My pants are more like booty shorts

Alisha Layman

Let's just begin by putting this out there: I love outlining. I work as a tutor and some of the first things that I tell people who need study tips are MAKE OUTLINES! OUTLINE YOUR NOTES! OUTLINE YOUR LIFE! OUTLINES FOR EVERYONE!!

So now that that's out in the open, I guess it's safe to say that when it comes to writing, I'm totally a plotter.  I can sit on an idea for weeks (if we're being conservative) just planning out who the characters are, certain scenes, etc.  I can't even begin writing until I have at least a few scenes in my head.  I like having some kind of outline of events for my novel.

Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that I plan and plot in a nice, neat order. Take a look at the image to the right. Most of the time, this is how I do my outlining. I'll get an idea for about three-fourths of the way through and have that scene totally worked out.  And then I'll come up with a beginning.  And then the ending. And then something right around the middle.  And when I've come up with several scenes that are spread randomly throughout the novel, I finally begin to write.

When I plot and write like this, I realize that I have a tiny bit of pantser in me.  Looking back at the image above, when I get to the inevitable Point of Question Marks between Idea Number 2 and Idea Number 4, I try to just wing it.  So the lead just got transported back in time, but she hasn't reached the scene where she is tried for witchcraft? Well maybe she could meet a bushy-bearded man named James Garfield?

Because of my plotting nature, this point, the Point of Question Marks, can become the Moment Where I Experience Writer's Block that thing where I can't come up with any more ideas.

This is just one of the little notebooks I do my plotting in

There’s no such thing as writer’s block. That was invented by people in California who couldn’t write.
Terry Pratchett

This isn't always the case; sometimes I come up with the best ideas off the top of my head. That's why I don't see myself as a strict plotter. I don't plot out the whole novel; I come up with various scenes throughout the novel and then fill in as I go. Yeah, sometimes I get stuck because I'm not as good at pantsing as I am plotting. But I'd rather have a little bit of mystery waiting for me when I begin writing, rather than have the whole novel ready in my head before I even write a word.  As James Scott Bell explains in his book Plot and Structure, plotters run the risk of lacking spontaneity, which the pantsers have in abundance. I don't want my writing to become boring. So while I may be an outlining freak, I still have some pants. My pants are just more like booty shorts.