To be a novelist, you need to be part pantser and part plotter – no one can outline down to the sentence level. Honest plotters will admit that some of their best ideas have come during pantsing bouts. At some point you just have to dive in!

A special thing happens to some people when they write: the rush they feel as the creative juices flow is like nothing they experience at any other time in their lives. But is the rush diminished if you plot out your details in advance? Are you doomed to failure without a road map? When it comes time to sit and do the hard work of writing a book, are you a plotter or a pantser?

Plotters are famous for thinking through the structure of their novel before and during writing – usually in outline form. Pantsers are notorious for doing the opposite and just writing by the seat of their pants as they go along.

The debate over plotting versus pantsing all boils down to one key behavior of writers:  how do you get your creative juices flowing?

Many people fail miserably at pantsing. Like playing a game of solitaire when you are dealt bad cards, you end up at dead ends, unsolvable dilemmas, or you just run out of steam. Desk drawers are filled the world over with half-baked manuscripts that were pantsed to their graves.

Yet even pantsers with myriad incomplete or off-the-mark books will continue to extol the virtues of pantsing and suggest that the very idea of a book requiring a priori structure is akin to a fish needing a bicycle.

At the extremes, plotters favor the feel of the outlining stage, while pantsers delight in the detailed writing stage. It’s just a matter of where the highest frequency of eureka moments fall. It’s a matter of working to your strengths.

The best writers can plot and write, word-for-word, and get creative results using either method. Great writers can also think about their books when they aren’t writing, even if it’s in the back of their minds.

Pantsers especially feel the glory of writing through their fingertips – as they pen words to paper or type at the keyboard. They thrill at the freedom to go in whichever direction the wind blows. They delight in not knowing the ending or the beginning of book when they start. They love rising to the occasion to figure it all out as they create. This method keeps writing fresh and enjoyable at the best of times and bearable at the worst.

Pantsing is a valid and often spectacularly effective method of channeling unique worlds and characters from mind to page – if you can herd your cats effectively. Pantsers feel little to nothing if forced to plot, except a mechanical ring of boredom and slain aspirations. They resist assimilation at all costs.

For plotters, the reverse can be true. Knowledge of the beginning, middle, and end of a plot makes it easier for plotters to see the rest of the puzzle, heighten tensions, and get things like the “black moment” and the climax right. After the plot points are put together, they may find it hard – or downright tedious – to fill in the details.

Declared plotters and pantsers just find the joy of writing in different places.

Every writer, including the most assiduous plotter, should enjoy the intellectual freedom of pantsing when it behooves the plot. Even strict outliners admit that once writing, the perfect initial outline often goes out the window in favor of new twists, new characters, or even a new ending.

Everyone should envy the true pantser her talent to create publishable works out of the blue as she writes. A common message of pantsers is that it’s like they are telling themselves the story as they create.

But let’s face it: all writers are pantsers when it comes to the finer grain structure of a novel. No one can outline down to the sentence level. As such, all writers can attest to the rush of wondering “Where did that come from?” And it feels great. Honest plotters will admit that at least some of their best ideas have come during pantsing bouts.

The truth is you can’t pants or plot a book 100 percent. As a writer, you’ve got to accept, learn, and adapt, relying on your skills in both domains if you’re going to complete a novel.

The two sides of the coin are often more similar than people make them out to be. Successful pantsers intuitively create a solid structure to their books to match the best plotter – and often start with a lot more of the crucial details defined than even the average plotter. Plotters frequently admit to a love of pantsing to improve their outlines and details of their stories.

Knowing where your strengths lie will help you bring your novel to completion. Only by having both a great plot and beautifully expressed details – down to the individual words you choose – will you ever finish your book. 

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