The Pantser’s Bible: Mantras for Writing

[yowser]

I just finished reading what I am going to rename ‘The Pantser’s Bible’ (real title: ‘The Creative Act: A Way of Being’ by Rick Rubin.) He has an interesting take on creativity throughout a multitude of formats, and while some of the wording gets a little too New-Agey at times, he offers up some provocative suggestions and observations about the creative process.

Rubin talks through the whole Pantser’s Progress: the initial inspiration, the seed of the idea, the growing and cultivating of the work. He has lots of tips of how to get unstuck, retrieve the freshness of the original idea when it has gotten stale and the momentum has subsided with one’s efforts. And he speaks to the life of an artist, the worldview and approach to generating something new and unique.

Some of you may find it instructive, and even card-carrying Plotters may find some useful advice buried away in the undergrowth. At the very least, it is a book that urges you to think as an artist, as someone who creates.

Here are a few quotes:

On inspiration:

Look for what you notice
that no one else sees.

While the emotional undercurrents of self-doubt can serve the art, they can also interfere with the creative process. Beginning a work, completing a work, and sharing a work – these are key moments where many of us become stuck.

How do we move forward, considering the stories we tell ourselves? One of the best strategies is to lower the stakes.

All art is a work in progress.

Consider establishing a consistent framework around your creative process. It is often the case that the more set in your personal regimen, the more freedom you have within that structure to express yourself.

Discipline and freedom seem like opposites. In reality, they are partners. Discipline in not a lack of freedom, it is a harmonious relationship with time. Managing your schedule and daily habits well is a necessary component to free up the practical and creative capacity to make great art.

The artist’s only responsibility is to the work itself.

For the sake of both the work and our own enjoyment, its of great value to continue honing our craft. Every artist, at every juncture in the process, can get better through practice, study and research. The gifts of art are more learned and developed than innate. We can always improve.


Do any of you have aphorisms or mantras you live by, or would describe your process?

For me, although it lacks literary merit, it would go something like this:

Think a lot, write as much as possible, edit even more.

Others?

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I'm a slave to the story. If the story needs an extra scene, then I'm not satisfied until that scene is done. If the story needs a new side character, then that's what the story gets. If the story is lacking structure, I stop and restructure it. Whatever the story tells me that it needs, I do whatever it takes to provide it.

 

[MillieDynamite]

@pink_silk_glove is a story whisperer, or her stories are writer whisperers.

I'm a slave to the story. If the story needs an extra scene, then I'm not satisfied until that scene is done. If the story needs a new side character, then that's what the story gets. If the story is lacking structure, I stop and restructure it. Whatever the story tells me that it needs, I do whatever it takes to provide it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Others?

Write until the story stops writing itself. That's when it's The End.

 

[lovecraft68]

On occasions I've paused and thought, "Does the story need this?" The answer is always. "If I'm thinking of it, and writing it, then yes, it does."

Writing is instinctual. Trust your instincts.

 

[Erozetta]

Write until the story stops writing itself. That's when it's The End.

This.

Adding more after the story naturally ends often feels tacked on and disjointed from the rest of the story. Don't force it. Just let it happen.

 

[Voboy]

Invent characters who are Real People and then turn them loose. Write what they want you to write. Let them do what they choose to do, the way they choose to do it. Let them pick their own dialogue. Let them kiss when they want to. Let them fuck however they choose. If they want to have conflicts? Give them conflicts. If they don't want to resolve those conflicts? That's their choice, not yours. Make them live.

When they're done with all that? That's the story, done and dusted. Publish.

I never think I know better than my characters.

 

[ronde]

Write until the story stops writing itself. That's when it's The End.

This is the same answer I read on this same forum back in the early 2000's and it's still true.

 

[VallesMarineris]

My mantra comes from Elmore Leonard: "Try to leave out all the parts readers skip."

I also think about what Hemingway said: "Write drunk, edit sober."

And then there's Shakespeare: "Brevity is the soul of wit."

 

[yowser]

Write until the story stops writing itself. That's when it's The End.

Can you elaborate on this?

Is this a function of having written a lot and applying your experienced intuition?

Or are there signs in the story that you recognise that mean 'the end'?

 

[Silver_Arrow]

Write until the story stops writing itself. That's when it's The End.

I think I mentioned the fact that when I write I often feel like my story is just writing itself in another thread. This snippet is very true.

Can you elaborate on this?

Is this a function of having written a lot and applying your experienced intuition?

Or are there signs in the story that you recognise that mean 'the end'?

It's hard to put into words, at least for me. I know when a piece has reached the end because the end arrives. As I type a chapter out, I occasionally pause to think, but for the most part the words just flow without thought as if the story really does write itself. I'm sure there's more going on in my mind but for the life of me I cant really put any of that into words or even bring it to the front of my mind to think about.

For me, there are no signs. I just... stop, and it happens to be the place where my writing ends because it makes sense. I suppose its writing by intuition? emotion? something else? How do you put into words a feeling without simply saying: It just feels like the end. Why? it just does.

 

[Voboy]

Can you elaborate on this?

Is this a function of having written a lot and applying your experienced intuition?

Or are there signs in the story that you recognise that mean 'the end'?

I'm not EB, but I'll take a stab.

The story takes on a life of its own. That's how you know it's good: when you wake up in the morning brimming with ideas that you need to write down somewhere, thence to wait impatiently until you can continue the story they belong to. For some people, that story's life is plot-driven; for me, it's character-driven. I keep writing until my characters, who are in every way "real" to me, finish doing whatever they're doing, and that's when the story's done.

So, to the extent there are "signs" that it's time to wrap up, the end is heralded by the characters beginning to resolve their conflicts, approach self-actualization, orgasm, and feel good about themselves.

I don't think it's a function of experience, at least not for me. I've always written this way, since 10th grade English. So maybe "intuition" if you want to call it that. But I've also written enough stories that I can tell, relatively early on, whether it's going to end strongly or weakly. The latter stories usually get abandoned.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm not EB, but I'll take a stab.

Don't be hard on yourself, no one else could think they know that much.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Can you elaborate on this?

Is this a function of having written a lot and applying your experienced intuition?

Or are there signs in the story that you recognise that mean 'the end'?

I can give you a concrete example: Star Wars. Specifically, A New Hope.

There's about two a year gap in-universe between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. At the beginning of Empire, there are some clear details given about what's happened in the intervening two years: Han's brush with a bounty hunter that's got him leaving to go deal with Jabba; Leia's turn from a political leader toward a military one as General Organa; Luke's promotion to commander and the assembling of his Rogue Squadron. A ton of stories in the old Expanded Universe stuff (comics, videogames, novels, etc.) back before Disney came along were set in these two years, and for very good reason: there's a lot of possibility there.

Now, imagine if, at the end of A New Hope, instead of the credits rolling after the medal ceremony, they went into one or more of these. What would that have done to the movie? Blunted the impact of the whole "hero's journey" cycle, for one. Bloated the runtime, for another. A New Hope was a good story, and it ended when it should have. Those three arcs for the main characters, later explored in the Expanded Universe, were good stories, too, but they didn't belong in A New Hope.

The story isn't (or shouldn't be) just a series of things that happen that might be interesting to the reader. The events need to be in service to the story, and if they're not, they should be pruned.

I see this a LOT in Loving Wives marital drama stories. Hell, I've done it once or twice, especially early on. Sometimes the story might be about learning of someone cheating, or a plot against the protagonist, or... whatever. It's about this thing that's happening, and it's revealed, then resolved through a series of events. And then... sometimes writers just keep going way, way after they should have stopped.

They may have had a perfectly good story, for example, about the discovery of infidelity, the deterioration of the marriage, and the divorce over 12K words, but then they keep going for another 6K after that: the protagonist meeting someone new, their courtship, getting married again, etc. They take two stories about two different things, each with different tones, themes, etc., and jam them together, and it makes for worse versions of both. That's not to say they couldn't have both stories, and even have them both be about the same characters, but that's exactly what they should have been: separate stories.

Don't get me wrong. It's possible to do that divorce/new romance long arc in a single story and make it work, too, but it can't just be two incongruous stories glued together; it needs to be a single story that incorporates those elements into a whole. If that can't be done, well, epilogues exist for a reason, and that's to give a little bit more detail after an already satisfying conclusion.

 

[NoTalentHack]

On occasions I've paused and thought, "Does the story need this?" The answer is always. "If I'm thinking of it, and writing it, then yes, it does."

Writing is instinctual. Trust your instincts.

Yeah, but this goes both ways. If you’re editing and think, “Does the story need this?” that’s an instinct worth listening to, too.

 

[SimonDoom]

I can give you a concrete example: Star Wars. Specifically, A New Hope.

There's about two a year gap in-universe between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. At the beginning of Empire, there are some clear details given about what's happened in the intervening two years: Han's brush with a bounty hunter that's got him leaving to go deal with Jabba; Leia's turn from a political leader toward a military one as General Organa; Luke's promotion to commander and the assembling of his Rogue Squadron. A ton of stories in the old Expanded Universe stuff (comics, videogames, novels, etc.) back before Disney came along were set in these two years, and for very good reason: there's a lot of possibility there.

Now, imagine if, at the end of A New Hope, instead of the credits rolling after the medal ceremony, they went into one or more of these. What would that have done to the movie? Blunted the impact of the whole "hero's journey" cycle, for one. Bloated the runtime, for another. A New Hope was a good story, and it ended when it should have. Those three arcs for the main characters, later explored in the Expanded Universe, were good stories, too, but they didn't belong in A New Hope.

The story isn't (or shouldn't be) just a series of things that happen that might be interesting to the reader. The events need to be in service to the story, and if they're not, they should be pruned.

I see this a LOT in Loving Wives marital drama stories. Hell, I've done it once or twice, especially early on. Sometimes the story might be about learning of someone cheating, or a plot against the protagonist, or... whatever. It's about this thing that's happening, and it's revealed, then resolved through a series of events. And then... sometimes writers just keep going way, way after they should have stopped.

They may have had a perfectly good story, for example, about the discovery of infidelity, the deterioration of the marriage, and the divorce over 12K words, but then they keep going for another 6K after that: the protagonist meeting someone new, their courtship, getting married again, etc. They take two stories about two different things, each with different tones, themes, etc., and jam them together, and it makes for worse versions of both. That's not to say they couldn't have both stories, and even have them both be about the same characters, but that's exactly what they should have been: separate stories.

Don't get me wrong. It's possible to do that divorce/new romance long arc in a single story and make it work, too, but it can't just be two incongruous stories glued together; it needs to be a single story that incorporates those elements into a whole. If that can't be done, well, epilogues exist for a reason, and that's to give a little bit more detail after an already satisfying conclusion.

Something to keep in mind about Star Wars is that George Lucas had no idea whether it would be a success or a huge flop. So it would have made no sense to foreshadow things that might happen in the future. The movie had to end on a final note without any suggestion about what might come later, because as far as Lucas knew, there was no later.

This is how I write most of my stories. I have no expectation of continuing them, so early on I get an idea of what I want the ending to be, and I don't think much about what might come later.

 

[lovecraft68]

Yeah, but this goes both ways. If you’re editing and think, “Does the story need this?” that’s an instinct worth listening to, too.

I've lopped out sentences and a paragraph here and there, but most of my original draft tends to stay.

But now we are also getting into 'style' a little bit. I admit to being self-indulgent and wordier than I need to be, but I don't see a real reason I need to trim things down.

Interesting enough a few years back I write a story that was much shorter than my usual work, and it didn't do as well as most of my other stories, and even had comments "I like your longer stories better." Are they better? Or is it a matter of they liked my somewhat longwinded build up style?

No idea, but I've never seen it being worth thinking about it too much.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Write until the story stops writing itself. That's when it's The End.

True. I have a 25k word ‘quickie’ short story on deck.

 

[intim8]

Do any of you have aphorisms or mantras you live by, or would describe your process?

1. Start every idea, and expect to throw it away.

If I have an idea, I just start it. Sure, some are too obviously meaningless crap to bother at all, but every idea that gets past the first sniff test gets at least a paragraph. Most of them go nowhere, and even the ones that look really promising after a K or two, I write as if they were never going to see the light of day. It's too paralyzing to do otherwise. If they survive, the next draft is where I worry about how it will come off to readers.

2. Lean in to what worries you.

90% of the time, when I am stuck, or meandering, it is because I want things to work out for the characters. I want things to go well. Or, a related problem, that I start to want it to go one direction, but what I've wrtten so far is going in a different direction.

I've learned to interpret my worries about things going wrong for the characters or things not fitting as the story/characters telling me something. So I write what the story wants to be instead of what I wanted it to be, and it is almost always a better story for it. At the obvious level, it's because stories need conflict, duh, and avoiding it is just stupid, especially when the story is screaming it out. But at another level, it is because the story is more coherent, more self-consistent.

Now, if I could just practice both of these more consistently....

 

[ElectricBlue]

Can you elaborate on this?

Is this a function of having written a lot and applying your experienced intuition?

Or are there signs in the story that you recognise that mean 'the end'?

As @Voboy says, it's not so much experience but it is intuition. It's knowing when to stop a story before it becomes episodic. I'll deliberately wrap most of my stories with an open ending, one that closes that particular story arc but leaves it for a sequel, which I might write, I might not.

I've got a few stories with codas, that do close it "The End", but there could be something before "The End." My favourite is this one, which implies an entire lifetime for a character. Her first chapter is written, but there's nothing written in between:

Many years later Lizzie returned to the café. It had changed hands several times, but still had tables outside, circled around the spreading tree. She asked the waiter if that table, over there by the tree, was taken. It wasn't, and she asked, pointing to a Reserved sign, black writing on gold, may I take that sign to place on the table? Do you mind? Not at all, the waiter replied, are you expecting someone?

No, she replied. I used to work here, that table had a special meaning. A couple I met, they were very good to me. They always sat there. I come back when I can, to remember them.

Can I expect you again? Will you see them?

No, they moved away from this city, it's only me coming back.

The server left Lizzie to her memories, and after bringing her coffee in a delicate cup, stood watching her.

She touched an amulet that hung against her neck, attached to a black velvet ribbon that circled her throat. As she turned it in her hand, she crossed one leg over the other and began to swing her foot. Her legs were long, clad in high leather boots and black lace stockings. Her very short skirt, also leather, revealed a glimpse of a long slender thigh.

Lizzie caught the look, the long watching, the longing. She turned the handle of her cup towards the waiter and beckoned, with a subtle rise of her finger. The waiter came to her.

When you serve me, you may call me Elizabeth, she said.

 

[intim8]

Can you elaborate on this?

I've had a few stories where I just kept going into meander-land, then put it aside because I couldn't think of a way to pull it all together, only to reread it weeks or months later and realize the ending happened six pages back.

Usually, those aren't completely fleshed out endings where everything is resolved, but they are the place that is obviously the final scene and the loose ends do need to get tied up.

But most of the time, the events just organically converge, the problems have been solved, and the story has quite obviously blown its load. Time to tidy up and publish.

 

[Erozetta]

Can you elaborate on this?

Is this a function of having written a lot and applying your experienced intuition?

Or are there signs in the story that you recognise that mean 'the end'?

I have an example. A story I was writing felt finished to me. I sent it to a couple of people to read and both responded, "Okay, you can't just end it there, something else has to happen." And for months I *tried* to tack more onto it, but everything I added felt wrong. I hated it. Eventually I went back to my original ending and, instead, added a dedication to the beginning

"To the friends who painstakingly tried to help me give this story an ending, only for me to decide it simply needed to end."

Sometimes ending a story is more fulfilling than giving it an "all pretty ribbons tied up" ending.

It's kinda like this:

After a BDSM scene, you don't have to fully untie someone to know they were released. One wrist untied and you know they can finish untying themselves no problem. Why waste words on the tedium of "and then..." and not just leave them in post orgasmic bliss with a "Yeah. I can get loose," she said with a sigh as she tugged on the tie about her wrist, "I just need a minute... Can you get me some water, hun?"

That can be an ending. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that. You don't have to show the other person getting her water or her untying herself. You can, but you don't have to.

 

[Voboy]

I have an example. A story I was writing felt finished to me. I sent it to a couple of people to read and both responded, "Okay, you can't just end it there, something else has to happen." And for months I *tried* to tack more onto it, but everything I added felt wrong. I hated it. Eventually I went back to my original ending and, instead, added a dedication to the beginning

"To the friends who painstakingly tried to help me give this story an ending, only for me to decide it simply needed to end."

Sometimes ending a story is more fulfilling than giving it an "all pretty ribbons tied up" ending.

It's kinda like this:

After a BDSM scene, you don't have to fully untie someone to know they were released. One wrist untied and you know they can finish untying themselves no problem. Why waste words on the tedium of "and then..." and not just leave them in post orgasmic bliss with a "Yeah. I can get loose," she said with a sigh as she tugged on the tie about her wrist, "I just need a minute... Can you get me some water, hun?"

That can be an ending. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that. You don't have to show the other person getting her water or her untying herself. You can, but you don't have to.

Agree 100%

I often end that way.

 

[StillStunned]

I have a story that ends where it needs to end. It's in E&V, and it's about the narrator's girlfriend teasing him while he's unable to get away from his work computer. Eventually he finishes his work, they have hot sex, and the story ends with closure about his work problems. Even though they're going to have more hot sex, at this point the story was finished: the conflict between needing to work and wanting to give in to temptation was resolved. Further sex wouldn't have added to the story.

 

[Britva415]

How do we move forward, considering the stories we tell ourselves? One of the best strategies is to lower the stakes.

This sounds provocative (in the sense of thought-provoking, not in the sense of conflict-provoking). It could use more context. Is he talking about writing, here? "Stories we tell ourselves" sounds like he changed the subject and is talking about life.