Plotting or Pantsing

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A plotter is a person who plots out their story, they outline it, they make the character arcs, and it's quite a meticulous and clean way of doing things. It also saves a lot of time.

A pantser is a person who just makes it all up as they go along. A lot of times, most of the time, there's a lot of re-writing that has to be done and plot holes that have to be addressed.

I started out as a pantser, but it really did take up a lot of time. One day, I decided to go the plotting way. It ended up that my pantser side was able to run freely as I plotted. I was able to go back to what I had plotted when I found a hole and just scratch a big X over what I didn't want. This saved time as opposed to going into the writing itself and having to delete hours of work. Plotting also helped me to remember what dialogue I wanted for certain parts.

I also plotted inside a notebook and not on the computer. This saved my eyes some needless blue ray light. I could take my notebook anywhere I wanted to, and if my bag fell over, there was no panic that my computer had broken. Writing things down with a pen slowed down my brain and I was able to derive some really nice scenes.

In "Renzhies," I plotted out the entire recovery section of Rezh's part since a lot of complicated things were going on with multiple characters. With everything straightened out in the notebook, I was able to write the story down nice and clean.

The madness that went on in the vozhrith was pantsing reined in with plotting. Together, they created something beautiful.

Some writers will argue for plotting, others for pantsing. For me, personally, I will use whichever suits me best. I don't always plot, for inspiration will flow straight from the pen. I don't always make it up as I go along, because that can lead to rambling. Plotting is very good for thinking about tight spots in a story that you need to fix. Pantsing can bring you to crazy plot twists and new horizons that you wouldn't have thought about.

Neither one is all wrong or all right. Work as you feel and things should turn out.

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