Tori/Saber: I’m not going to stand here and listen to you accusing me of things I clearly did!
losing my mind what do you MEAN mr. brightside is 20 years old
WHAT DO YOU MEAN 2003?????
coming out of my cage and i've been doing just WRONG thanks !!!
Planning or Pantsing?
When I was younger I was totally a first-draft pantser. I would just write like the wind, get all my ideas out onto the page, and then pick it apart in the editing and form some sort of cohesive narrative. At least in theory.
For those of you who don’t know, pantsing is the technique writers use where they start writing a draft without outlining and see where the story takes them. It has advantages in that you don’t have to worry about creating a fully formed plot before you begin writing, and there’s a lot of room for spontaneity and fun.
However, I began to find that pantsing my first draft made it incredibly long and overall ended in more work and effort in the long run. I ended up having to work through pages and pages of stuff without knowing which parts were usable or not. I also personally found that I would create a lot of ‘darlings’ in this first draft that I would have a hard time cutting out to create narrative later—the point of the story would actually be several stories I had tried to mash all together.
Pantsing definitely works for some writers, and I know a lot of professional writers use this technique as well, so if you feel like it works best for you, don’t doubt yourself.
The advantages of planning are a lot more helpful to me. Knowing where your story is going throughout keeps me on track, and creates less scenes to cut out in the end. I also feel that elements of the narrative weave together a bit more naturally—I don’t forget motifs or storylines like I do when pantsing.
In the end, how you write is entirely up to you. However, if you’ve always been a pantser, try planning out your next draft. If you always plan ahead, try just opening a document and writing as you think. You might find the other side actually works a whole lot better for you.
How do you prefer to write?
Instead of writing character growth how about I write a protagonist who proves herself and reveals the hidden depths that others didn’t think she had
Robin: So, are we ready to rock?
Zylas: No.
Amalia: Not particularly.
Robin: That’s the spirit!
romancemedia
