Pantser or Snowflake – what kind of writer are you?

First of all, the Pantser

Yes, I know this is a strange expression, but it’s one I’ve come across a lot recently, and at the moment there’s a debate on one of the Facebook sites I follow about whether it’s best to do an outline of your book or simply fly by the seat of your pants. Somehow the latter makes you a ‘Pantser’. Apparently it’s a NaNoWriMo term and means you start your novel with only the basics, then let it flow. There’s not much to say about people who are Pantsers when it comes to writing, except that they just jump in and write, write, write.

Then there’s the Snowflake…

Now, this can be simply a brief one-sentence or bullet-pointed description or plan of each chapter. Or it can go deeper, and deeper until you have an outline which fills a lever-arch file. Of all the helpful books I’ve read and online tutoring I’ve taken advantage of, I favour the Snowflake method of planning your writing. It’s an easy to use structural crutch which can be used at various levels.

If you examine a snowflake under the microscope, you can see its intricate structure; if you use greater magnification you can see intricate structure within THAT structure… and so on… and so on. Randy Ingermanson, self-styled Mad Professor of Fiction Writing, has produced a plan which suits any sort of writing, although he seems to be promoting disasters and nail-biting themes. If you ARE writing a disaster novel, or a thriller, then this structure will keep you on track and your readers on tenterhooks!

Over the years, I have tried out both. I started by just being a Pantser, just writing, letting it spew out and occasionally redrafting and editing before consigning the particular work of art to a folder on my PC.

Then I began to realise that people spent years studying the art of creative writing and maybe I should too. So I delved into structure and became a student of the outline. That’s when I discovered the Snowflake Method. I learnt that you needed acts, rollercoasters, mid-points, on down to scenes within chapters, scenes which had to be either proactive or reactive. Then there was character development, with many a helpful worksheet to complete for each character so you knew, as you were writing, where he went to school, what her childhood dreams had been, what colour eyes, hair, what size shoe, favourite band, political leanings, hopes and fears and so on and so on. It proved too easy to spend hours and hours on planning rather than writing.

So… I try to find a happy medium and dabble in both.

My writing stash…

At the moment, lurking in folders on my PC (and on back-up USB sticks) I have:

• one epic novel (about a quarter complete) minutely planned right down to the reactive scene, but leaving me no room for any sort of creative plot change without a huge rewrite;
• one biography, a true Pantser, which I occasionally flow right into when the mood takes me and when I’ve done the historical research which is sometimes necessary (but that’s fun too);
• one novel (first 10,000 words done) which is planned to a lesser degree in that I don’t subdivide into plot scenes but let the characters take the lead;
• one children’s novel (two chapters done) which is a true Pantser in that even the basics are all in my head and not on paper;
• my current novel (in the Fallout series) which is another Pantser although I do have an inkling of where it might be going… but I could be wrong;
• a co-writing (with my daughter) novel which is still in the discussion stage but will probably need some sort of structure because there are two styles to take into account.

I know that I favour the Pantser model – and it’s certainly the easiest and possibly the fastest to write. My first published book, Behind the Canvas, is one such novel, and I was flying by the seat of my pants the entire (short) time it took to write. The redrafts and edits followed, of course. However, there’s a lot to be said for planning your novel with lesser or greater detail. Even if you don’t produce reams of intricate plans, you do begin to have that structure in your head after a while, and your writing (and I really mean MY writing!) will certainly benefit from that.

So where do you find yourself? Do you simply jump in or do you plan first?