Plotter vs Pantser: which are you? Or are you both depending on the book?
This month’s topic for Round Robin is the process of writing your books. Well, the process of writing my books because this is my blog. (However, I would love to hear from you about your process.) Are you a plotter? Or are you a pantser?
While I discussed this a few times on my blog, it has never occurred to me that perhaps part of the reason I’m a pantser is I’m a bit of a rebel. 🤪 Every part of me rebels at the thought of plotting out the story. Honestly, when I have attempted to do that, even my characters rebel, no matter how meek and mild-mannered they are. They are like the tomato plant who refuses to stay within the tomato cage—the cage might be good for it, but it wants to be free. So, in the politest, or not so polite, way possible, it flipped me off and did what it wanted. LOL
That’s my characters. They see the plot (in my head, by the way, not generally written down) and, suddenly, they’re all singing the Queen song, “I want to break free. I want to break free.” And one of them might even say, “I wave my private parts in your general direction.”
So, no, my characters aren’t very well-behaved when it comes to plots, but they are highly entertaining.
My current WIP, which is the second book in a series I haven’t released yet, I’ve been working on the hero’s POV for a while. Now that I’m writing his story, he’s not happy with how I’ve portrayed him. He’s changing things, significantly. It’s all good, but he’s a bit rebellious. LOL
It does make for a better story, though.
That being said, this particular series would be easier to write if it was plotted. I just don’t see it happening, and there’s a good possibility, now that I think on it, that I might want to wait to release any of them until I write all of them because any inconsistencies will drive me nuts. I’ve seen it happen in other series, and it is a pet peeve of mine.
I do have another series that, once I finish with this one, I’ll start. Again, I’d love to plot it out, but judging from how my characters react (heck, even how my tomato plant reacts), I doubt that’s going to work for me. We shall see.
So, what are you? Are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you think it’s better to plot for certain types of stories and write it by the seat of your pants for all of them? Or do you plot for them all? Let me know.
Characters – we can’t do anything without them – can be a pest. Tomatoes – one of my favourite foods. Anne
We can’t do anything without them, you are right. They can be very difficult. LOL It’s also what makes writing so entertaining.
My characters tend to be a bit rebellious as well. But even more, I find pantsing far more fun than plotting. As I mentioned in my post, I was getting along just fine letting my characters write the story when I stuck with romance, and even my mainstream and time travel, but mystery had me planting my face into a wall, realizing I needed to know where I was going and why before I started. Still not happy with the process of outlining but it does help get the mystery to work easier.
I would imagine writing a mystery would be completely different than romance.