I'm sure most of you have heard of the ancient dichotomy applied to writers. We have the plotters, those who plot their stories out before they begin writing, and the pantsers, those who sit down and just write. For a long time, I avoided labeling myself as either because I didn't really feel the need to identify myself with a group in that way. I wasn't impressed by either ability; just like some people love the early mornings while others seek out the night, some writers are able to envision all ins and outs of a story while others don't have that retention.
Great. Good for both of them, right?
Though I would really love to discard these labels once and for all, I know that I can't . . . because these two groups do exist, and their writing style does influence the way their stories unfold.
After meeting with my critique group and mentor, I've come to understand that I am a pantser at the extreme. I did, after all, imagine a character, sit down, and write her story without considering much. Now there are things about my manuscript that I need to fix, unanswered questions about the motivations and desires of a character that must be answered here and unclear history in need of development over there.
No manuscript is perfect, so it makes sense that I need to make revisions (in my case, actually, rewrite), and I understand that and have no inhibitions about it.
The one thing, though, is that most of these revisions are needed because I didn't plot, outline, fully characterize my main characters, or figure out where I wanted the climax to occur (and, more importantly, why). I wrote a book and maintained a strong narrative without plotting, but I couldn't sew the pieces together, and that in a way has been my downfall. With this rewrite, I'm positive the manuscript will be muchmuchmuchmuch better, and I'm glad. But I wonder how things could have been different if I'd plotted in the beginning.
WARNING: DANGER
At this point, I honestly think that plotters have the benefit, and I'll be frank: I recommend writers plot. Pantsers are at risk.
Plotting absolutely does not mean that the end product needs to resemble the original outline, but plotting, characterizing, and identifying key components of the novel helps writers maintain consistency. Unless someone has a remarkable ability to retain the details of all their characters (physical and psychological) and the flow of their narrative (particularly with the more complex plots, like mine), an outline and key information at the beginning will help - what does one have to lose? Later time revising, that's what.
A Potential Solution
I'd like to recommend an approach suggested to me by my mentor. It's an approach I have read about and didn't think I would have to use . . . until now. I've begun to see the benefits - a hard lesson to learn. The process can be used as an outline template before one begins to write as well as a way to help determine how to revise.
I'm not familiar with any official name for this process; I can't remember if there is one. For now, I'll just call it PROGRESS BY SUMMARY.
There are two components.
- Plot & Emotional Arcs
- Character Development
What one does is set up two different spreadsheets (digital or handwritten) and summarizes the plot and emotional arc of each scene and entire chapter, then does the same thing by marking how often characters appear in the scene and chapter and defining the "theme" that they uphold.
I won't get more specific than that because this really should be a tool that a writer can alter and shift to appeal to his or her own schedule and writing style.
The purpose, however, will remain pretty much the same - to track which plot arcs are the ones carrying the story (this may surprise you!) and to make sure the characters that should be the ones making changes in the novel happen are the ones making the changes happen.
Josip Novakovich concludes:
If you don't write from an outline, once you have finished a story, you still should be able to see its outline, the way after a touchdown it's easy to draw a chart of what happened in the play. Something must happen, and in the end, we must know why it happened. Plot is partly what you discover in the writing of a story, not what you insert. You raise questions and seek answers, connect your sentences into paragraphs, paragraphs into chapters, chapters into novels. This thread of investigation may be a thin one, but you must have it to give yourself and your reader something to look for.
You progress your work by summarizing what you write before to make sure that things hold together.
Personally, I love that idea, and I'm excited to apply it.
Please ask any questions or make any suggestions of your own below! Enjoy your weekends.
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