I have recently undergone a religious conversion. Having
been an Orthodox Pantser all my life, recently I’ve been having doubts (forgive
me, St Kerouac for I have Planned).
When I think about it, was I ever really that committed to
Pantsing? If asked, I’d have given the standard answers about why I write by
the seat of my pants. Ie:
- Story comes from character
- If I plan it, I’ll lose interest in writing it
- Planning leads to formulaic fiction
In the Plantser Wars, Pantsers have tended to be disparaging
about Planners. Stephen King said, “Outlines are the last resort of bad fiction
writers who wish to God they were writing masters’ theses.” Margaret Atwood
said, “I couldn’t write the other way round, with structure first. It would be
too much like paint-by-numbers.”
I honestly did believe all the above reasons for my
Pantsing. Flying Tips really did feel to me like it was written by my main
character, I was just along for the ride. But, as Pantser Pierce Brown says,
this kind of writing is great when it works. “I sit down at my computer every
day praying for a lightening strike.” The thing about lightening strikes is
they’re rare (and actually, never strike the same place twice? Which might explain why I’ve been having a nightmare for the last couple of years trying to
recreate that experience.)
Also, I suspect my first book was written that way because I
had no idea how to plan a novel when I wrote it. It was only after I finished
it that I discovered things like Midpoints and Inciting Incidents. Never
heard of them before (despite having studied an undergrad degree in creative
writing – universities don’t believe in Planning. They’re firmly on the snooty
side of the Plantser Wars and only teach you how to write beautiful sentences and
esoteric short stories and experimental prose poems that you can send off to
all those publishers just crying out for such things. Oh no, wait…)
Chuck Wendig suggests, “…some writers are natural
pantsers, others are pantsers-by-default, pantsers-by-laziness. They do not
plan, they do not outline. They don’t because it’s hard. And frustrating. And
irritating. That’s why I didn’t used to do it.”
I may have been a Panter-by-default, purely because I didn’t
know any other way of doing it.
Somehow I got lucky with Flying Tips. The structure was fine
without me thinking much about it. I suspect that all writers do know intuitively
how to structure a story, and I’m not saying that it’s something you need to go
and learn.
What I am saying is that, if you’re doing it without
consciously thinking about it, then it’s like being let loose in a city, in
rush hour traffic, blindfolded, having been told to find a Starbucks, as
opposed to being given a map and a bus pass.
And make no mistake, you are doing it. 99% of even
the most experimental fiction by the snobbiest Pantsers has exactly the same
bones as genre fiction. So if you’re going to end up in the same place
anyway… why not take the map?
(And anyway, we’re writing for kids, and if there’s one
thing we know about kids, it’s that they like structure. They’re psychologically
damaged by the lack of it in their lives, so maybe they like a bit of it in
their fiction too? You can write scary for kids, but you have to do it within a
safe structure.)
I think the fear of Planning is rooted in a fear that the
story will become cardboard if you overthink it. I get that, and I’ve avoided planning
for that reason. But I've also spent the last few years stumbling around blindfolded,
being hit by trucks and expending much time and energy trying to magically stumble
onto the right path and the truth is I am tired and bruised.
So I read Into the Woods by John Yorke.
And Lo...
First of all, the book is just a fascinating read. Even if
you’ve no intention of planning your novel, you should read it, in the same
way that artists study human anatomy with no intention of ever performing surgery.
We all know that something in our brains is hardwired to find certain
structures satisfying. This book explains why and how those structures work, and
it uses a lot of film examples (because everyone is familiar with them) so it’s
easy to follow.
I’ve had an idea for a story in the back of my mind for
years now. I’d written about 30K words, I knew who the main characters were and,
very roughly, what would happen. But I hadn’t launched into it, mainly because
I was struggling through something else, and partly because I was just
overwhelmed by the idea of putting on the blindfold and heading out there
again.
 |
| This is an extremely inefficient way to get around |
But as I read Into the Woods, I started thinking about it.
And taking notes. In the chapter about plot points, I identified all of mine
and wrote them down. When it talked about symmetry and mirroring, I examined my
plot and discovered how I could do that. I ended up writing 25 pages of notes
on the plot.
As well as clarifying my idea, this also filled in several gaps
for me. For example, my story seemed to fit the 5 Act Structure really well,
but I’d assumed a particular event would be my Third Turning Point. Having read
Into the Woods, I realised it wasn’t, it was my Midpoint. Normally I’d have
tried writing it, got to the 60K word mark, decided it didn’t work (I do this a
lot) and gone back to the start, over and over, wasting months of my life and
getting more and more tired before I stumbled on the right answer.
My characters also became clearer. I knew how I wanted one
of them to emerge at the end of the novel, but that meant she had to be the
opposite of that in the beginning. I could have written most of the book
without realising this and had to start again.
I took my notes off to a hotel in Galway for a few days. I
brought Into the Woods, my notes, all the research I’d done (I spent a month
just reading about the subject matter), and an old roll of wallpaper and a pack
of index cards. Three days later I emerged with 5 acts, laid out in order,
each act containing its own mini-inciting incident, crisis and climax.
 |
| Et Voila! |
I’ve
identified all the ways the characters/themes/scenes
mirror/foreshadow/highlight each other. I know what the purpose of each event
is in relation to the whole novel. I’ve made sure the character arcs are
complete and keep pace with each other. I know that the ending answers the questions
posed in the beginning. I know which questions to ask in the beginning.
I know which themes to emphasise and where to emphasise them and I’ve identified
which threads/characters didn’t go anywhere and now I won’t waste weeks writing
them.
And I still feel enthusiastic about writing this book. In
fact, I feel more enthusiastic because I don’t have that sense of dread
and ‘what if I’m about to waste a year of my life’ going in. I’ve never felt so
confident and excited about beginning a book.
Pantsers like to say that Planners write plot-based novels
as opposed to character-based ones and that they’re too reliant on plot rather
than emotional development or actual writing. I actually think it’s the opposite.
I think I’ve always avoided planning because I’m not that
interested in plot. I hate trying to develop plot, I find it really hard. The idea
of writing a whole plot in advance is scary. So I’ve always launched into
character and let the plot unfold in its own torturously bumpy way.
But having created a plot plan in advance (and had the help
of a guide to do it) has taken all the pain out of that process and I feel
like I’m now going to be able to really enjoy the writing and the characters because I don’t have
to think about plot. For the first time in a long time I feel really excited
about getting to write something, and that feels incredible and long overdue.
The emotional arc of your characters
is as subject to structure as anything else. The reason a character’s emotional
journey feels believable, feels ‘right’ to us, is because it follows
that structure. The reason we find certain structures satisfying comes from
psychology. Structure doesn’t constrain the character’s emotional
journey, it’s a product of our innate knowledge of how believable human beings
react to things.
I am absolutely not saying that I’m married to this
plot plan or that you can’t break the rules when you start writing. And I didn’t
start making the plan until I had the characters' voices established and I’d
written the opening and knew roughly where they wanted to go. Character will
always be more important to me than plot, but I doubt any Planner writes their
plot plan before they create their characters.
Probably everyone's somewhere on the Plantsing spectrum. Apparently a lot of committed Pantsers are also
Pants-on-fire-sers.
Vonnegut claimed he wrote his books in one-off sessions,
but his son says that he’s found loads of planning notes and drafts among his
papers. Kerouac’s stream of drug-induced consciousness actually took him nine
years from conception to actually sitting down to write.
 |
| Plans for The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath |
 |
| Plans for a short story by Jennifer Egan |
 |
| Norman Mailer's Character Timeline |
 |
| Faulkner's outline for his Pulitzer Prize winning story 'A Fable' on his office wall |
 |
| Joseph Heller's Catch 22 |
 |
| and of course, JK's Order of the Phoenix |
See, they're all doing it.
I guess everyone has to just do what works for them. But it’s
crazy to say you’re a Pantser just because you’ve never actually looked into
story structure, and vice versa. Stephen King compared Planners to “bad fiction
writers who wish to God they were writing masters’ theses.” Well, the thing is,
I’m really good at academic writing. I wish I were writing a masters’
thesis. Because that’s a process I’ve always been able to handle. But I went into
fiction writing thinking it must be very different. ‘Real’ writers never make
notes or graphs, surely. That’s for our sworn enemies, the mathematicians. Real
writers turn up in a floaty nightie, light a candle, sacrifice a small animal
and let the muses come.
 |
| Remember to also be pretty and use a typewriter |
But why shouldn’t I use a process that I know works for me?
(And what’s wrong with academic writing anyway? The best non-fiction writing is
as much about structure and storytelling as fiction is).
So my crisis of faith has led me here, to a point where I have
a plot plan ready to go and I’ll be starting to write over Christmas (taking
occasional breaks to evangelise all my writing friends). I’m hoping it’ll save
me time, energy and tears.
Of course, this is all theoretical and a big experiment so far
and I won’t know if it works until I actually write the book, but I’ll keep you
updated on my progress (I think you could hardly avoid hearing about my
progress, soz).
Wow, this was a long post. Would love to hear your thoughts. Sorry I’ve rambled on! I didn’t plan to.
She is the Children's Writing Fellow for Northern Ireland #CWFNI
She also blogs at The Blank Page
@KMcCaughrain
