Plotters VS Pantsers Ver 2

[gordo12]

Reading the plotters v pantsers thread it was obvious there is a difference mentally in how we approach developing stories.

That made me wonder if it extended into the PHYSICAL approach to writing stories.

Confession: I'm a pantser. It's weeee, that sounds like a story. Write, write, write!

Plotting to me sounds like drudgery. I'm not knocking it, but I can't imagine it. It made me wonder if it extended into a more methodical approach of sitting down at regular times and writing. Or writing daily. Firm habits that allow the writer to move forward day after day. For example maybe you write every day between 10 and 12. Or some other pattern.

As a pantser I work by inspiration. I can pull up a story and stare at it for a couple of hours and it's a strain to add two words. There's nothing there. Then inspiration strikes some other time and up comes the story and several hours later there's thousands of words on the page. It isn't regular or planned. I keep telling myself I need to sit down daily and write but...

So plotter and pantser: how do you approach this physically?

 

[SimonDoom]

Well, I'm a plotter, for sure, but I'm not at all methodical. My writing pace and schedule vary enormously. I can sit down and write thousands of words in one sitting, or I can go days without writing anything.

If I had to characterize it I'd say I write the way screenwriting guides often recommend how to write screenplays: scenes to me, and I plot them and write them out of order with other scenes. But there's no particular order or discipline to the process.

 

[Polyacrylate]

Plotter here. I explained the mechanics of how I write in the other thread - outline, then add dialogue and detail in nonlinear manner as the inspiration strikes me.

I write exclusively on my phone these days.

I have two times available for writing: at work while on my lunch break (30 minutes or so), and middle of the night if I can't sleep. I have a long commute to work, and will sometimes use the microphone feature on my phone if stuck in traffic, but I don't like doing that... I find I have to correct too much stuff.

 

[Hypoxia]

I'm all over the place, as I've said. I may elaborate an existing narrative, like a song or journal; I know where it's going. Or I think of a rough idea and jot notes, maybe dictated to a voice recorder, or on tablet, or the work laptop. Or I visualize an ending I want, imagine a setting and players, and set them loose. Or I look at scenes I've written and saved, and figure how to assemble them into a story.

Physically? I punch the tablet when we're parked in the RV. I dictate while in motion: driving, walking, biking. I write couch-reclining with the modest ThinkPad in my lap; but I rise and stomp around the house muttering rudely, working out speech and deeds; or I cradle a small instrument, pluck strings, let melody take me somewhere.

I've mentioned equating writing to other arts. Sculpt, collage, quilt, sing, paint, dance a story. Smash a story into shiny bits and solder them together. Visualize the story as an artifact or performance. Whatever it takes. Writing *is* performance art, y'know.

 

[gordo12]

I write exclusively on my phone these days.

That almost deserves another thread! How can you possibly write like that? Without the ability to see the totality of a sentence or paragraph. How can you handle a long story like that?

I've seen other authors saying they write on their phone. It astounds me

 

[8letters]

Thinking more on this, I think "Plotters vs Panters" doesn't really capture my experience of writing. To me, there's four types of stories, based on what the author starts with:
* If the author starts with a few interesting characters and then is more of a scribe describing their interactions, then it's a "character-based" story. From what I've read, Stephen King's "Misery" is this type of story.
* If the author starts with a plot and then figures out what personalities the characters should have to support the plot, then it's a "plot-based" story. Most action movies are this way.
* If the author starts with a couple of anchoring scenes, and then figures out how to connect them, then it's a "scene-based" story. My understanding of Stephen King's "Carrie" is that he started with the scene of her freaking out as she starts her first period in the high school shower and the prom scene, and then wrote a story to connect those two scenes.
* It the author starts with a premise - "Hey what if?" - and writes the characters and plot to support that premise, then it's a "premise-based" story. I can really see "Groundhog Day" being that type of story.

I've never started with characters. I normally start with a plot. I've written one story where I started with two scenes and then came up with the plot and characters to connect them. I'm working on a story that started with a premise that initially had no plot and only roles for characters.

To me, if you do a good job of writing the story, no one should be able to tell what you started with. Your story should have an interesting premise, great scenes and a logical plot that flows naturally from the characters' interesting personalities.

 

[ChuckWolf]

For erotic stories, I usually work a lot of it out in my head before actually writing it out, so I usually know how the story will start and end and then I will fill out the middle when actually writing it (often over-complicating the plot as well.).

 

[ElectricBlue]

Well, I'm a plotter, for sure, but I'm not at all methodical. My writing pace and schedule vary enormously. I can sit down and write thousands of words in one sitting, or I can go days without writing anything.

Substitute pantser for plotter, and this is how I write.

I use a kindle with Open Office for writing, usually just the device keyboard, but when I know I've got the time and the right mood for a longer writing session, I'll use a little wi-fi keyboard.

I'm lucky - even with my "write and see what happens" technique, 98% what you read is first draft, written in the order you read it. I do rolling edits where I read over and edit the previous session before I start the next (to keep continuity and a consistent pace), but even so, edit is usually only typos and quick fixes, the occasional word change where I'm repetitive, sometimes a phrase or two gets reworked, rarely a sentence. I might resequence a paragraph or two across a whole story, but I never do what most folk here are describing - plotting and sequencing, writing last scenes first, writing scenes here and there - I can't ever imagine doing any of that. My writing is very much stream of consciousness, and my very best stuff usually comes steaming up from my subconscious with a "holy fuck, where did that just come from?"

My latest piece, coincidentally, is a short writer's piece musing on the creative process; trying to dissect how I write. I suspect it follows on from the T.S. Eliot line I quote in my Madelyn story, where the two women contemplate eviscerating Adam's mind on a table. I'm offering myself up for my own surgical investigation . Seems pertinent, here's a link for anyone interested:

https://www.literotica.com/s/a-love-song-for-sara

 

[Hypoxia]

Thinking more on this, I think "Plotters vs Panters" doesn't really capture my experience of writing. To me, there's four types of stories, based on what the author starts with:
* If the author starts with a few interesting characters and then is more of a scribe describing their interactions, then it's a "character-based" story. From what I've read, Stephen King's "Misery" is this type of story.
* If the author starts with a plot and then figures out what personalities the characters should have to support the plot, then it's a "plot-based" story. Most action movies are this way.
* If the author starts with a couple of anchoring scenes, and then figures out how to connect them, then it's a "scene-based" story. My understanding of Stephen King's "Carrie" is that he started with the scene of her freaking out as she starts her first period in the high school shower and the prom scene, and then wrote a story to connect those two scenes.
* It the author starts with a premise - "Hey what if?" - and writes the characters and plot to support that premise, then it's a "premise-based" story. I can really see "Groundhog Day" being that type of story.

Interesting analysis. IMHO those models are sometimes (often?) mixed. An initial premise may involve known players, like "What would they be doing if they hadn't died?" As few as two scenes can shape a plot structure, like "This happens, that ends it, so stuff occurs in between." The scenes may require known players, like "It's a family orgy." Mix and match as needed.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Pantser for sure.

First thing in the morning, I come here to Lit. forums. Then about an hour later I pull up one of my stories and start typing taking several breaks in the process.

If I can't deal with that story, I move to one of the 100's I have going and try that one. I break for lunch and dinner but I am still trying to add words to one of my works in progress.

Each of them lives in my head, so my only worry is Alzheimers.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

I read the other post a couple days ago and thought, I'm such a pantser, and I still believe I am.

I go into a story with an idea, a brief thought, and even several times a part of a dream I had. I never know where the story is heading when I sit down to write.

I can't imagine I could write, and I do mean me specifically maybe some can do it but I know I couldn't, write believable characters into a story that I've plotted out the whole thing.
Several times I have an idea of where I might be headed but the characters get there in a different wya than I had planned, or they go somewhere else completely.