To Plot…Or Not

Plotter. Pantser. Is your writing style ingrained? Can you change it? I’ve wrestled with this question since the beginning of my career, and I know several other authors who’ve had the same struggle.

I started out as a pantser (which I prefer to call “writing into the mist” or intuitive writing) mostly because I didn’t know how to plot. When I first began writing fiction, I’d never been to a writers conference or read any how-to writing books. All I had to guide me were the thousands of novels I’ve read and the story template they’d created in my head. I decided on a setting and a genre, and simply started writing. When I was about two chapters in, the magic happened: my characters came to life and started to tell me their story. It was exhilarating. Thrilling. And I was hooked on the “non-plotting” method of writing.

In contrast, I know a lot of authors who plot extensively. They write detailed outlines. Do character sketches. Exhaustively research background information. Create timelines. Etc. I once read that thriller author Jeffrey Deaver spends months in plotting and preparation and only weeks actually writing. It seems very tedious and boring to me. But it works for him, as well as a lot of author successful writers.

A fair number of writers I’ve talked to say they are “hybrid” writers. They plot, but not extensively. They create a fairly loose storyline, then let it evolve. And it should be noted that almost every writer I’ve discussed this subject with, even the ones who are the most disciplined and structured in their plotting, mention that in the actual writing process, things always change. Characters take the story in a new slightly direction or demand a bigger role. Or a sub-plot they hadn’t planned on appears. That’s part of the serendipity of the writing process. The magical ability of the brain to create.

I know that my lack of plotting makes me an inefficient writer. (I shudder at the thought of the many hundreds of pages I’ve had to discard.) Because of that, I’ve tried numerous times change my writing style. I’ve gone through phases of reading books on plotting. Of taking extensive notes at workshops and then attempting to apply those notes. But so far, it hasn’t worked. The more I seek to give structure to my story ahead of time, the more my creative brain seems to freeze. When I try to plot, not much happens. No ideas come to me. My characters turn into cardboard cutouts and refuse to act or come to life. Apparently, my muse has an aversion to plotting.

I’m not the only one who has sought to alter their writing method. A friend of mine has tried lots of techniques. Detailed outlines. Scrivener. Story boards. Various “name brand” plotting methods. All in the pursuit of a faster, more efficient way to write. But she recently threw up her hands and decided for her next book, she’s going back to her free-wheelin’, non-plotting method she originally started with. All her attempts to add structure and form to her natural writing style have failed her in some way.

The question is, why? Is the method we use to write something that is inborn? Or something we learn? Does it have to do with our personalities? The way we access our creative brain? And why is it so hard to change?

Many of my writer friends have continue to experiment. They get excited about new method, certain it’s going to make all the difference in both their writing productivity and their success in selling books. And I have heard best-selling authors say that a certain plotting technique was the thing that put them over the top. But I always wonder, did they really change how they wrote? Or simply refine what came naturally to them?

Is the best way to use your creativity inborn, or can you develop it, and push it to do your will in a new way? I’d love to hear from other writers on whether their technique has changed over the years and if they think they’ve successfully changed their writing style and how difficult it was for them to do so.