I had no concept of how writing from a plan would be this fulfilling.
Last year, I started a new goal.
As a professional writer, I determined I needed to do more writing. Among other goals I set for myself – I set out to write a minimum of 1500 words of fiction Monday-Friday.
That could include both actual novel writing – and plotting and planning for books.
Additionally, I decided to try plotting and working as a planner rather than a pantser in the creation of my Forgotten Fodder series.
Over a month or so, I plotted out 4 novels. With the plan in place, I wrote them all over the next 5 or 6 months.
I find having a completed story plan just as satisfying as completing a novel.
To that end, a new idea came to me. At the end of February, I began to create the background and start world-building for this new idea – which would come to be called Savagespace.
In mid-April – almost 2 months later – I started to lay out a new story idea. For the next 5 months, I worked at creating – chapter by chapter – the plan for the plot of this new sci-fi adventure series.
On Thursday, September 23, I completed my story plan. It was almost as satisfying and cathartic as completing a novel.
I didn’t know being a planner was just as inspiring and empowering as being a pantser.
This has proven to be a fascinating study of my writing process.
Definition – Planner vs Pantser
Even though I have written about them before, I still want to clarify it.
When it comes to writing, in my experience there are 2 primary types of writers: Planners and Pantsers.
Planners do a ton of world-building – plotting, character creation, and outlines to a greater or lesser degree – before they ever write a word of the story.
I know planners who are so detailed that they even create some of the dialogue that will be in a scene.
Pantsers, on the other hand, sit down with a pen and paper or at their keyboard and start working. They write by the seat of their pants, creating the story organically.
That’s how I wrote The Source Chronicles and Void Incursion novels (save the final book, which has been planned).
As a pantser, there are no constraints or restrictions (even of your own creation). You go with what comes to you – and write it out.
Another example – this section, explaining the key differences of planners vs pantsers, was written AFTER the section that follows it and then inserted here.
A pantser with a plan?
Even with incorporating planning into my writing – I’m still a pantser.
Take this – and my other blogs – for example. Once I come up with the topic – the actual writing of the blog is by the seat of my pants.
I sit down at the keyboard and take the ideas from my head and put them on the screen. Hopefully, along the way, cohesive thoughts come together. From them, I get to share my ideas on numerous topics, as well as insights and lessons I learn along the way. Hopefully, some of what I share empowers and inspires you, my reader.
From experience, even though I’ve started to work from more of a plan than not – the actual writing is still by the seat of my pants. Dialogue springs up as I craft the story around the plan for the given chapter. Characters both expected and unexpected arrive. And sometimes something I’d planned changes as I start writing.
For the final book of Forgotten Fodder – Bold Moves (coming out in November) – I had planned a scene that involved a certain deception on the part of one of my characters. But as I reached the chapter and started to write it, the plan made no sense. It didn’t work for me or that character.
So, by the seat of my pants, I changed it. What I created stayed inside the plan for the plot – but was truer to the story and its characters.
Hence – even while writing from a plan, I’m still a pantser at heart.
Why I decided to start creating a story plan
Some people feel that pantsers and planners cannot meet in the middle. You are one or the other – but can’t be both.
I’ve found, that this isn’t true. I am still very much both. But for me, planning fixes a weakness in my writing.
When I began The Source Chronicles, the Void Incursion series, and the Vapor Rogues – I had no overarching plot. I had places, people, and conflicts in mind as I worked from the seat of my pants – but no plot. With the latter 2 series, I got through more than one book being completed without having the full plot in mind.
I presume that some pantsers start with the overarching plot in mind – and set to work from there. Even without a plan for how to get from the first paragraph to the last chapter – they know what the plot is. But that’s not how I tend to work.
For me, I see characters and situations. My vision of most of what I write is cinematic – it unfolds with zooms in and out, with the focus of the camera from over the shoulder of one character to the next. The character and scene I can see and write out – but the plot might be unknown for a while.
Unfortunately, this causes a lot of rambling that – even after editing – remains a part of the story. Subplots and cool scenes moving the story – but not the plot forward – are present.
To create better clarity and a more engaging story, I decided plot needed to be given more power. Thus, Forgotten Fodder was all plotted out – each novel, chapter by chapter – before I started the full writing.
And it was not at all limiting as I feared it would be. It proved surprisingly liberating.
The satisfaction of completion
Over the past 5 months, I have been plotting the novels for a new sci-fi series called Savagespace. In the beginning, there were going to be 5 books. But as I got into the plotting and planning of Book 5, I realized that it would come out to be 6 Books.
When I reached the completion of my plan – and wrote the outline for the last chapter in the 6th book – I felt deep satisfaction. It was no different than how writing the last word of a novel or the final sentence in a blog post feels.
Now, I am looking at outlines for 11 books, total. The final novel of Void Incursion, 4 more books and a new overarching plot for Forgotten Fodder, and the 6 novels for Savagespace. That’s 11 complete outlines for new books. How cool is that?
Pantser, planner, or anywhere in-between – the satisfaction of completion is not the end. But we can use the empowerment we feel from this to keep working. We can do more planning and plotting – or start the deep dive into the actual writing of the planned novel.
Finally – it doesn’t matter if you consider yourself a planner or a pantser. See your work through to its completion, and you will find satisfaction and the empowerment that comes with it.
In truth, any creative project we undertake can produce this effect. Completion of a meal, a painting, singing a song, or what-have-you creates a feeling of satisfaction that is encouraging, empowering, and inspiring.
The satisfaction of completion of nearly anything we can imagine is always worthwhile.
How do you feel when you complete your creative work?
Thank you for being part of my ongoing journey, for joining me, and for inspiring me and my craft.
This is the one-hundred and twenty-eighth article exploring the ongoing creative process. Please take a moment to check out the collection of my published works, which can be found here.
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