To Plan or Not To Plan

Conventional wisdom is that there are two methods that writers have been known to use when they create stories.

Method One is to plan everything out before any prose is actually written. As you might expect writers who use this method are called Planners.

Method Two is to just sit down and start with the first sentence, then continue with the next, forming or modifying the plot as you go along, sort of like flying by the seat of your pants. The writers who use this method are generally called Pantsers. To be fair, I expect that many Pantsers are like me and at least make some notes about the story before they start.

I do not think that there have been any studies conducted to determine what percentage of writers fall into each of these categories, but I would guess that the are many more Pantsers than Planners. My reasoning is that planning takes more discipline. You have to hold off on the fun of creating your story world until you first outline the entire thing. Additionally, the concept of planning out the details of a story before starting to tell it is just not the way people normally tell stories.

Most of my stories were created by coming up with a theme that I wanted to discuss, making a few notes about things to cover, then deciding on a strong first sentence, and then off to the races.

There are websites such as The Plot Factory https://plotfactory.com and planning tools such as the Snowflake Method, which is explained very well at https://www.imagineforest.com/blog/snowflake-method/
I used their sample Excel spreadsheet to layout one of my stories and found it useful. Personally, I’m not sure that it made my story M03-I Was Popular any more well written than my usual Pantser method. Since I had never planned a story before writing. I may not have given it a fair trial, being in too big of a hurry to get to actually writing.

I did modify their spreadsheet to add a few things which I found useful. You are welcome to download the result from my personal website at http://denisearnault.com/Tips/Snowflake%20Writing%20Template.xlsx. If you use it, please comment here to let others know if you found it to be useful.

Another planning tool that I have tried is yWriter. It is a free software program that an author wrote to help write novels. His download site is at https://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html. I think that it could work well for short stories, but stopped using it because it does not have a method of sharing its data between more than one device. I like to work on my phone when I'm out, my laptop when at home, etc. so I need all of them to have access to the same file.

In general, my experience with planning has been that it may work better for a novel than a short story. Not one to give up easily though, I am trying out a template that I created with short stories in mind for a story to be published in February. I’ll let you know how that goes in a follow up post.

So which method is better for writing stories, you are probably wondering. I believe that it depends on the person.

I think that some writers need the structure of planning, either to focus their thoughts or to provide incentive to actually get it done. I am sure that there are other reasons also. Please chime in on the comments if you have any other ideas or experiences with planning.

I think that most beginning writers are Pantsers, if for no other reason than because they have not been exposed to the tools and options for planning. From personal experience I can attest that it is easier to just write away and let it come together.

It would be interesting if everyone would mention their preference between the two methods in the comments. We would have our own limited survey. My guess is that the results will be 3 to 1 in favor of Pantsers.