For a long time, there has been a lengthy debate in the writing world. Pants or plot? For this post, I'm, going to focus on Pantsing.
The Definition: This simply means "by the seat of your pants". This form of writing is when you jump right into writing without an endpoint in mind or any plan whatsoever.
Some Input: No outline to hold you down means you have the complete freedom to write whatever. You don't have to feel tied down or forced to write according to an outline. From personal experience, this can be good and bad. When I was writing, I kinda just let things flow. But at some parts, it was easy to get stuck. Panting is great if you don't even have a concept and just want to write, but it can be deadly if you have a great concept and get stuck with it because you have no idea what you want to happen. When this happens, the project gets put on a shelf and gathers dust.
My Story: A couple of years ago, I decided I was going to sit down and finally write a book (I had always written short stories). I snuggled up next to the fire (It was winter here in New England and frigid as always) and just wrote. It was strange. All I had were the words "there I was". I wrote whatever came to me, but it took days just to get a page written. It felt like I moving through sludge. Since I had no ending in sight and no basic concept, I felt doomed. I only wrote about 4 pages of that story (mind you it was 11 pt font, single-spaced-but still...) Since then, I have at least made sure that I had a general, original idea with at least a teensy-weensy little idea of how I want it to go.
Now, I'm not saying that pantsing is the worst thing in the world. A lot of people prefer it to traditional plotting. And if it works for you, go for it!
With my current project, I've spent a little bit more time planning than usual, but it can't really be considered plotting or pantsing (more on that next week). My next post will be on plotting.
What do you think about pantsing?