Pantser or Plotter? My Journey. My Decision...

I find the pantser v plotter debate fascinating. I've only really become aware of it as my first two books were being published - Hitting the Jackpot (2023) and The Last App (2024). Note the dates of publication, because my writing journey is in reverse; I wrote The Last App first.

I was very excited with the idea of The Last App: an app that would calculate when you would die, so excited that I started writing without too much of an idea about where the story might go. The classic pantser. All was going well, I created a family of quite interesting characters, set the ball rolling with the MC buying the app for himself and his extended family - all the way down to great-grandson Will, and a few sub-plots sprouted as if by magic. 20,000 words, 30,000 words, 40,000 words, I was flying.

I made it to about 50,000 words and took stock - took fright might be a better way of describing it. How was this going to end? I couldn't see it. The main plot and sub-plots had panned out in different directions and I couldn't see how I could pull them all into a satisfying conclusion. Writers' block? Sort of; I felt able to write more, but not in a way that would end in a suitable place inside another 30,000 words. And there was an added problem - although I had more ideas, I found it difficult to commit to hammering them out as I feared I might be deleting them not long after I'd written them.

So I stopped writing; it seemed like I was digging a deeper and deeper hole if I didn't. I spent a couple of months mulling over my options, trying out different endings, and came to an awful conclusion. I'd found a good ending to the story, that wasn't a problem. The problem was that the only way I could navigate to my favoured ending would be if I deleted and rewrote nearly 30,000 words: this character would have to die; a sub-plot would have to disappear. If I wanted to arrive at my chosen end point, I discovered that I had no choice.

So, with a heavy heart, and my finger on the delete key, I made my adjustments. There were a few other 'issues' with my draft (see the Editing: Second Time Around post), but the storyline was done. I was happy with it. Not so happy about the wasted time and the bruising on my finger. I vowed to do things differently second time around...

The idea for Hitting the Jackpot (hiding a big lottery win) came from my mother. She used to do the football pools and always put a cross in the 'No Publicity' box for fear of 'begging letters'. I became fascinated with the idea of hiding a 'big win'. But, having had my finger burned (and bruised) by pantsing The Last App, I was determined not to make the same mistake again; I had become a plotter - well, sort of...

Rather luckily, I knew how Hitting the Jackpot would end even before I'd invented any characters or plotted the storyline. This seemed a revelation to me: know your ending before you begin. The plotting then became an exercise in navigating from point A (the beginning) to point B (the end). I found this part immensely stimulating as I could invent characters and sub-plots, always aware of where they had to end up, with a fail-safe option that I could ditch them if necessary without any pain to my index finger. It took a couple of months, but I ended up with what I thought was a pretty good storyline for my comedy. I was ready to write.

As I detail in another post (How I Wrote a Romcom - by Accident) all went smoothly until I finished, and found myself with 50,000 words, about 30,000 short of traditional novel length. I was forced to add a plot-twist (and a new character) that had come to me while writing, which changed the book from a comedy into a romcom. So, not exactly a smooth 'plotters' journey, but infinitely less painful than my attempt at pantsing.

So, book three - (a follow-up to Hitting the Jackpot) became my plotter's pathway mark 2. I had an idea, I started the 'musing' process of considering plot lines, characters, endings. Over a couple of months, I plotted a route map of events leading from the starting point to a finish. I chose my cast of characters as I worked on the plot - I can't see a way of doing one without the other. I also had a mindset that told me a bit of flexibility might be necessary along the way.

After that couple of months plotting, I began writing. I started by writing the scenes that had been playing around in my mind the most. I wanted to establish the 'tone' of the book and the voices of the characters. 20,000 words. After that, I wrote pretty-much chronologically. Knowing where I was going gave me the confidence to spend time on style, prose - and jokes. 40,000 words. I kept a check on my progress from my plotting notes. By now I should have written 60,000 words. And so I knew when I needed to pull all the threads together for the big finale - 90,000 words.

When I reached the end I was surprised at how smoothly it had all gone. It had taken a while: a couple of months plotting, musing, considering, ditching some ideas, coming up with new ones, playing with characters. Then nearly four months hammering out the first draft (I'm not a full-time writer). My editing process (before it goes to my 'real' editor) is very fiddly. I read it and amend it, playing with descriptions and dialogue, until I can't find anything else to fiddle with.

My editor always finds something else...

So, three books in. What have I discovered? I'm a Plotter. No doubt about it now. My reasons?

1. The most important one. I see pantsing and plotting as being more similar than many people think. They're both methods of coming up with a 'story'. When you plot - you do it in note form. What you pants - you write it as prose as you go. For me, if there's an equal chance that you won't achieve a satisfactory 'story' with both methods - then why bother writing it all out? It seems to me quite a risk. When you work in note form, and you can't get the 'story' to 'work', then you've lost time, a lot of creative energy, but no more or less than you would have expended had you pantsed it. But you haven't written 50,000 words, with the prospect of having to delete/rewrite 30,000 of them.

   
   

2. The second reason I'm now committed to plotting is the freedom it gives me. Once I have my plot, my 'story', I can write it with confidence. I can concentrate on the prose, the voices, the style, the dialogue, because I know none of it is going to be wasted.

   
   

   It's been a long journey - three books, 260,000 words, five years. But I feel I now have a tried and trusted method that works - for me.