I am definitely a panster. I tend to agree with Stephen King and Margaret Atwood that planning takes away the joy and the surprise and if you as writer are not surprised then how can you expect your reader to be?
I was interested in what you wrote about ‘the big reveal’ - I guess this doesn’t apply so much to memoir. Although in the writing of memoir a writer should get better understanding, so the reveal should be better wisdom … the satisfaction of attempting to answer difficult questions.
Great piece, and I love seeing people’s process in their notebooks
Thanks Lily. Yes, I’ve tried both planner and panster model, and pantser suits me better, particularly in non-fiction but also definitely fiction too for the reasons you mentioned. Though, as I say in the piece, I do agree with sophie Hannah in that you need to know if your idea is viable. It’s a dilemma.
'Perhaps the first rule is there are no rules, maybe the rule is that there is only what works for you, as a writer. And to discover what that is, there is no getting around it, you’ve got to get yourself in the chair, you’ve got to get yourself writing. You’ve got to stop thinking about it, and start doing it.'
As a fiction writer, this is what I think. It's what I would say to anyone who asks about planning, which is to say that I can only tell people how I do it, or how I have done it so far. As I said in last week's Zoom session, I tried to do an outline—in fact, I did do an outline. But when I started to write my novel, my characters went their own ways anyway. So what is happening now is that my outline is a kind of guide that I refer to, but to which I do not stick rigidly. It has some things in it that I have used, and—so far— I am still aiming for the same ending. But it turns out that my novel will now be a hybrid of a pre-prepared outline, and the story revealing itself to me as I go along. The outline is a loose outline, with room for manoeuvre. I am still on my first draft, and when I started it I was of the opinion that I was telling myself the story. In fact, the story is telling itself to me.
‘The story must be alive while the writer is writing it.'
I love that Highsmith quote, and it feels real to me. Overplanning can leave no room for intuition and epiphanies, and can squeeze out the magic. If the writer is being surprised, then that means the reader may be surprised too.
Yes, I agree with all of this Anita, thanks for sharing. I guess that it is like many things in life 'everything in moderation'... the hybrid of having an outline so you know the shape of something, yet being willing to be lead by your characters is a perfect middle ground. Plus, as I always say about you, you're enjoying the process, it makes you happy, and that will ultimately show in your writing.
I’m definitely a pantser. I found this really interesting in your session last Monday Anna, as I currently only write non-fiction, and although I have a ‘plan’ for my book proposals, it never turns out to follow that plan!!! My proposals become a work of fiction in themselves 🤣. I have an idea of where it will go, but as my books are story driven and very ethnographic, there are twists and turns that I don’t anticipate until I’m deep within them. I think for lesson- driven non fiction planning would be much easier. Perhaps this is why I find the book proposal so difficult! I do love to mind map, and have post it notes in theme areas so there is a kind of process, but I think my ADD brain just does not lend itself to planning in a rigorous way. It’s a challenge!
I am definitely a panster. I tend to agree with Stephen King and Margaret Atwood that planning takes away the joy and the surprise and if you as writer are not surprised then how can you expect your reader to be?
I was interested in what you wrote about ‘the big reveal’ - I guess this doesn’t apply so much to memoir. Although in the writing of memoir a writer should get better understanding, so the reveal should be better wisdom … the satisfaction of attempting to answer difficult questions.
Great piece, and I love seeing people’s process in their notebooks
Thanks Lily. Yes, I’ve tried both planner and panster model, and pantser suits me better, particularly in non-fiction but also definitely fiction too for the reasons you mentioned. Though, as I say in the piece, I do agree with sophie Hannah in that you need to know if your idea is viable. It’s a dilemma.
'Perhaps the first rule is there are no rules, maybe the rule is that there is only what works for you, as a writer. And to discover what that is, there is no getting around it, you’ve got to get yourself in the chair, you’ve got to get yourself writing. You’ve got to stop thinking about it, and start doing it.'
As a fiction writer, this is what I think. It's what I would say to anyone who asks about planning, which is to say that I can only tell people how I do it, or how I have done it so far. As I said in last week's Zoom session, I tried to do an outline—in fact, I did do an outline. But when I started to write my novel, my characters went their own ways anyway. So what is happening now is that my outline is a kind of guide that I refer to, but to which I do not stick rigidly. It has some things in it that I have used, and—so far— I am still aiming for the same ending. But it turns out that my novel will now be a hybrid of a pre-prepared outline, and the story revealing itself to me as I go along. The outline is a loose outline, with room for manoeuvre. I am still on my first draft, and when I started it I was of the opinion that I was telling myself the story. In fact, the story is telling itself to me.
‘The story must be alive while the writer is writing it.'
I love that Highsmith quote, and it feels real to me. Overplanning can leave no room for intuition and epiphanies, and can squeeze out the magic. If the writer is being surprised, then that means the reader may be surprised too.
Yes, I agree with all of this Anita, thanks for sharing. I guess that it is like many things in life 'everything in moderation'... the hybrid of having an outline so you know the shape of something, yet being willing to be lead by your characters is a perfect middle ground. Plus, as I always say about you, you're enjoying the process, it makes you happy, and that will ultimately show in your writing.
Enjoying the process is the key to everything. Thanks for opening up this discussion, Anna.
I’m definitely a pantser. I found this really interesting in your session last Monday Anna, as I currently only write non-fiction, and although I have a ‘plan’ for my book proposals, it never turns out to follow that plan!!! My proposals become a work of fiction in themselves 🤣. I have an idea of where it will go, but as my books are story driven and very ethnographic, there are twists and turns that I don’t anticipate until I’m deep within them. I think for lesson- driven non fiction planning would be much easier. Perhaps this is why I find the book proposal so difficult! I do love to mind map, and have post it notes in theme areas so there is a kind of process, but I think my ADD brain just does not lend itself to planning in a rigorous way. It’s a challenge!
Yes we just have to find the way our brains do like to lend themselves to working, and that can be no other way than through trial and error!