If you are familiar with the jargon of the writing world, you already know what this post is about. If you are not familiar with said jargon, you are probably questioning my sanity. A valid response.
Essentially, there are two extremes to the types of writers out there:
- Outliners: also known as architects, these are those structured and organized-thinking individuals who outline their whole story before starting any writing. These people know everything that is going to happen in the story before it happens. They map out character arcs and relationships, write short novels of worldbuilding material, and take their plot through carefully constructed points.
- Pantsers: also known as gardeners or discovery writers, these people fly by the seat of their pants. Pantsers just pick a setting, a character, or a situation and start writing a scene. They may have an idea of the world they are creating or the plot they hope to follow, but for the most part they just journey right alongside their characters and build their world and plot as it happens before their eyes.
Most people will fall on a spectrum between these two extremes, but pretty much everyone has a preference toward one or the other. One is by no means more ‘correct’ than the other.
Some say that outliners have an easier time writing fantasy, as so much depends on plot and worldbuilding, but discovery writers often attribute their first draft to a kind of outline, just an incredibly detailed one! Pantsers are undoubtedly going to have more editing on their hands, as they often have to go back and tie in themes and plot points and concepts they added as they went, but outliners put in just as much work on the front end of the novel.
In my own writing, I would place myself pretty far toward the ‘outliner’ side of things, but my characters and world and plot do change as I journey through them. I outline the main plot and build my world and list my characters ahead of time, but when I sit down to a scene, I often don’t know where it will start or how it will get through the usually rather broad plot points I have jotted down for that scene.
I have written out the personalities and backstories characters in the outlining stage only to have them tell me in no uncertain terms that that is not who they are the moment my fingers hit the keys. (If you’ve read my novel, Essence of Stone, Dulon was originally planned to be a severe and overly-proper Morcani leader of Daro without much of a stake in the story. That lasted about a page.)
If one of these two forms seems the obvious choice to you, go for it, but I suggest playing around with both, even if that just means experimenting with short stories.
What type of writer are you? Have you tried pantsing and outlining? How do you think your current work would be different if you had leaned toward the other method?
