A plotter plans the story before writing the first draft. A pantser starts writing and finds the story on the page, flying by the seat of their pants, which is where the name comes from. Pantsing is also called discovery writing, and George R. R. Martin's version of the split is architects and gardeners. Most writers land somewhere between the two, and the middle has its own name: plantser.
Each method makes one part of the work easy and leaves another for later. Plotters pay for the story up front and can find the draft flat. Pantsers get a lively draft and pay in revision. So the question worth asking is where your way of working stalls, and what to do when it does.
Plotter, pantser and plantser at a glanceLink to this section
| Style | Before the first draft | Where it tends to stall |
|---|---|---|
| Plotter | An outline, often scene by scene | The draft feels dead, or the outline stops being true. Start with exercise 3. |
| Pantser | A character, a situation or an image | The middle sags, or the ending never arrives. Start with exercise 1. |
| Plantser | A few fixed points: the opening, a turn, the ending | A fixed point stops fitting what the draft became. Start with exercise 2. |
What comes easily follows from the same split. Plotters get structure, pacing and a finished draft, and revision means polishing scenes that are already in place. Pantsers get surprise and characters who act on their own, and revision means finding the story, then rebuilding around it. Plantsers get a draft with direction that still has room to move.
Find your writing style in six questionsLink to this section
Six questions, answered from what you've done
0 of 6 answered
- Have you abandoned a draft because you lost interest once you knew how it ended?
- Do you keep notes, maps or timelines that run longer than the draft?
- Have you finished a draft you were bored writing?
- Have you written more than fifty pages and then realized the story was something else?
- Do your best scenes tend to be ones you did not plan?
- Do you know your ending before you start, even if nothing else is fixed?
Answer a question and your style shows here.
Mostly yes to 2, 3 and 6 points to a plotter. Mostly yes to 1, 4 and 5 points to a pantser. A mix, especially a yes to 6 with a yes to 5, is a plantser: you need a destination but not the road. Your style can change with the form, too: plenty of writers plan a screenplay closely and discover a novel, or plan the second draft of a story they pantsed the first time.
One story, planned three waysLink to this section
Here is a single premise, worked by each kind of writer.
Nadia runs the last ferry off an island that is being evacuated before a storm. Her brother Tomas, who has not spoken to her in six years, refuses to leave.
The plotter writes a beat sheet before the first scene, then turns it into a step outline:
- Nadia counts passengers at the dock; the list is one short.
- She learns the missing name is Tomas.
- She goes to his house against the harbor master's order.
- Tomas will not leave the boat their father built.
- The storm closes the harbor; they are stuck together overnight.
- In the night, the reason for the six years comes out.
- At dawn, Tomas chooses the ferry over the boat, or the boat over her.
The plotter knows the ending is a choice before writing a word of it. The risk is step 6: a confession planned as a beat can read like one on the page.
The pantser starts with an image: Nadia counting heads on a wet dock and getting the number wrong twice. Three days in, Tomas says something the pantser did not expect. He did not stay for the boat; he stayed because Nadia sold their father's house without asking him. Now the story is about the house, and the first forty pages need a new reason for everything. That surprise is what the pantser writes for, and the rebuild is the price.
The plantser fixes four points and nothing else: the head count is one short; Tomas refuses; the harbor closes with both of them on the island; at dawn one of them gets on the ferry. Between those points, the draft is free. When the house turns up on day three, it fits, because nothing in the signposts said why Tomas stayed.
What each writer fixes before the first draft
- PlotterSeven beats, all fixed
- PlantserFour signposts, free between them
- PantserOne image; the rest is found
1. Reverse outline your draft (for pantsers), 30 minutesLink to this section
Use this after a discovery draft, or once a draft passes the middle and starts to drift.
- Make a list with one line per scene, in order: what happens, in a single sentence.
- Add a second note to each line: what is different at the end of the scene that was not true at the start.
- Mark every scene where that note is blank. Nothing changed, so the scene is either setup you can fold into another scene or a sign that you were still searching.
- Look at the midpoint of the list. If nothing turns there, that is usually where the middle sags.
What to keep: the list. It is the outline a plotter would have written, made from the story you actually found.
2. Set four signposts (for plantsers), 15 minutesLink to this section
- Write one sentence for the opening situation.
- Write one sentence for the turn: the moment the story can no longer go back to that opening.
- Write one sentence for the low point.
- Write one sentence for the ending, in the form of a choice someone makes.
- Draft toward the next signpost only. When you reach it, check whether the next one is still true before you go on.
What to keep: the signposts that survived the draft. If one of them moved, write down why. That reason is usually the story's real subject.
3. Loosen the outline (for plotters), 20 minutesLink to this section
Use this when the draft is on schedule but flat.
- Go through your outline and mark each beat as “must happen” or “could happen”. Be strict: most outlines have three to five musts.
- Pick the next scene to write. Close the outline.
- Write the scene from what the characters want in that moment, for fifteen minutes, without checking whether it matches the outline.
- Reopen the outline and compare. If the scene broke a “could happen” beat, keep the scene and change the outline.
What to keep: the scene, if it is better than the plan. The outline is there to get you to the end, not to be obeyed.
4. Replace the outline with questions (for anyone stuck between styles), 10 minutesLink to this section
- Write down ten questions a reader will want answered by the end. “Why won't Tomas leave?” is one. “Does the ferry make it back?” is another.
- Put them in the order the story should answer them.
- Write the next scene so that it answers one question and raises a new one.
What to keep: the ordered list. It works as an outline for writers who hate outlines, because it fixes what the reader learns and when, and leaves how open.
When the label is the wrong problemLink to this section
If you plan carefully and still cannot start, or discover freely and still cannot finish, the method is not the problem. Fear of writing a bad draft looks like over-planning in a plotter and like endless restarts in a pantser. The exercises in writer's block start from what being stuck feels like rather than from your writing style.
Plan and discover in the same draftLink to this section
In Inkwell you don't have to pick a method before you start a project. A Plot project can hold notes, an outline and treatment prose beside script scenes, and the scene outline in the sidebar lists every scene in order, which makes a reverse outline a matter of reading down the list and dragging scenes into place. Make a save point before you restructure, so the version you discovered is never lost, and try a different route to the ending on a separate draft line.