Writing Journal: Pantsing and Plotting · 2:01pm Dec 8th, 2018
Journal Date: 12/2 - 12/8
This is a journal I've been thinking about for a while. I've just been so distracted with actually being productive that I've been putting off writing it.
Many of my readers have probably figured out by now that I'm a pantser style writer. IE, I write mostly by the seat of my pants, with only a vague idea of direction and sometimes a solid idea of an end, with everything in between being discovered as I write it. Mostly that's because I have a problem with writing by rote, or to put in another way, I have a hard time coloring inside the lines.
When I write an outline, I typically write it in the same way I write the story, by pantsing it and feeling out what should fit next. I've never really had a structure to my writing other than some basic ideas of the three act structure, and a general feeling of when I shout start a particular story beat.
I recently came across an idea in a book "Save the Cat Writes a Novel". I don't agree with everything in the book, but it's been an inspiration of late to write outlines that still let me pants quite a bit. It lets me feel like I'm still exploring when I write each of the fifteen story beats that the book recommends to at least consider, and the general order in which they appear.
The fifteen beat are:
Opening Image
Theme State
Setup
Catalyst
Debate
Break into 2 (Start of act 2)
B-Story
Fun & Games
Midpoint
Bad Guys Close In
All is Lost
Dark Night of the Soul
Break into 3 (Start of act 3)
Finale
Final image
Some of these are self-explanatory, but others are not. But I'm not going to go into detail here. If you're interested, please feel free to look for "Save the Cat Writes a Novel" Amazon link here(BOOK).
As with all craft books, this is not gospel, and the author is pretty up front with that (aside from the clickbaity title), and you'll see it to as she breaks down several stories into their beat sheets and explains each one.
For me, this has served as a base to start from and a rough guide to follow as I write. I am not following the beat sheet exactly, I want to note. I have an aversion to formula writing.
It has been an amazingly productive past week and a half. I have written... I counted yesterday... and written more, and deleted a little since. Okay... 31,962 words, give or take. I've rewritten, revised, and edited parts of it, so the actual words written is lost to the vagaries of the editing process, but that's where I'm sitting (for the next ten minutes or so) for my odd duck Octavia Melody / Golden Harvest (Carrot Top) romance.
And I am trying to write it as a romance and not as a simple shipping story. It started out that way, though. But practically every single word of that original one-shot is gone. The only things that remain of it are some minor beats, a touch of theme, and a few ideas.
These characters have grown on me.
P.S. Some novels and movies are formulaic. I suspect that the authors, directors/screenwriters tried to adhere too closely to a particular formula. Save the Cat (Movie version) was apparently a pretty big mover of ideas, and maybe still is, in the movie world. I suspect strongly that movies that feel like they're just hitting the beats without delivering the goods, are far more complex stories compressed to fit in a short runtime and still fit the beat sheet perfectly. I feel like this is the case for video game movies especially.
I'm also a pants-seater, with zero concept of structure or etc.
4978090
I think all of us start out there at some point. Structure can also come with experience. But there can also be a simple joy in a relatively unstructured story of life, the universe, but not quite everything.
4978125
... I'm plenty experienced. I just don't like chaining stories.
4978130
Sorry, didn't mean to imply.
4978196
Sure felt like ya did.
4978201
My earlier work on this site is almost entirely pantsed single shots. My newer work is mostly minimally plotted, half pantsed stories. The stories I'm writing now are the closest I've come to a full outline.
I should take the lesson that not everyone starts out the same way or takes the same path along similar roads.
My apologies again.
Over the years I've gone from pantsing, to plotting, to pantsing again, to settling somewhere in the middle. Nowadays I think it boils down to how long and complex the project is. My notes and outlines are generally reminders of things I don't want to forget later, so I can reload my brain with my musings of a particular scene or character. Cleave and Water Pony were plotted out to a much higher degree than The Root of the Problem, for example.
And on my current work in progress I wish I had more of an outline, because I'm all sorts of stuck
. Writing is hard.
4978282
I think I have been somewhere in the muddle, rather than the middle. Most of my story 'plots' for longer stories have been "This sounds good, let's aim for that" And written on the digital equivalent of a bar napkin.
I aim to go for something a little more... robust as I pick my way along the path.
4978326
It’s a path well worth traveling; even if it technically has no end, the going gets easier the further you go.
Early on in my writing life (way way way before pony), I attempted to rewrite a sci-fi ‘novel’ I wrote as a teen in high pantser style… and ended up having to discard roughly 10k of work because I backed myself into a corner and had to completely rethink the middle of the story. For years after that I plotted out everything, deviating where I felt like it.
4978411
Been there... many times. It hurts briefly, like ripping off a bandaid, but I've always been happier with the end result.
And I seem to have either regressed over my two years of quietude or I've forgotten the effort that it took to write my later works here. Or... I've simply been hitting the words too hard and need to moderate more. Word fatigue and all that.
4978420
.
Writing is hard, but let’s keep at it as best we can
4978444
Indeed!
I don't believe in pants. Plot is meant to be free!
4978823
Plotting plotters plot plots.