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

[AG31]

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

I think of them as closely related because I imagine the process of "pantsing" to be like having a fantasy.

Edit #1: Or, to ask it another way, how does "pantsing" differ from "fantasizing," apart from the writing down in the first instance?

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?

Edit #3: Do any of you have erotic fantasies that involve plot and character?

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Journaling?

 

[AG31]

Journaling?

Interesting idea. Erotic journaling? But not a pre-existing term, just a good one.

 

[StillStunned]

If a fantasy has occurred, isn't it a memory?

 

[AG31]

If a fantasy has occurred, isn't it a memory?

Well, not "occurred" IRL, just in the mind. So if you remember a fantasy it's something different from remembering real life, isn't it?

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

Transcribing?

 

[StillStunned]

Well, not "occurred" IRL, just in the mind. So if you remember a fantasy it's something different from remembering real life, isn't it?

Then it probably falls somewhere on the scale between pantsing and plotting, depending on how clearly defined the fantasy is, and how closely you stick to it while you're writing.

 

[WittyUserName]

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

I think of them as closely related because I imagine the process of "pantsing" to be like having a fantasy.

I thought pantsing was getting your pants yanked down? Happened to me in gym class in elementary school. Still mad about that.

 

[AG31]

Edit: Or, to ask it another way, how does "pantsing" differ from "fantasizing," apart from the writing down in the first instance?

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

how does "pantsing" differ from "fantasizing," apart from the writing down in the first instance?

Pantsing is "by the seat of the pants," with no or at least little concept of where or in what direction it's going.

In fantasizing, one would probably have a good concept of likes and dislikes so there would be a general idea of where it will end up. If not, there's probably not much difference.

That said, the original question was "fantasies that have already occurred." If the fantasy became reality (and was actually lived), that's journaling. I did some of that in my youth. :-D

 

[Britva415]

A pantsed story could start off as a fantasy, but fantasizing isn't storytelling.

Writing it down isn't what the difference is, either.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I like GRRMs term of gardening better than pantsing. I call myself a panster because it's the vernacular on this site. A true pantser would be completely freeform. I think most (gross generalization, I know) pantsers tend to have an idea of where we're going. We just don't bother with the details of what's going to happen along the way until we get there. The details grow and change as we write, our characters expose themselves in ways we may not expect(@StillStunned will insert a pun here when he responds, I'm sure).

I'm bringing this up because working from fantasies you've had, you have two choices. You can transcribe the fantasy. I'd call that planning, or you can use it as a basis for your story and let it grow as you write it. I'd call that gardening.

 

[Statius]

I call it 'scene Writing' when I get an image of a scene in my head, sex or otherwise that I end up building a story around. Probably one reason why my story telling isn't that great, but usually have individual scenes that really pop.

 

[AG31]

Pantsing is "by the seat of the pants," with no or at least little concept of where or in what direction it's going.

In fantasizing, one would probably have a good concept of likes and dislikes so there would be a general idea of where it will end up. If not, there's probably not much difference.

That said, the original question was "fantasies that have already occurred." If the fantasy became reality (and was actually lived), that's journaling. I did some of that in my youth. :-D

Not that it became reality, but that it came to completion in my mind.

 

[AG31]

A pantsed story could start off as a fantasy, but fantasizing isn't storytelling.

Writing it down isn't what the difference is, either.

What is the difference? Plot? Character?

 

[AG31]

I'd call that planning,

Might you have meant "pantsing?" If not, I don't understand.

 

[AG31]

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?

 

[StillStunned]

I like GRRMs term of gardening better than pantsing. I call myself a panster because it's the vernacular on this site. A true pantser would be completely freeform. I think most (gross generalization, I know) pantsers tend to have an idea of where we're going.

Actually, I often don't. In a story I'm working on, I'd done two sex scenes and the bulk of what I thought the story was going to be after 2k words, with no idea of what would happen next. Then I started writing the interval to the next scene, and all of a sudden I'm at 4.9k words and the whole thing suddenly comes together.

The details grow and change as we write, our characters expose themselves in ways we may not expect(@StillStunned will insert a pun here when he responds, I'm sure).

No, my characters only expose themselves in flash fiction.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Might you have meant "pantsing?" If not, I don't understand.

Transcribing = planning. You're telling a story you've already completed in your head.
Using the fantasy as a starting point or a lose guide for the story and letting ti grow and change would be gardening or pantsing.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I can write up to about seven thousand words without a clue where the 'story' is going. In that amount of words, I can create, whole cloth, from my mind's wander through an idea or even a germ of a notion. Beyond that, I need to know the beginning and an ending (perhaps up to three different endings) to write a story. Of late, I've been plotting more than pantsing.

 

[AG31]

Edit #3: Do any of you have erotic fantasies that involve plot and character?

 

[StillStunned]

Edit #3: Do any of you have erotic fantasies that involve plot and character?

Character, yes. Some of my best strokers start with an idea about complex characters.

Red Hot for instance is about a woman very much inspired by my wife. The Only Flower On Rose Street has as one of its basic ideas a man who gets off on listening to the erotic confessions of others. In Tammy, Jessica, Yuliya the narrator has her childhood bully as her massage client. Annie's Inhibition Removal Therapy is about a woman trying to overcome her sexual inhibitions.

In all of these, the story is triggered by character. And at least two of them began as "imaginations", if not quite sexual fantasies.

 

[MrPixel]

I thought pantsing was getting your pants yanked down? Happened to me in gym class in elementary school. Still mad about that.

When it happens to female authors, it's called "sharking."

 

[Britva415]

What is the difference? Plot? Character?

Sure, to the extent that those define "storytelling."

Even if you write down a fantasy, that's more like just journaling a stream of consciousness.

Pantsing is still storytelling, the intention is to have a story with a beginning, middle and end, which I suppose amounts to a plot whether there's characterization or not.

I'm not saying there can't be a fantasy with a beginning, middle and end or any characterization, but that isn't what makes it fantasy and it isn't what people are going to think someone is talking about when one talks about fantasy.

I also think that it's likely that if one were to write out a fantasy they have in their mind, they're going to be tempted to tell it as a story and not just as an impressionist piece, and they'll add characterization and plot which likely weren't in the original fantasy. To me it's plain to see how, maybe that can still be regarded as fantasy, but, it's no longer just fantasy because storytelling has been added to it.

And here's the other thing: This doesn't even have anything at all to do with pantsing. A fantasy can be made into a story by a plotter just as much as it can be done by a pantser. I'm not a plotter, but 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.

Maybe I'd word it like this: A fantasy can inspire a story, but the fantasy isn't the story and the story isn't the fantasy. There's overlap but not synonymy.

 

[AG31]

And at least two of them began as "imaginations", if not quite sexual fantasies.

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