are you an outline writer or write by the seat of your pants?

Depends on what I'm writing.

Never any outlines for sketches, comic strips, blogs/posts, songs, etc., but always for short stories, plays/screen-plays, and expository works.

My outlines would be rough, and I would usually fill in the details as I progressed.

I don't recall ever attempting a novel, but I imagine I would have outlined that if I had.

I recently graduated to 200% outlining. I now outline each chapter section too, examining possible structural variations, maybe sketching visual representations, before committing. Sometimes I reach 300% outlining: when I take the time to include, for own use, fragments of POV and backstory of secondary characters in the scene, and stuff like weather... The written stuff is a tiny tip of an enormous geometrical iceberg.

maggi90w1 said:

I know that feeling, but I found out it only happens with weak stories.

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In my case, it's because I write to find out what happens next. If I already know, there's no motivation to keep at the tedious business of arranging words on the page. If I do write an outline, it's a safe bet the actual story will turn out to have nothing to do with it.

And then there's the other reason I don't do outlines: I'm not any good at them. I can't come up with good stories that way. For me, the story derives from the characters, and I can only find out who they are in the midst of writing about them. Characters plugged into an outline are flimsy, pre-fab, two-dimensional things. They're not real, and therefore any story I try to build around them is not real either.

Brains are funny things...

KTC said:

I write my novels in one-sitting 72-hour writing marathons. I don't outline in any way, shape or form. I go into these marathons with nothing but a title.

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When I try to write fast, I end up with such garbage. I outpace my thoughts and everything gets out of control and goes splat -- prose, storytelling, characterizations.

Writing well, for me, requires enormous amounts of thought.
I really admire (and envy) writers who can write fast and well.

Pantser and proud .

My current process is total chaos. I write a bit, plan a bit from somewhere else, write some other random bit that maybe I can find a place for later, do a bit more planning to see if there's a connection between random bit A and random bit B and I guess it probably comes together eventually.

I've tried outlining, but I can't seem to connect with the characters that way and I just end up breaking what seemed like a good setup. With pantsing, I end up stalling after a few thousand words because I have these images in my head of what happens later, but I can't see the path from where I am to where I'm going. So, now I write whatever bits are in my head, then build outwards from there.

Non-linear pantser, I guess? Is that even a thing?

I'm a heavy-duty outliner.

I can barely even write a forum post without an outline.

SianaBlackwood said:

Non-linear pantser, I guess? Is that even a thing?

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Oh sure. I know writers who write completely out of order and without any form of outline.

Writing the story as you go seems natural to me, that is, if one is going to write a story, one writes the text of the story. I mean, as long as you're planning, you might as well write. For me describing how a person reacts and what their environment is like is part of what helps me understand what they are capable of.

I mean, as long as you're planning, you might as well write

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Why should I? I change the plot a dozen times before I start writing. It's a lot easier to rewrite a sentence or two in my outline than to rewrite a chapter or two in the first draft.
Plus: Planning a plot and writing prose are two completes different thing, at least for my brain. When I try to do both at the same time I end up with a boring and confusing plot and clunky prose.

Just because it works for you, doesn't mean it works for everyone.

Layla Nahar said:

Writing the story as you go seems natural to me, that is, if one is going to write a story, one writes the text of the story. I mean, as long as you're planning, you might as well write.

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This is me, as well. I've started outlines and find myself just expanding and detailing until, hell, there's the story, all written!

SianaBlackwood said:

Non-linear pantser, I guess? Is that even a thing?

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Must be because that's how I write my longer works the majority of the time. When I do write. My short stories I generally write beginning to end, but even then I may skip ahead and go back to fill in the blanks.

The wip I'm working on now (if I can say that, I not working on it more than working on it) I tend to write some of this chapter, skip to another and work on that, skip to yet another, go back to one of my previous ones, so on and so forth until I finally get a complete chapter somewhere. The last novel I wrote I skipped around but I generally started and finished a chapter or scene before going on to another. Not with this one. My concentration, or perhaps lack thereof, is even more scattered.

I am both. Sometimes a good walk or the commute to work helps me with plot when I am stuck.

I fly by the seat of my pants. I've tried to be a plotter since I get stuck a lot, but every time I try, I feel like I'm crucifying my story on paper. But that's just what works for me.

C.bronco said:

I am both. Sometimes a good walk or the commute to work helps me with plot when I am stuck.

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THIS. The amount of times something has cleared up simply through my taking a walk is ridiculous.

As to outlining...I've never really outlined before. I know more or less what's going to happen and I make notes. The novel that I'm working on now is the first time I'm actually making extensive outline notes and what I find exciting is that as I do that, I discover more about the story and where, exactly, I want it to go. More of that will come, I'm sure, when I actually start writing the book proper (it always does), but discovering how the crucial plots points are coalescing and how each character fits in exactly...it's just so exciting.

I guess that was a roundabout way of saying, I'm finding it to be much more helpful than I thought it would be.

I tried outlining for a bit, but in all honesty, once I got the events put down, when I sat down to write.... nothing came. It had become boring, stale. So I write by the seat of my pants, no matter what the project is (book or screenplay) because I just prefer to 'live in the moment'.

I like to think of it as if I'm the very first reader of the book, and the exhilaration, dread, and all those other emotions that come from writing particular scenes are the same emotions that the reader will feel when they read what's been written.

I'm pretty consistent at going through the trouble of making an outline and then NOT following it. Looking only to the outline as a back up if I lose my way.

I guess I'm a pantser too. The thing is that I may have been thinking about a story for months before I actually write it. My new novel was festering in my brain for over a year (probably closer to two years really) before I decided to put it to a word document at which point the story was practically overflowing from my brain and onto the pages making it a quick write. I did outline after it was done, but it was more of a timeline of events so that dates matched up.

Personally, if I need to outline a story, then it's not time for me to write that story yet. But that's just me. My best friend thrives on outlines. She practically writes the story in her outline and just fills in the rest.

My story ideas come with an ending. Then I figure out where to start. This is my outline for the current WIP.

Beginning: Three (medieval) friends try out for the elite King's Guard.

The End: One MC is dead, another has lost an arm, the third has kept his honor intact but has lost both friends.

So, you tell me. Am I an outliner or a pantser?

I think some would call this planning because you have decided a future event before getting to it.

I outline in a way that is basically writing. I've had outlines that were like 20k words before, because each chapter description really went into the nitty gritty. It's almost like a rough-rough draft. Makes writing the actual first draft a helluva lot easier IMO.

I really don't see any disadvantages to knowing what you're going to write before you actually write it.

Oh and I rarely stick word for word to the outline when I start writing. I always end up taking my characters on tangents or introducing elements that I didn't think up before when outlining, so the fun of discovery is still there when I outline.

I'm honestly not sure at this point. Outlining doesn't seem to be doing me any favors right now, but I'm not too taken with the idea of winging it. I guess I need to find some sort of balance between the two.

I can't outline because I never know what my characters are going to do until I put them into action. Then they do all kinds of surprising things.

If I do any planning, it's about my environment, rather than about the events. The environment dictates what a character can do. If you are a Roman slave, for example, your opportunities and limits will be different from those you would have if you were a Roman citizen. For example, if you do research about Roman society, is this planning?

Layla Nahar said:

if you do research about Roman society, is this planning?

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I do research as needed, when needed. I don't do research before I start writing, because who knows what I'll have to look up, and I generally read more than I'll ever use, again because I don't know what I might use later (and usually it's too interesting just to quit!).

I would just call research "part of writing the story". Sometimes it's part of one's plan, sometimes it's not.