Are you 'Pantser' or a 'Plotter'?

[Dpresspotato]

Honestly when I started to write, I just went on full throttle writing anything that comes to mind without a plan nor an outline. I even treat 'thoughts' as 'scenarios'.

Well it's not boring for me to write thoughts, but it's certainly boring for the readers.

Then along the way, I started realizing that fact. That's also when I realized that my action of peeking at others' works - using their books, movies, animes, and other same stuffs - as outline reference, was called 'consuming.'

Along the way, I became a plotter. But then I hit roadblocks immediately, my dialogues felt bland, the storylines became bland(in my eyes), so I went back writing like a panster(intuitively). But then I ended up writing slew of worthless, pointless words that don't contribute to the stories.

That's when I reached to where am I now, where I scraped off 10 of thousands of words, and rewrite them, compressed them to some 2000 to 4000 words.

It did feel exhausting, and my stock up chapters were soon to be used up as I edit along the way.

But that's when I started feeling satisfied of some of the chapters I wrote.


How about you? How many days of work ended up being scraped off? What type of writer are you?

Honestly I just alternate between panster and plotter. Being too much of a plotter feels like I'm doing an assignment or a project, but being too much of a panster makes my story a mess.

Well, I'm up to 52,000 published words now. The first 6 chapters are still on queue to be edited. Sigh.

Just how the hell those contracted people who churned out 3 chapters be able to write on webnovel everyday?

Arigatou for reading until here.

 

[GDLiZy]

I feel like we have this thread every week or so.

 

[Ruriha]

Procrastinator. That's what I am. I sit on my computer screen, shut it off, and call it a day without having written anything.

 

[NotaNuffian]

I feel like we have this thread every week or so.

More like between two weeks or two days. Often times new or wannabe authors like myself will get lost in what we do and just spam the "help" button in SHF.

Procrastinator. That's what I am. I sit on my computer screen, shut it off, and call it a day without having written anything.

Same, then there are times I get possessed by the random dork of writing and churn stupid lines.

Honestly when I started to write, I just went on full throttle writing anything that comes to mind without a plan nor an outline. I even treat 'thoughts' as 'scenarios'.

Well it's not boring for me to write thoughts, but it's certainly boring for the readers.

Then along the way, I started realizing that fact. That's also when I realized that my action of peeking at others' works - using their books, movies, animes, and other same stuffs - as outline reference, was called 'consuming.'

Along the way, I became a plotter. But then I hit roadblocks immediately, my dialogues felt bland, the storylines became bland(in my eyes), so I went back writing like a panster(intuitively). But then I ended up writing slew of worthless, pointless words that don't contribute to the stories.

That's when I reached to where am I now, where I scraped off 10 of thousands of words, and rewrite them, compressed them to some 2000 to 4000 words.

It did feel exhausting, and my stock up chapters were soon to be used up as I edit along the way.

But that's when I started feeling satisfied of some of the chapters I wrote.


How about you? How many days of work ended up being scraped off? What type of writer are you?

Honestly I just alternate between panster and plotter. Being too much of a plotter feels like I'm doing an assignment or a project, but being too much of a panster makes my story a mess.

Well, I'm up to 52,000 published words now. The first 6 chapters are still on queue to be edited. Sigh.

Just how the hell those contracted people who churned out 3 chapters be able to write on webnovel everyday?

Arigatou for reading until here.

I write when I feel like it. While I have a skeleton, I only use it as a guide to not deviate my work further from how I wanted it to be in the first place. Also the skeleton can tell me whether if the story would work in the first place, you don't know how many abortions I have in my folder, solely because I believe that the story will not fly.

 

[DubstheDuke]

For me its sorta both. I almost always have a plan and an outline, but that plan molds itself as I go. Sometimes it changes into something else completely, other times, the way in which it comes about it completely made up on the spot. Other times still, I plan a scene from miles away and everything leading up to it. I like having flexibility for those random sparks of creativity, but I also like to know where I'm going.

 

[Queenfisher]

@Dpresspotato

Make a poll, then we'll find out once and for all!

/me really likes polls ^^.

On the topic -- I guess I'm neither and I feel many people fall within the endless spectrum and shift on it, too. Flexibility above all.

If you are really asking for advice, then just write write write till this question doesn't bother you. Once you stop worrying about this, it would mean you've found exactly the ratio that works for you as most experienced authors have (which is the reason they can churn out 3 ch/week without bother. Experience).

╮ (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) ╭

 

[OvidLemma]

I'm a pantster. I write a 1-page synopsis for each chapter. This help keeps my plot on the rails, but I don't feel obligated to stick to it. For instance, In my current Patreon story, The Temptress's Tapestry, I'm up to Chapter 10 but am working from Chapter 7 from my notes because of all the stuff I added. Basically, I added a major character, a major villain (a better Big Bad than I had before), and a side-plot that worked better than what I had in my notes, but I didn't realize it until I was actually writing the story. I've never written a comprehensive plot outline for a story, but I do sometimes do extensive worldbuilding before I start writing.

 

[jokei]

im a panser all the way and enjoy it

 

[BenJepheneT]

I feel like we have this thread every week or so.

I actually thought the forum fucked up somewhere and revived an old thread.

 

[Razmatazz]

Pants. I just throw on some music and wing it from start to finish every day. Feel out if today is going be a sad chapter or an actiony one and I put on the corresponding music to help inspire me while writing. =)

As for the story itself as a whole, I have a vague skeleton but the rest is fleshed out on the way based off of my own feelings and user feedback. I proof read but I don't rewrite. Embrace the useless words, be one with the ramble.

 

[Dpresspotato]

Pants. I just throw on some music and wing it from start to finish every day. Feel out If today is going be a sad chapter or an actiony one and I put on the corresponding music to help inspire me while writing. =)

As for the story itself as a whole, I have a vague skeleton but the rest is fleshed out on the way based off of my own feelings and user feedback. I proof read but I don't rewrite. Embrace the useless words, be one with the ramble.

I did this too. But I stopped doing it when I scraped off almost 10k words. Sigh.

 

[ChubbyLiv]

300k words in and I'm a still a full fledged Pantser from beginning to end. My story is doing whatever it wants. It never stucks to my plans.

 

[Moonpearl]

Kind of a mix, I guess?

I do a lot of planning beforehand, building the world, fleshing out the characters, and planning out roughly where I want the story to go and what scenes I think I'll need.

But some of those notes stay just in my head, and I'll adapt flexibly to the needs of the story as I write.
If the characters end up being unable to realistically go in one direction, I'll just change course.

And if they go too drastically off-course, I'll stop and plan again.

 

[TheMangaGod]

I have a general idea of where I want my story to go as well as various "events" between said major points then I write, usually in one go, my chapters without a real plan as to the exact way it'll go. Each chapter has an overall "idea" as to how I want it to pan out but the in between is often what feels right or natural regarding my characters.

---

My Shameless Plug

"I'm in a Monster Girl World"​

 

[K5Rakitan]

I'm usually not wearing pants when I write, so . . .

 

[LordAstrea]

I'd say im about half and half. My story absolutely requires some specific outline since I have many interconnecting layers to my story and conspiracies. As far as some of the details and interactions go, I just kind of let it take over and read it out loud to see if it makes sense or if the dialogue flows naturally as I speak. I also have to let chapters sit and let my brain refuel to check for plotholes or if something could potentially be written better.
It can be a mix of a painstaking process and free flow.
I don't wear pants either. Sometimes I get weird looks when I walk into a coffee shop.

 

[Temple]

I'm a pantser. I tried to plot and it didn't workout. I learned something good from it though. What I do now is plot like 5-10 chapters ahead and then I barely follow it and still do pantsing. But because I have an outline it's easy for me as a pantser to change my mind as I move along. Makes for way better plots too.

 

[BenJepheneT]

I'm gonna start compiling a list of all the threads with this exact same discussion point that gets remade every few weeks as new people find out about this dumb author theory I s2g.

use all the links and make ascii art with it