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Thursday, October 17, 2013
Outlining versus Pantsing
This Writers Digest article on the merits of not outlining when writing a novel appealed to me, given I am a pantser myself. Author, Steven James, has some interesting things to say on the subject and there are some useful links at the end of the article too. His website is worth a look too.
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An interesting article, Helen - arguments in favour of pantsing are few and far between. I'm also a natural pantser, but I'm gradually learning to outline, simply because it saves so much time. My first two novels each took seven years to write, because I would have long periods of drought when the story was stalled. (Of course, I now have a lot of unused material that I can draw on for future work, whch is a bonus of sorts!) I've realised, too, that most successful authors outline. I guess if you want to write a book every year it's the way to go - and, of course, we should remember that if you have a plan you can always depart from it if you get a better idea than the outline suggests. But it's a hard skill to master when you're a natural pantser. :-(
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