“Why be such a control freak?”

On Plotting and Pantsing

Hello. I’m Alex Knepper. I’m your friendly neighborhood writer. Here, I like to talk about the writing process, the things I’m consuming that keep me inspired, and hopefully you get inspired too.

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Ahhh the age old question for writers— do you plot out your novel before you write or do you fly by the seat of your pants?

I love, love, love outlines. I like putting all the elements together and tearing them apart like mix and match lego blocks. I love seeing how each part interacts with eachother and then find new and interesting ways of organizing and arranging my “lego block” outline elements.

But there’s a problem with this method and I think you might know where I’m going with this… Sometimes outlining gets in the way of actual writing.

Wrestling with my outline all summer long had me hitting the books— one book in particular to help sort my story out: On Writing by Stephen King.

On Writing

You’ve probably heard of it— if not, it is a beloved tome on writing as the title suggests. The first half of the book is King’s memoir, his “C.V” that credits him with all the reasons why he is particularly qualified to talk about the craft of writing. The second half of the book is his “masterclass” on writing

My well loved copy

Since this is my third attempt at the book, I skipped the C.V. (Even though it is fantastic, I knew I needed to skip ahead to prevent me from DNF’ing it yet again) — and I realized from where all my notes and highlights abruptly stopped why exactly I never finished this book before:

“Plot is, I think, a good writer’s last resort and a dullard’s first choice.” (King, 164).

Ouch.

As a lifelong lover of outlines, that quote really kicked my ass and as a result I put down the book. But this time, I decided to hear him out. After all, maybe this guy knows what he’s talking about.

King priveleges situation over plot. This makes a lot of sense because he is a thriller author (which is why I dismissed this advice before as a fantasy writer, not realizing at the time that he had written the legendary Dark Tower series) and thrillers can be carried on one very tense, very interesting situation.

“A strong enough situation renders the whole question of plot moot, which is fine with me.” (165).

So what do we mean by situation? In this case, situation can be defined as:

Character + Setting = Situation

For example:

“Two characters in a house” = Misery

“Widowed writer in a haunted house” = Bag of Bones

“One kid lost in the woods” = The Girl Who

I think it is also interesting to note that situation as defined by Merriam-Webster is:

“The way in which something is placed in relation to its surroundings”¹

In short, a situation is not about the “something” or about the “surroundings” it is about “the way” they “relate” to one another. Character impacts setting and vice versa.

My problem has always been separating these elements in my outline and treating them like foreign objects. Interchangeable Lego Blocks. Doing this has always landed me back at square one— because I am altering the very foundation of the story— the *relationship* between elements of a story.

Take the examples from Stephen King’s novels and see how they change when we switch things up:

• Two characters in a haunted house

• A widowed writer lost in the woods

• One kid in a house

Not only are these completely separate situations— but the characters in Misery don’t really work in the haunted house of Bag of Bones. The house would be different and the characters would be different. There is no mix and match.

My Great Experiment: to Plot or to Pants

So I am challenging myself to write a story with no outlining, no prep work, no lego blocks. Just writing blindly, in the dark, with nothing to guide me… What could go wrong?

Perhaps I was a tad bit influenced by King but I decided the situation for this project would be “One character in a haunted bookshop.”

With my situation defined, I just started writing. Of course there was a bookshop, and I decided the character in the bookshop was its proprietor. Then I had to determine who they were and hw they found themselves to be the owner of a bookshop. And of course, I had to work out why it was haunted— all of a sudden I am pantsing.

And I have to say that I am having a blast.

So what about you? Are you a pantser or a plotter? Have you ever tried doing things the other way? Let me know in the comments!

Happy writing!

Alex

P.S.— The title of this post is also from On Writing (page 165). And yes I do feel called out by it.

P.S.S.— Amazon has informed me that I bought my copy of On Writing on 1/6/2016. *Nearly 7 years ago* 😱 Sometimes we aren’t ready to hear what we need to hear. That’s all I can say about that.

1. “Situation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/situation. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023.