Pantsers & Thoughts?

duelsharks

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What do you guys think of/about writers who do better jumping into a story and going with the flow? I see a lot of suggestions to plot and outline etc, after lurking around, but there are writers who don't do that/it doesn't work that way for them ( hi it's me ). Would you have any particular tips for writer who don't plan ahead ( please don't advise planning ahead- the whole point of being a pantser type writer is... not planning ahead, my brain just doesn't work that way ).

I have some, but I'd like to see input from other people because damn, everyone's just saying to outline/plot/plan ahead of time T^T

my "tips":
- write stuff down as you go along ( characters, random plot points you're thinking of )
- stop trying to outline if you hate doing it + doesn't work out for you
- write a hefty chunk of the story and go back and break them up into chapters later- you might find it easier to keep ideas going if everything you've written thus far is in the page.
- extra, something that works with my neuroatypical brain: set a tone for the story with page colors + images if you use a word processor like word or google docs.
 
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for me, i just write when i'm in the mood.

that's why i sometimes only release one chapter and go for a few month breaks, if i didn't feel like it.

i also just stick more on things that are the most fun, so i made a compilation when i can just post some random writings. while i got several ongoing projects that aren't updated for a damn long while.

maybe i should finish it, but i feel really lazy right now. i just want to farm lolis on my waifu game.
 

Sabruness

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my "tips":
- write stuff down as you go along ( characters, random plot points you're thinking of )
- stop trying to outline if you hate doing it + doesn't work out for you
- write a hefty chunk of the story and go back and break them up into chapters later- you might find it easier to keep ideas going if everything you've written thus far is in the page.
- extra, something that works with my neuroatypical brain: set a tone for the story with page colors + images if you use a word processor like word or google docs.
You basically described pretty much everything i did when i started writing stories as a whim side-hobby. I've ditched the colours and images though as it was a pain in the arse to do with after a while.
Apart from that, i still do the other stuff:
- crib sheets with characters, plot points, random ideas and other things that help.
- just writing as the muse leads me.

As an extra tip to add, i'd say:
- If you hit a point where you've stalled in your writing but your brain is giving you a future part of the plot, follow it and just write. Sometimes writing the new chunk of plot out will end up giving you the key to get past the point where you stalled.

That happened with my first two stories (which happened to have the most written for them) and it did actually help. It's easier to connect the parts together, because you know the beginning and end points of the section, than it is trying to work the conventional way. It's like how most bridges are built from both ends that meet in the middle
 
D

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As someone who plans ahead (and made some of the writing tips that can be found in the forums), these tips are great for pantsers (basically, it's what I observed them doing).

My brother is a pantser author, and he just jots down every major plot detail then put the 'in-betweens' whenever he is in the mood for writing. Pretty fast, if you ask me, and he could churn out more chapters than me in one sitting.
 
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If you're writing a manuscript that can be edited when it's complete before the novel is shown, pantsing has its benefits. However, what I don't hear anyone ever talk about but I figured out myself is that for web novels, pantsing usually becomes a disaster. Web novels can become very long, much longer than a single novel. Since you don't have an outline, it's inevitable you will fill up your story with plot holes that need to be edited, but since you're publishing one chapter at a time, that's impossible. So pantsing isn't suitable if you want to write a high quality web novel. That's what I've learned.
 

GDLiZy

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If you're writing a manuscript that can be edited when it's complete before the novel is shown, pantsing has its benefits. However, what I don't hear anyone ever talk about but I figured out myself is that for web novels, pantsing usually becomes a disaster. Web novels can become very long, much longer than a single novel. Since you don't have an outline, it's inevitable you will fill up your story with plot holes that need to be edited, but since you're publishing one chapter at a time, that's impossible. So pantsing isn't suitable if you want to write a high quality web novel. That's what I've learned.
Pantsing isn't suitable for anything ever, period. It's like going on with your life just by guts feeling with no plan. It's a disaster of knowing nothing and refusing to learn. You need at least some directions to ensure some relevance of your choices. Sometimes it can work, but it's up to luck, and lady luck favours those who came prepared.

Learn to plan ahead, even just some final destinations or points you want to reach. No one is wired to do things one and only one way. Everything takes practices to get good at. Also, planning is just that, planning. You don't have to follow it until the end or even sticking to it, but having ideas about how to approach things will help you immensely in your writing, even if the idea is completely ridiculous and wrong, for you can always change them to something better.
 

UYScuti

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Pantsing isn't suitable for anything ever, period. It's like going on with your life just by guts feeling with no plan. It's a disaster of knowing nothing and refusing to learn. You need at least some directions to ensure some relevance of your choices. Sometimes it can work, but it's up to luck, and lady luck favours those who came prepared.

Learn to plan ahead, even just some final destinations or points you want to reach. No one is wired to do things one and only one way. Everything takes practices to get good at. Also, planning is just that, planning. You don't have to follow it until the end or even sticking to it, but having ideas about how to approach things will help you immensely in your writing, even if the idea is completely ridiculous and wrong, for you can always change them to something better.

Pantsing a real novel isn’t flying by and ending in a wreck. It’s a loop. First draft is a bunch of ideas that lead somewhere with problems you need to resolve. Second draft requires a fair amount of editing in the early stages to fit the conclusion, and subsequent drafts clean everything up. Five, six, or seven drafts are not uncommon in a traditional novel.

Pantsing only seems like a disaster when you do it for webnovels. You don’t have the luxury of writing a full volume, then rewriting it as a whole before you post it. You’re posting chapter by chapter, and at best you’ve written ten or twenty chapters ahead that can be modified so you don’t create too many holes. Webnovels are limited by how broad the early chapters are. As you get to later chapters, anything that doesn’t fit what you’ve created in the beginning turns into a Deus ex Machina.
 

duelsharks

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Pantsing isn't suitable for anything ever, period. It's like going on with your life just by guts feeling with no plan. It's a disaster of knowing nothing and refusing to learn. You need at least some directions to ensure some relevance of your choices. Sometimes it can work, but it's up to luck, and lady luck favours those who came prepared.

Learn to plan ahead, even just some final destinations or points you want to reach. No one is wired to do things one and only one way. Everything takes practices to get good at. Also, planning is just that, planning. You don't have to follow it until the end or even sticking to it, but having ideas about how to approach things will help you immensely in your writing, even if the idea is completely ridiculous and wrong, for you can always change them to something better.

I will have to disagree with you. I've found that pantsing has helped me a lot as I write manuscripts or generally fics. Writing without direction will certainly go nowhere; that's not exactly what pantsing is. Most panster already know their final destination- scenes, lines, the plots they want to happen. It's not a refusal to learn nor knowing nothing. Just because there are no outlines produced, doesn't mean the work produced will be a disaster. I've, like many other people, tried outlining, plotting, writing out all the details beforehand- and I've found it doesn't bond well with me. I did learn what works best for me, which is jotting down plot points and character notes as i go to keep them in mind.

Yes, no one is wired to do one thing one way, but some people work a certain way and a certain process works best with them. I've learned that trying to plan before I write only shortcuts my brain and it's harder to write freely. Plotting and planning in some degree works for people who need that to help them better write, and that's fine- Pantser have their own method of getting through a fic. Sure, maybe you see it as a lot messier than just planning ahead of time, but writing lives in people in different ways, and if it works well for them, then it works for them.
 

duelsharks

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If you're writing a manuscript that can be edited when it's complete before the novel is shown, pantsing has its benefits. However, what I don't hear anyone ever talk about but I figured out myself is that for web novels, pantsing usually becomes a disaster. Web novels can become very long, much longer than a single novel. Since you don't have an outline, it's inevitable you will fill up your story with plot holes that need to be edited, but since you're publishing one chapter at a time, that's impossible. So pantsing isn't suitable if you want to write a high quality web novel. That's what I've learned.

yeah I've noticed this with several web novels. It's unfortunate, because it's clear they don't have an ending in mind. The downside of pantsing is the lack of some knowledge that could easily be important. Don't take my word for it, but I think it's mainly a structural issues. These people don't have a sense of structure and pacing and don't know how to end a novel when it should've ended. At that point, I would personally suggest trying different methods of writing that's not purely pantsing- some people are more inbetween ( like me, although I lean a lot towards pantsing ) and some might find that planning does work for them.
 
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