often write the ending before I'm done with the middle.

Knowing how I want it to end doesn't make me "a plotter".

 

[Erozetta]

I, another pantser, am a bit the opposite: I often write the ending before I'm done with the middle.

Knowing how I want it to end doesn't make me "a plotter".

(Also a pantser) And I start at the beginning with no clear path forward for anything and no initial idea, usually, lol.

The fun of being a writer, to me, is in the process of discovering my own story.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Edit #2: On reflection, I realize that "fantasizing" implies arousal. Anyway, it does in the way I'm using it here. Pantsing could be almost completely about plot and character, to the neglect of arousal. True?

Correct. Just because you don't have a pre-conceived notion as to the plot of a pantser story, or detailed characterisation when you begin, doesn't mean those elements won't be there by the end of the story. The only difference, I think, is that a pantser writer hasn't thought it all out before writing.

As an example, I've got at least two long stories where an important third character appeared in the duration of a paragraph, out of the blue, and estate herself in the story.

 

[Statius]

Would all you pantsers agree with this?

Yes

 

[MillieDynamite]

Me, too! @AG31 Me, fucking, too!

Yes