The pros and cons of writing without a clear direction? TELL ME!

Many people write with a plan while others do not.
I greatly depends on the person.

Labels aren’t for everyone though.

What are the pros and cons of pantsing and plotting in your opinion?

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@AMMeyers
@TheTigerWriter
@JohnnyTuturro
@Akje
@alenatenjo

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PROS

  • Rough drafts get written faster, your story has a skeleton to it.

CONS

  • Writers block can happen easily without a clear sense of direction.
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Yeah…that makes total sense for me at the moment.

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@JohnnyTuturro:

I am pantsing through the first draft and it is going great, then my mind is like getting ideas for changes BEFORE I get to the editing stage.

I am already at chapter fifteen and I getting ideas to make changes. Ugh! I hate it!

The biggest problem is that you can’t write a story without a clear direction if you’re on a writing team of a serialized show.

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Good to know.

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The pros of pantsing:

• you get started on the story faster
• you don’t have to waste time making an outline
• making an outline is often boring

The cons of pantsing:

• many writers often run out of steam without an outline
• you’re much more likely to hit a block and stop writing the book entirely

The pros of plotting:

• you’re less likely to get writer’s block
• once you make your outline, the writing will likely come faster since you know where you’re going with the story

The cons of plotting:

• many pantsers lose interest in the story once they know what’s going to happen
• as new plot ideas occur to you, you have to keep updating the outline
• some writers claim they lose creativity somehow when they plan it first

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Pros:

  • It allows for more freedom for character development
  • It also allows you to explore more plot options without limitations
  • Over all it just allows you to try lots of different ideas and see what works best

Cons:

  • It’s really easy to write yourself into a corner
  • Writers block can be worse when you don’t have a clear direction of where to go with your story
  • It makes for messy writing and sometimes you’ll have information that is either obsolete or worse, conflicting.
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I have another question for you guys.

Does the cons outweigh the pros or vice versa or it depends strictly on the writer?

@JohnnyTuturro
@Xelyn_Craft
@Akje
@NotARussianBot

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I think it depends on the writer. What works for me won’t always work for someone else and vice versa. Personally, I find winging it without a structure better for a first draft, but then writing the second draft with a structure works best for me. Sort of narrowing things down with each draft until I have a concrete plan, but starting with no restrictions. But that’s not always going to be the case for other writers.

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Definitely an individual writer thing. ☜(ˆ▿ˆc)

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Pros? I don’t have to sboehorn.
Cons, sometimes I have nothing to write.

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I’m a pantser who tried plotting once and it sucked for me personally, so…with that said,

Pantsing
Pros: discover the story, do anything you want, nothing is holding you back, fly free! let the characters do whatever the heck they want

Cons: easy to write yourself in a corner if you’re not careful

Plotting
Pros: You got direction. So I guess that’s good.

Cons: Too much direction can make you feel limited and unable to be flexible and let the story go how it wants to…in my experience.

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Honestly, I rather be a plantser (plotter and panster), but even that is a struggle…

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Let’s face it. Writing can be a struggle :stuck_out_tongue:

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I’ll get back to to you when i can think

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Okay, so i do a bit of both.

Pantsing for the first few drafts so then i have some idea of what the heck is going on. Plotting is for thr final 2-5 drafts and final version so i can put on my nonsense in order

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What are the pros and cons of pantsing and plotting?

Pantsing:

Plotting:

Those are both pros and cons

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