To Plan or Not to Plan

It has been said there are two kinds of writers in the world; Plotters and Pantsers. Plotters are big on planning, laying down groundwork, creating outlines and meeting specific goals.

Pantsers tend to fly by the seat of their pants, free-write, explore, take detours and follow any whim their imaginations take them on. Clearly both kinds have their virtues. Their weakness (IMHO) is only in the absence of the other. I imagine most writers, us included, possess a modicum of both qualities. But if I had to put the two of us in a category, I would be a Plotter and Doug would be a Pantser.

I noticed this as we approached the second half of our first draft. I have already blogged about how we came up with our initial outline, character development and major plot points: They simply spilled out of us during a marathon bull session on the shores of Puget Sound. Then from there we both started free writing. Even then, my writing tended more towards the practicality of explaining away some of the corners our vivid imaginations had painted us into (hence Lyme’s briefing in Romanov’s office). Doug, meanwhile, just skipped merrily along taking his own sweet time say, rescuing Liberty from her Lake Union prison cell.

I didn’t mind that, or the slow boat ride up Puget Sound, as it offered us a chance to learn more about our mysterious alt-reality world and our even more mysterious Natasha. But as they approached Shangri-La, I knew we needed to reign it in.

“Certain things need to happen in a certain order for the ending to make any sense.” I cautioned, circling a plot point and violently drawing a line across the board to another plot point.

“Uh-huh.” Said Doug. “Did you always have that twitch?”

“Trust me, if we aren’t careful, we’ll be in War and Peace territory. Less talk, more action!”

Doug, who holds a Master’s in Theatre, has written plays and directed more than a few others and has always been deeply vested in motivation, character development, relationships, settings, moods and themes. I’ve been in a few plays myself, but I also have an associate degree from Colorado’s Art Institute where I was immersed in the direction of layouts, storyboards, messaging and composition. My strength was in art direction. I let the illustrators in the class create the lush visuals.

Lyme is a man of action. That makes him easier for a Plotter like me to write for. Arthur is a man who uses information as his weapon of choice (talk, talk, talk!) Doug would put Arthur and Romanov at a table together and just let them free form a wide-ranging conversation. A lot of it had nothing to do with anything, but I could never cut any of it. It was always too good.

Ultimately, Doug patiently helped me bang out the first draft to its conclusion. Pretty bare bones stuff, but I was careful to make sure all the information that needed to be there was there. Things that need to happen, happened. Once that groundwork was laid, we crafted the second draft and Doug was in his element as we added ample new dialogue, picturesque descriptions of the surrounding and even the occasional little delightful diversion. My twitch diminished somewhat.

The sequel Straight Up, currently in production, is proving be an even greater challenge; The OTR world took us from Seattle to Sitka. The setting for Straight Up will take readers from the Lena River in central Asia to Washington, DC. With stops in Fairbanks, Anchorage, Nome, Denver, Aspen, Salt Lake City, Coeur de Laine and of course, Seattle. That is some fertile ground for a Pantser. For a Plotter? Well, as Doug says; “Dude, that twitch is getting worse…”