When I was really getting into writing and finishing stories, I thought I’d made it. I found out what works for me. All I gotta do now, was keep doing it. And then came the question: Are you a pantser or a planner? Do you start writing with minimal knowledge of your novel, or do you start with meticulous planning?
By 2018, I had been writing for 7 years already and long believed myself to be a pantser, and I never tried to outline a novel before. I thought, “Why waste time trying other methods if I know what works for me?”
But…how did I know planning wouldn’t work for me if I never tried it?
How my outlining journey as a pantser began.
My journey into the unknown world of planning began in 2017 or 2018 when I had an idea for a four-book fantasy series about kings, queens, magick, soldiers, knights, mages, and spanning over two-hundred years or so. A big undertaking unlike any I had ever done before. Not to mention, I had never tried to write a story about royalty and knighthood involving all the complicated Game-of-Thrones-like regal politics. I had never written a series up until that point either.
So, what did I do?
I thought this would be a great time to see if I could outline a story and then write it. I knew how to outline a story because I had long been hearing what other planners were doing, so, I got to work.
I outlined each book. All four books.
And when I thought I was done, I tried to write it. And I tried to write it…and tried…
What happened after outlining four books?
Something was wrong. Something wasn’t working. I felt so…stuck. It was the strangest feeling for me. I had been so used to coming up with idea after idea. It would usually be smooth sailing for me when it came to writing. But this series was choking me. I couldn’t come up with anything even though it was right there in front of me.
I had outlined and that outline was a cage.
Typically, when I come upon a block during writing, I’m able to write over that bump and it would eventually smooth itself out. Or, I would stop and take a break. Maybe edit a story instead of writing one from scratch. Then I would get back and work through that bump.
I always got through.
It wasn’t working this time.
The outline was staring me in the face with very mean eyes. Demanding to me, “Write this story. No other. Come on now. Are you not a writer?”
I was pushed into such a corner, that I saved what I had, exited the file, and went on to Procrastination Station. The story was sitting there in the back of my mind. Even when I worked on other stories as a pantser, I could not get that series out of my head.
This wasn’t just because I couldn’t write it and that was bothering me, but also because I liked the characters, the magick system using gems, and the various shapeshifters.
I had to write it. But how?
The Self-NaNo Method: Getting out of my rut.
Then, in 2020, I had an idea. I would do a self-NaNo. I would give myself a month from whatever day I started and write 50k. I would use NaNo’s website to track my progress. So, for that, I do thank NaNo for helping me during that time (2025, Apr. 16, we all know that NaNoWriMo is going to shutdown due to money issues and being unable to bounce back from scandals/2025, Sept. 04, NaNoWriMo is gone).
But what do I do with all my outlining? What about all my world-building which is also in the outline? What about all the timelines I came up with? How much do I keep?
I decided to not look at the outline at all. Only use the things that I could remember.
Here is what they were:
- Key moments of the characters and plot: There were some key moments of characters and plot that I had in my mind before all this outlining fiasco happened. I also had some ideas that I wanted to keep from the outline which I remembered without looking at the outline.
- Fox girl finds others like her and meets wolf guy in book one
- Guy with ice curse meets panther woman and learns about magick in book two
- Book three will show what the kingdom became after magick creatures were exiled/hunted
- Books two and four will have big fights
- Book four’s final battle will be super epic, and fox girl’s daughter will be centerstage
- etc. …
- Basic magick system: I had been thinking about the magick system so much, I could explain it off the top of my head.
- Anything to do with the gems which were part of the magick system.
- The things that you can and can’t do with the magick.
- The origin story of how the magick came about.
- The evolution of the magick system throughout the decades.
- The pros and cons of using it.
- Different species showed different types of elemental magick and I remembered how those differences showed up when they used the magick.
- Anything about the characters, locations, history
- What the characters look like, their relationships, and their backstories (very basic backstories, however)
- What the places look like (I had inspiration illustrations, photography, etc., collected on Pinterest)
- History about the magical creatures and kingdoms and queendoms
- Basic map of where everything was in relation to each other…basic, very basic
Anything outside of these points, such as magical creatures other than the ones centered in the plot, other humans beside the royalty and knights, locations outside of the outline, and romantic or platonic relationships, were pantsed.
At the end of the tunnel, at the end of pantsing, there was a squirrel.
This squirrel is showing what I felt after finishing pantsing all four books, 50k each, in two and a half months. FINALLY! 😀
What did this story outlining experiment teach me?
I’m a pantser to my core.
Other than that, it taught me that, for me, for how I think and create, pantsing is the best way to go. I tend to do my best writing when I let my imagination run free and see what comes out at the end.
When I’m not a caged bird, I soar to great heights… like an eagle.
So, was the outlining experiment a total waste of time? The answer is no, of course not. If I hadn’t tried it, I would have never known that pantsing is really the best way to go for me. This experiment proved to me that I was right about myself: I’m a pantser and that will not change.
Did you know that Stephen King is a pantser, too? And look how much he’s publishing. I also have published author friends who pantsed all their novels. It can be done. Very validating for sure.
If there is one thing I learned from outlining a novel is that figuring out the character arc from the start is quite useful. Knowing what my characters would be doing at each point in their development, even just loosely, has been helpful since, for some stories. This means I don’t have to ignore the outlining method. Perhaps, I’ll find that some loose pre-planning can be helpful.
Who knows. Maybe one day I’ll be a plantser (the pantser-planner hybrid writer). The future isn’t set in stone, but I can be stubborn 😏
So, what now, Pantser?
I’ll just take creativity as it comes to me. If I really get into the groove, there’s no stopping me. At this very moment (2025, Sept. 04) I’ve been doing so much editing, I’m feeling the massive need and urge to pants something.
As for you, if you read this and feel like maybe you’d like to try a different way of writing, I would say it is worth the try. Totally worth the experiment. Maybe you will be a good planner or maybe you will learn that pantsing is your entire world. Or maybe you’ll be like me and take something away from it.
In any case, I hope that you will enjoy the process of discovering your writer self 😊
Happy Writing!
FOXWOOD FOREST 