Plotter or Pantser? Discover Your Unique Writing Style

You may have heard the terms plotter or pantser in your writing career. But what exactly do they mean? How do you know which one you are? First, let me state clearly that it is very rare for someone to be exclusively one or the other. Being a plotter or pantser describes a personality trait. Like most personality traits, people tend to fall somewhere along a spectrum.

The Plotter or Pantser Spectrum

Now that you see how the spectrum runs, how do you decide where you stand? What does it matter anyway?

Well it matters a lot. Especially if you’re just starting on your writing journey and you want to get it right. I discovered where I fall on the spectrum the hard way, during my first #NaNoWriMo experience. It was soul-crushing and nearly cost me my entire writing career. To find out more about that experience read this article.

While your discovery might not be so dramatic, knowing where you fall on the spectrum can be a big help when it comes to planning (or not) your novel.

Discovering Your Writing Style – Are You a Plotter or Pantser?

The Plotter

These are Type-A personalities, amazingly prepared writers who need details. All the details! They crave order. They need to know every single thing about their story before they even begin to think about writing it.

Plotters have super organized extremely thorough outlines. They do complex characters interviews. I like to compare plotters to the scientists at NASA. The ones who plan, prepare, check, double-check. All systems go.

A good example is one Twitter friend who bragged, “I just finished Chapters 6 & 9. I can’t help it that my outline is so detailed I can write entire chapters out of sequence.”

But again, this is a spectrum. If you like outlines, but don’t need to know everything before you write, you may not be 100% plotter. More on that later.

The Pantser

On the other side of the spectrum are these beautiful people. Pantser folk are some super creative writers. They are free spirits. They go with the flow. Pantsers like to wait and see what happens. “Outline, shmoutline,” they say.

They can simply pick up a pen and start writing a novel beginning to end with no plans or forethought. Their characters tell them who’s the boss. They despise outlines and think they’re for the birds.

When I think of a pantser, I see an artist standing barefoot in the grass, swaying to some chakra balancing tunes, soaking up the creative vibes around them.

Does this sound like you? Then, you might be a pantser, my friend. If neither of these seems quite right, keep reading…

The Plantser

Like I keep saying, writing styles fall on a spectrum. Most people are some combination of both plotter and pantser.

Do you like to scribble down some notes before you get started writing? Do you make a quick outline, but like to leave room for imagination? Then you might be a plantser.

Do you sometimes pick up your pen and write, and other times need to do some serious groundwork to straighten out that mess of ideas in your head? Then you might be a plantser.

Do you create detailed outlines, only to scrub them later on because your characters had better ideas? (Have you figured it out, yet?) You might be a plantser.

Plantsers like to plan some things but they also like to go with the flow when the time is right. This probably describes most people. That’s why I think most people are plantser. The key here is to figure out what works for you.

There is nothing wrong with any of these writing styles. Plotters and pantser are both great in their own right. They both have pros and cons. Both styles are employed by successful writers everywhere.

The question is, which is right for you? What is your writing style?

Take some time to figure this out. Here’s what happened to me because I didn’t take the time to figure this out:

Not knowing if I was a plotter or pantser had a major impact on me. Incorrectly, I assumed I was a pantser. Usually, I’m the type to just go with the flow. Plans and routines are not my style. So I tried #NaNoWriMo for the first time with this idea firmly ingrained in my brain. I was wrong, so wrong. It was so bad that I nearly stopped writing forever because of it. Eventually, I got over myself. But it was a hard lesson to learn.

I want to save you from that heartache and waste of time and energy. | Click here to learn more about #NaNoWriMo!

How to Find Your Writing Style

Take some time now to do some introspection. Think about other areas of your life:

• Do you have a daily planner?
• Do you wake up early and figure out everything you’re going to do for the day before the sun rises?
• Or do you wake up last minute, rush out of the house and let the day take you on an adventure?

Chances are, the more planning you do in your everyday life, the more planning you’re going to want to do for your writing. The same is true if you don’t like to plan. You probably won’t want to plan your novel either.

Again, the key is to find what works best for you.

My final piece of advice, if you find one style doesn’t work for you. Don’t give up. Try the other one. If that still doesn’t work, try different combinations of outlining and freewriting to see what you like. If you take the time now to figure the level of planning you need, you’re going to save yourself a lot of trouble.

Remember, whether you’re more like those NASA scientists or the hippie queens, you’re a writer. That means you’re awesome.