Plotting vs. Pantsing

This is so true! I feel like I have a mix of both. Most of my story was already written before I started posting here but I knew the overarching storyline from about the second day of writing. However, certain arcs have been a complete surprise as I’ve been writing. As dialogue goes, I might have one or two lines pop into my head and the rest of the conversation flows from there, but never anything more “thought out” than that - but I’ll know where I want to story to go from the conversation happening.

I think they can both be beneficial in different ways and some of it boils down to personality. I would be stressed beyond reason to pants an entire story that I was posting. But for others, the preplanning kills their creativity so it can go both ways.

I'm assuming you mean "pantsing" like the adage "by the seat of your pants". It depends on the story, by I'm more "by the seat of my pants" type writer. Don't get me wrong. I love sitting down with a notebook and creating character sheets, intense fictional government, and detailed family trees. I did that a lot as a kid and it was so fun (yes, I'm that kind of nerd)

It never really worked for me to translate my intense world-building into an actual plot. The times I've tried, my work felt contrived. I spent so much time daydreaming that I got tired of my little world and cringed when my sweet baby character didn't fit into the role I made for them.

I like letting my stories develop naturally. A character I created for part 1, but didn't love, I put her on the metaphorical back burner and reintroduced her in part 4. Now, she feels genuine and a character I'd like to get to know better. In part one, I was seriously considering deleting her altogether because she was annoying.

I am still a student who has just learned story writing one month ago, and when I learned about this app called tapas, I just started putting the story in my mind on the device screen...
You all must be very experienced writers and you know how to draft a story... (cause I do not know half the terms you used... )

My first story...3
That's my unreeling story...

I'm nowhere near an expert but things like this come in time

but you are best compared to yourself...

Very true. I'm a much better writer than I was years ago

I plan in the sense that I get the basic theme of the story and some basic info about characters (i.e are they tall short, a tool etc.) and then I may or may not write those down as bullet points. But generally I let the characters tell me who they are and what the story is going to really be about as I write.

Any time I try to plan seriously for a story it becomes dead in the water because it's like I've forced myself on the characters rather than let them breathe life into themselves (if that makes sense )

I plotted out my story up to where I am now and I recently had to outline this next section. I didn’t do too much with the romantic subplot because I wanted to see where I could go with it. My best ideas come when I’m winging it. I’m familiar enough with my story and where I want it to go to have things fall into place

I do a mix of both: I will plot out the biggest major points of the story, but I just let things happen and see what comes out of what I feel works most naturally for the scenes and characters between those plots, so while I have the major points, everything else is just what I feel like writing to get to the next point of the story. Having an idea of where to start taking the story helps me from going off on mile long tangents and the story having almost no plot to it at all.

I'm the type that plot literally everything about the story before writing it down. Sometimes, I'll even plot key dialogues. I have a file where I write down whatever happening in each chapter, from start to finish, sometimes even mentioning what the characters talk about. Though, it's mostly a detailed "what's happening in this scene, what's happening next". The actual dialogue, the detailed setting, and all that will flow naturally as I write them down. Sometimes, the details can be different from what I have planned, but it won't affect the story's plot in general.

The reason why I'm doing that is to be sure I don't get writer blocks along the way, especially if I've published my stories online. It also prevents me from discontinuing my story, and it is easier to maintain a scheduled update. For example, the novel I'm posting now is pre-written. It's already finished, though still not fully published.

On the other hand, the downside for me is that I'm too laid back to myself. Since the story I made is plotted from the start, I don't brainstorm too much along the way. It's like having a cheatsheet on your test. If I forgot what to do next, I can look at it and know what is next. And, with my story, for example, there's no deadline for myself since I have written down everything. So, yeah.

Though, since I posted in Tapas, I feel the urge to try "pantsing". Perhaps, I would love to do it at least once, just playing around the characters! I'm not gonna jump right into it with heavy setting, but maybe, a little slice of life can be my start on it.

I'm a pantser and entirely unapologetic about it Not saying it's objectively better than plotting, just that it's better for my disorganised self. I also find that if I'm trying to squish my writing into a framework it stresses me out a bit, though in all fairness I daydream so much I'll end up plotting a bit whilst zoning out and have an idea of where I want things to actually go.

TBH the only things I ever set in stone are when I come up with a character or a bit of lore, I'll make notes of everything I can about them just so they at least stay consistent if/when they come up again.

Welcome to Tapas, @Amadeus.

I think I'm half and half in regards to plotting vs. pantsing, but have begun a gradual transition towards the former.

In earlier stories, I did a lot of pantsing. But there were times when I'd painted myself into a corner with the plot or had difficulty (re)connecting events as things developed, which slowed my writing. For quick, short stories (I'm writing a horror anthology), I found pantsing to be the most effective -and fun- if I wanted to create something with a visceral, splatter-punk feel to it.

As I'm starting to experiment with other types of horror and lengthier stories, I'm plotting more regularly with the exception of dialogue, I just let it flow naturally. I edit it down later and stick to "less is more" rule where I can. Each approach definitely has its pros and cons. Once in a while, I just walk the tightrope.

How do you find this site so far?

I usually start out pantsing and then go back and do some outlining once I have a sense of what the story is. Actually, I usually start out with some semi-developed characters and maybe a vague plot idea and then just kind of...let them write themselves for awhile and see what direction they seem to want to go in. By that point I usually have some major plot points in mind and I just need to figure out how to connect the dots, which is where the outlining comes in.

I know I did both in my story. Pantsing for the dialogue parts but outlining for the plot beats for the story. It really depends on the story through I might change it around for the second part of my novel series.

If you're new to writing i definitely recommend to try both methods. You absolutely won't know what kind of writer you are until you do. There is also no right or wrong way to write (aside from obvious grammatical structure LOL)

I've done both and I found that I'm just a natural pantser. Even the story I fully plotted out I still got to points in the story where I was all "Hmm, what if I did this instead" and pansted my way through it. It's just what feels natural to me and I know that any plot holes or issues can be fixed in edits. Now if I ever do those edits is debatable (because I probably won't ever publish so the majority of my books will be one draft and done) but plot issues still can be fixed so I just don't worry about it.

What I will do is the closer I get to the end (like we're taking 3 or 4 chapters away) I'll make myself bullet points of things i want to cover through to the end just to keep me from rambling too much. And if I get stuck along the way then I'll spend some time plotting it out. I've written myself into a couple of corners that make me sit there and think "Ok...how do I get out of this in a way that makes sense to the story?" So i'll spend a few days (or hours if it's not a big hole) until I figure it out.

I tried to combine them, having a general idea of plot points but not the exact scenes.

I've also seen the analogy stated as gardener vs architect.

I generally have an overall (but often vague) idea of where I want a piece to go, but I don't like to plan out the details too much in advance. Sometimes that results in writing sections I end up throwing out later. Sometimes it ends up being a different story than what I originally intended to write (sometimes a better story). But often enough, it allows enough room for the characters to kind of take over and give it a life of its own that would have been lacking had I tried to force it all to conform to a 78 point outline. I like to leave room for the characters and story to grow as needed.

I plot mostly because if I didn't writer's block would get the best of me and I would never finish my stories. I do leave space for myself to improvise details as I go, though. Most times they are simply for enrichment but sometimes I'll find myself liking one of those a lot and developing it, which leads to more plotting to make sure it fits well with the rest of the plot