The Pros and Cons of Pantsing and Plotting

What are the differences between a plotter and a pantser? What are the benefits and drawbacks? Is one better than the other? Can a writer be both?

Are you a pantser or a plotter?

This is a question often asked by writers to other writers. It is a bit like asking someone which political party they support. Some writers are firmly in favour of one over the other. There is nothing wrong with this. The beauty of the writing process is it is a personal technique developed and honed. When I first seriously began writing eight years ago, I was a pantser. But as my writing evolved, so did my techniques.

What’s the difference between a pantser and a plotter?

Flying from the seat of my pants…

Pantsing is intuitive, exploratory writing. An idea sparks a story and through writing, you see where it leads.

Let’s explore this through an analogy (a writer’s favourite tool).

You walk out of your door with the spontaneous decision to go on a journey. You look at the landscape fading into the distance with a vague idea of the direction you want to head, and start walking. The destination is unknown. The direction may even change, depending on what you uncover on the path.

The plot thickens…

Plotters take an idea and plan a story around it from start to finish before writing it.

Let’s return to the earlier analogy.

You walk out of your door with the decision to go on a journey. This decision was made weeks ago and you’re armed with a detailed map of the journey and all the points of interest you will stop at before reaching your final destination. Deviations are out of the question because everything is prepared and you know exactly how much time you have.

What are the pros and cons of plotting and pantsing?

Plotting Pros

Structure

Everything is in place. All the writer needs to do is follow the outline and reference back to character profiles and any research they have done for the story.

Faster to write

The writer knows the number of scenes and has a good idea of the word count for each. This is especially useful if you’re writing to a deadline.

No unnecessary fluff to cut out later

Every outlined scene and character has a purpose.

You’re hitting all the right beats

As everything is pre-planned, there’s less chance of a saggy, slow middle.

Plotting Cons

Limited character development

Plotting puts the key focus on the plot. This can lead to limited character development.

Creates a plot led story rather than a character led story

By taking the focus from the characters, the reader is less likely to invest in the story. A writer can come up with an excellent plot, but how does this affect the main character? What is personally at stake for them? Luke Skywalker’s story wouldn’t have been so powerful had his father not been Vader.

Characters may act out of character

When the plot trumps character development, there is the chance of a character carrying out an action to drive the plot which goes against their nature. This type of thing jolts the reader from the story.

Less fun to write

You already know how it’s going to end.

Limited scope to explore new ideas

A structured story means there is no opportunity to explore, which may lead to new ideas for another story.

Pantsing Pros

Creates a character led story

With the character in the driving seat, they’re the one making the choices of where to go and who to talk to. The plot is there, but the focus is on how it affects the character.

Improved character development

Characters appear and intuitively the writer brings them into being. As the story is character driven, there is much more opportunity to explore and develop these characters and their relationships with others.

Exploratory writing leads to interesting world building, especially in fantasy.

Pantsing allows an opportunity to explore and develop world building. A character may stumble into a new city, and the writer can describe it through their eyes.

Enjoyable to write

You don’t know what’s going to happen next! I’ve been so caught up in writing a scene that when an antagonist threw in a major plot twist, I paused in shock. I love those moments.

Intuitive writing can spark further ideas for new stories

Through exploration, a story may deviate, but what is uncovered might spark an idea for a different story. Perhaps the main character meets a minor character, who later develops into a character for their own story.

Pantsing Cons

Weak plot

As this method focuses much more on character development, it is often at the expense of the plot. There is an impatience in the reader wanting to know when the action is going to start.

It doesn’t hit the right beats

Because of its exploratory nature, pantsing sometimes results in a story which doesn’t follow the anticipated beats. That’s not always a bad thing. But it can cause drawn out openings, sagging middles and underwhelming endings.

Too much information

Another analogy. Pantsing is like playing an open world video game and plotting is like playing a linear one. An open world means there is a lot to explore. Lots of random things and little side quests. But too much, and you forget what the main plot was about. Certainly in my case, when I am engaged in exploratory writing, I will write massive info dumps on characters and world building. It’s all useful for me, but not for the reader. It can also lead to too many characters. Some which, if planned, could easily have not existed, or merged into a single character.

Dead ends and backtracking

Like an exploratory walk, you will run into dead ends where the story fizzles out, and have to backtrack to an earlier point.

Takes longer to write

Because of the backtracking and the tendency to overwrite and info dump, the story inevitably takes longer to write. This includes the editing stages where pacing issues are addressed and info dumps cut.

Be prepared for a lot of rewrites

When you pants a new character into being, it’s like meeting a stranger for the first time. As you write, the character develops and by the end, you know far too much about them. Often those early chapters do not mirror the character’s true identity you discover by the ending, and you have to go back and rewrite them. It is the same in world building.

As the writing is exploratory and intuitive, there is an increased likelihood of taking things in an entirely new direction, even in the editing stages. A minor scene you are rewriting sparks a new idea. The changes may seem small at first, but like dominos, everything collapses and a whole new story may emerge.

How about both?

I began as a pantser. That changed when I pants the opening of a novel, which quickly turned into a murder mystery. Quickly realising it would be a good idea if I knew who did it, I started plotting and enrolled in the Curtis Brown Creative Writing Crime Fiction course, which helped me greatly.

I benefited from the structure plotting gave me. However, I couldn’t let the pantser side of me go. I firmly believe stories are character driven and the freedom pantsing allows means I can give my characters room to grow and explore.

It feels good to be a planster!

A planster is a hybrid of a plotter and pantser.

Back to the analogy.

You walk out of your door with the decision to go on a journey. This decision was made in advance and you’re armed with a map of the journey and some points of interest you would like to visit on route to your final destination. However, you’ve deliberately left things loose. There are opportunities to make changes depending on the people you meet and the things you do. Gut instinct makes you visit that point of interest you were planning to miss. It opens up something new before you return to the journey you had planned and perhaps a few days later or earlier than intended.

Plotting brings structure. But keeping my outline loose means I have wiggle room for a bit of pantsing.

This hybrid method currently suits my fictional novel writing. I still pants random ideas to see where they lead or what other stories they may conjure. My apologies to the plotters, but I don’t think I can fully commit to pure plotting. But the writing process is fluid and adaptive, so never say never.