I used to think I was a “pantser”. I’d get an idea, and just start writing, letting the process take me where it would. I enjoyed it, the creativity, the spontaneity… But eventually, inevitably, I’d fizzle out somewhere along the way. Get stuck on a detail, or not know how to move forward from a certain point. And I’d lose interest in the project. I have an embarrassing number of incomplete writing projects as a result.
Sometime last year I decided to try “plotting” instead. I’d always thought that if I planned everything out, it would kill my creativity. But I had been working on this idea for a while, and I was in love with it. I didn’t want it to end up in my “incompletes” folder. So I thought I’d try something different. I read up on story structure, and outlining, and drafting. And then I created a rough outline of the story I wanted to tell. It wasn’t very detailed - I’d always known what the ending would be, and I knew some of the big events that I wanted to happen on the way to the ending, but I’d never really put it all down in one spot.
Once I did that, it was like I had a roadmap. I could see a path forward for each of my main characters, and more importantly, I could see where and when the story began for each of them. Taking all of that out of my brain and putting it down on paper in Scrivener, seemed to give me more “room” for the actual writing. I banged out a first draft in record time. It was the first time I had completed a long-form (novel length) manuscript since before college.
So I guess I’m a plotter after all, I thought. And the universe laughed in second draft.
The second draft is when the story is supposed to go from shitty to good. For me, it has also been when my characters have really taken the reins. I had a path laid out for them, but very often they insist on going off it. In fact the trigger for writing this post was my protagonist doing just that. It was like they took one look at the general shittiness of the first draft and were like…
Theoretically, yes?
BUT ACTUALLY...
NO!!
I had to take a break to figure out whether (and if yes, how) their new course of action was going to change the end-game.
I actually love it when my characters do this. Yes, it can be a bit frustrating at times. I really want to get this second draft done while I still have as much time as I do now to dedicate to it. And every time we go off script, there’s a risk that my outline won’t work anymore, so I’m often needing to recalibrate on the fly. But I think that’s part of the joy of it. There’s still spontaneity and creativity in the storytelling process. And it demands flexibility and adaptability from the writer. There have been chapters I’ve had to rewrite entirely, scenes that I loved, that I’ve had to let go of because they don’t serve the plot anymore. I’d like to believe that is all making my story stronger and more dynamic while still paying attention to things like story structure, to genre tropes and whether or not I want to adhere to them.
So I’m embracing the uncertainty, unreservedly letting the characters lead me where they will, while knowing in the back of my mind that there is a roadmap - a beginning, middle, and end laid out and waiting for me to fall back on if I find myself stuck. It’s like in becoming a plotter, I’ve turned into a freer pantser. Perhaps I’m both. A “plantser”. (I believe that is the generally accepted term among writers).
I think there’s something to be said for allowing oneself to wander from the preconceived narrative. It is the twists and turns of a story that keep readers on their toes. And sometimes they reveal hidden facets of my characters’ personalities or histories allowing me a deeper understanding of their motivation and internal conflicts. And that deeper understanding which hopefully enriches the story, making it more engaging, the characters more realistic and relatable. Additionally, real life people don’t act according to a script, so perhaps it makes sense that fictional characters sometimes don’t either. Our lives evolve organically, and our stories do too.
I also think that sometimes, that “yeah, no” reaction from a character is my subconscious’ way of telling me to take a closer look at something, a plot line, an event, a relationship. It’s like I’ve known all along that something didn’t quite work right. And so my brain is giving me the opportunity to fix it.
So in the grand scheme of things, I’ve come to appreciate these unexpected moments, these instances when my characters seem to insist on deviating off the path I’ve outlined for them, as an integral part of the creative process. Ones that make the writing journey all the more fulfilling.