Planners

What kind of writer are you?

Long ago, another writer friend of mine defined to me two different kinds of writers. Planners and pantsers.

What’s that all about? These are, of course, generalizations, but the explanations are as follows:

A planner is someone who plots out the story, outlines the characters, and generally works out, in advance, just what their story is, where it is going, and so on.

Some planners get super in-depth, generating almost the whole story itself in the process of outlining each chapter, plot points, characters and their motivations, and so on. It differs from person to person, of course, but planners take specific steps and use a plan before they begin writing the actual story.

A planner generally has a pretty good idea of the shape of the story, everything and everyone in it. Again, this can be to varying degrees and thoroughness.

Some planners get really deep into planning while others just outline matters to have direction.

But what if you don’t do planning?

Pantsers

The term “pantsers” is a shortening of the phrase “By the seat of your pants.” Ergo, pantsers sit down and write. They just sit at the keyboard or with pen in hand and words come out and take shape along the way.

Pantsers generally tend to have little to no plan and write what comes to mind. They can be very impulsive, and ideas and notions leap from their mind to the screen or page.

Writing by the seat of your pants is not for everyone. Pantsers can appear to be disorganized, kind of strange, and unpredictable. You might have a notion of what the story is going to be, the setting, the characters, maybe even the plot; or you might start with what pops into your head and simply go from there.

Writers will be writers

Whether you are a planner or a pantser, you are a writer when you sit and take the time to write. To be sure, planners frequently do not understand pantsers and vice versa.

How do planners take all that time to work out all that detail before they write?

How can pantsers just make it up as they go along without planning first? What do they hope to accomplish?

As a writer, overall, I’m a pantser. I get the idea, a character, a scene, maybe a title, and then sit to write and watch the story evolve. Characters speak to me, in then they show me things as I write their stories. Sometimes, totally unexpected things happen with them as the story is written.

I’m not always a pantser (though most of the time I am). For example, The Vapor Rogues series began as a Steampunk short story featuring pirates and magic for an anthology. Because I was creating a Steampunk world, I had to lay it out in advance.

I figured out the backstory for my world (because while this is Steampunk, it’s also got sci-fi and fantasy elements), how the magic worked, what the technology was like, the coins used, and a lot of details far beyond what I normally would do at the outset.

This gave me so much data that, once I wrote the short story, I felt the need to begin a series. I jumped three years forward on their timeline and began Clouds of Authority.

However, despite having created all that background, I wrote it by the seat of my pants. To be honest, I didn’t work out the entirety of the plot until completing book 2 – Clouds of Destiny (which is unedited, but complete).

I know that, sometimes, plotters write as pantsers, too.

The muse isn’t always obvious

When you are working on your writing, the muse can take any number of different forms.

What is the muse? Inspiration. The notion is based on the Nine Muses of Greek Antiquity, goddesses who inspired artisans to make amazing creations in the arts, sciences, and other cultural contributions.

The Nine Muses, and their spheres of influence, are Clio (history), Calliope (epic poetry), Erato (lyric poetry), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry), Terpsichore (dance), Melpomene (tragedy), Thalia (comedy), Urania (astronomy), and Euterpe (music).

Sometimes the muse is obvious. Other times, the muse is more obtuse and may seem to be playing a game of hide-and-seek with you.

Because of this nature of the muses, many times along the way, I am aware of a planner who found themselves improvising because they were unexpectedly inspired to take a new direction.

When the muse is upon you, whatever genre or form that takes, you need to write. Some of what you produce is not going to be worth sharing. Some is gold, some is shit. I have multiple journals full of garbage I don’t even like to reread, so sharing isn’t happening.

Planner, pantser, writer

The point of all of this, planner, pantser, or however this comes out, is that you should write. Got a story? An idea? A solution to a problem nobody else seems to have written out? Get the words out of your head and onto the page or screen.

Do not let the fear that what you have isn’t good enough, or that you lack skill, or that you have never done this before, stop you. Plot it out or make it happen, just write. If you are inspired to put your words out there and share this piece of your soul, go for it. Don’t silence your muse.

Planner or pantser, what words have you got to share with the world?

Thank you for reading these words, and taking part in my ongoing journey. Thank you for joining me.

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This is the twenty-fourth entry of my personal blog. Please take a moment to check out the collection of my published writing, which can be found here.

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