How (and why) I went from Pantser to Plotter: A writer's Journey...

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 as I was only making notes - not writing. 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 - Spending the Jackpot (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 'this point in the notes' 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. When 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 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 much less than you would have expended had you pantsed it. 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 it's unlikely any of it is going to be wasted) rather than worrying about where it's all going and can I tie it all together... That bit was done during the plotting stage.

   
   

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

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