Happy Tuesday, fellow writers! I hope that you all had a fun and safe weekend (three-day weekend for Americans). I spent most of my weekend recovering from a huge surge in work plus the hand-in of my dissertation portfolio. I officially turned in my creative writing portfolio for my master’s program last Wednesday, and now I wait impatiently for the results. In the meantime, I’ve been continuing with my freelance orders and plugging away at my novel, a chunk of which became my creative writing portfolio. I have also been keeping my ear out for any writing-related news, and one piece in particular has brought me to today’s topic: plotting, pantsing, and plantsing.
Before I get into what these are and the debate about them, I want to discuss what got me thinking about this subject in the first place. You’ve probably noticed a fair amount of discussion regarding Game of Thrones floating around social media lately. It’s hard to ignore. Even if you don’t watch the show or read the books–I’m ashamed to say that I am such a person–the conversation has been interesting to follow, especially from a writer’s perspective. In particular, a Twitter thread from a writer explaining why this season feels so different has caught my attention.
In this thread, the author, Daniel Silvermint, pins the difference on a shift from pantsing to plotting. Silver mint makes some very compelling points, so I suggest you go to the thread and read it for yourself. However, it does lend itself to the question, can your writing really change when you’re plotting versus when you’re pantsing?
To answer this question, we need to know what these terms mean. Essentially, they are two different ways of writing a story. The first, plotting, is pretty self-explanatory. If you’re a plotter, you plot out your entire story before you start writing. You could probably argue that J.K. Rowling is a plotter. Conversely, panters figure things out as they go, letting their characters organically develop the plot based on their actions, reactions, and the consequences of these. Such writing is called pantsing because you’re said to be writing by the seat of your pants. George R.R. Martin is a notorious pantser. A third way of writing, called plantsing, is also acknowledged. When you’re a plantser, you fall somewhere in the middle. You plan some things, you fly by the seat of your pants with others. I am personally a plantser.
Each method has its pros and cons, and no one method is considered superior to the others. However, they are three distinctly different ways of approaching your writing with often distinctly different results. As you might imagine, plotting usually results in a story which is more focused on the plot, pantsing begets a story more reliant on character development, and plantsing is somewhere in the middle. As with most things, these results are not guaranteed, but they are generally how the different kinds of writing tend to go.
So, in the case of Game of Thrones, the first few seasons felt more focused on character development because the writing more closely mimicked George R.R. Martin’s pantsing style. The final season, on the other hand, required the screenwriters to wrap things up on their own because Martin has not finished writing the book series. As they had a limited time in which to wrap everything up, they became more focused on plotting out what needed to happen to tie up all loose ends. The result is not necessarily a worse story than if they had continued pantsing but a different story. Maybe it is actually worse than the rest, maybe not; I really won’t know until I watch the show. What I do know from Silvermint and other fans is that the story is different in the plotted seasons than in the pantsed ones.
But does the way you approach your writing really change it so much that readers notice? If you look at Game of Thrones, then the answer is a resounding YES. The whole truth, though, is much deeper than character-focused vs. plot-focused. Your approach can, in fact, change the quality of your writing. The fact is that one approach might come more naturally to you than the others. If you hit on the one which more organically fits with you, your writing will be much smoother, more eloquent, and more enjoyable overall. If you’re working with an approach that does not fall in line with your nature, your writing will feel forced, artificial, and hard to read. As with everything in writing, it depends on finding what works for you, not what is considered “right” by the general populace.
Plotting, pantsing, and plantsing are equally valid approaches to writing. They might result in different focuses, but that does not mean that one approach should be held in higher regard than the others. The only problem comes when you try and force yourself to use a method which does not make sense for you and for the story. You might even have times when you’ve used one method with success in the past and it just does not work for your current WIP. The key is figuring out when a writing/planning style feels unnatural to you. If it does, try another way and see if it works better. Each approach might be valid, but only one is valid for both you and your story simultaneously.
Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011