Friday, October 27, 2017

NaNo Need-to-Knows: How to Avoid Writer's Block When You're a Pantser

Hey everyone! Today's vlog post will be the last one I'll be posting on a Friday for a while, because each post for November will be about advice and/or encouragement for that specific week of NaNoWriMo.

If you're here for my monthly goal update post, click here.

If you would like to see links to all of the post in the NaNo Need-to-Knows Series, click here.

The script I used to record this vlog follows the video.



NaNoWriMo can be a dream and a nightmare for writers who fly by the seat of their pants as they write (henceforth referred to as pantsers, pantsing, etc.) On the plus side, NaNo seems almost designed for people who don’t want to plan, because we’re encouraged to just let go and write every step of the way.

On the negative side, if you paint yourself into a corner, it can be a disaster. In order to write 50,000 words in a month, you have to write an average of 1,667 words per single day. This might not seem too bad, but if you get stuck, the words needed to get back to par stack up really fast.

A lot of people try to prevent this by planning ahead and going into NaNoWriMo with something akin to a step-by-step guide to their book.

But we’re pantsers and that’s not what we do!

So what do we do?

We get stuck.

Often.

And this is frequently what we call writer’s block.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can “borrow” a few things from the plotters and adapt them to help us along.

The big thing I see as an advantage of plotting is that plotters know where they’re going with their book. Pantsers have this way of thinking that this is boring, but really, they’re just looking at it wrong.

See, just because we know where we’re headed doesn’t predetermine how we’re going to get there. And the getting there is really the fun part.

So it helps to go into NaNoWriMo with a few things settled in our mind. Knowing the main character(s), and their goal, conflict, and stakes is probably the best way to not get stuck.

However, if that smacks too much of plotting, you can get away with significantly less. How do I know? I’ve done (and won) NaNo by going into it knowing precisely one thing:

The climax of the story.

If I know what the big event or reveal will be at the end, I can use every scene before that point as a stepping stone to it. So if I get stuck in a scene, feeling like I don’t know where it’s going, I can then direct the scene towards progressing the in a way that brings me closer to the climactic point. And hopefully by then, I know enough about character, the goal, conflict and stakes to figure out how to make that progressive step forward. (But again, it does help to know all these before you start writing.)

Are you a plotter or a pantser? What do you have to know before starting? 

26 comments:

  1. Hi Misha, though I'm a plotter I panstered (not sure if there is a word like that) my last book and had fun doing it and now I'm upto my neck in revisions. I prefer plotting the main turning points and panstering inbetween.

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    1. Yeah I think that's probably the best of both worlds, in a way. :-)

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  2. I'm a total panster, but I totally have to have a general goal of where the book's heading for me to start. That's usually what gets me started in the first place, really. Great tips and good luck with NaNo!

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    1. Thanks so much!

      Yeah the goal does make a huge difference. ^_^

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  3. I'm a definite pantser. My logic is that the story is writing itself and I'm just the idiot who happens to be in its way as it's coming out. Or so I tell myself.

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    1. LOL yeah I often approach my rough drafts that way. And BOY do I get in the way. ^_^

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  4. High five! I've participated in and won NaNo by doing the exact same thing. Though sometimes, I do wish I could plot, because I think I could then write faster.

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    1. I don't think that's necessarily the case. If I plot my rough drafts, I never finish them. :-/

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  5. Awesome! I agree with you on knowing the climax scene first - even if I don't even have character names and setting down yet, that scene is the key to understanding everything before it. :)

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    1. Absolutely. I often use X, Y, Z etc as character name placeholders, but if I don't know the climax, it often feels like I'm chasing my tail.

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  6. I'm a pantser at heart as well, but my drafts always need SO much work... so this year, I've created an outline. And I'm finding it terrifying!!! We'll see how it works :) Good luck to you!

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    1. Sometimes it's good to try something new, so I hope it goes well for you. :-)

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  7. I'm a panster, but I do develop my characters, at least partly, their goals, and what's in their way. As new plot ideas come to me while I'm writing, I jot them down to see where they belong in the story. I've never done NANO. Don't like pressure.

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    1. Yeah, some people just won't like NaNo, and you seem to be one of them, but then, you've been writing for so long, I bet you don't need it to get your work done.
      :-D

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  8. I get writer's block even as a plotter! lol

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  9. I am a bit of a panster although I try to plan! Lol! I haven't ever given NaNo a go . . . the daily word count pressure scares me.

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    1. I always say that writer should try it once, but then, they probably shouldn't if the idea freaks them out.

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  10. I'm a pantser through and through although thee are often some things I wish to include. Don't know the ending til I get there, though.

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    1. I also tend not to know the ending when I rough draft, which is usually why I almost never win. :-D

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  11. You have excellent advice here. Thank you so much!

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  12. Great video! I found myself nodding the whole time and shaking my head. LOL. I'm about 50-50 pantser/plotter. I start with about a dozen high-level bullets, and as I write I plot the next bullet. So, I can't really call myself either. Or maybe I should call myself both? It's a conundrum...

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    1. It sounds like you have a good balance going, though, and as long as it works, the label hardly matters. :-)

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  13. Nice! I started out as a pantser. Well, that's not 100% true. I'd mentally plot a couple points beyond where I currently was in the draft, but that was it. Then I wrote a book based on a play I'd already penned, and I discovered that even with a full plot already outlined, there was room for freedom and it was just as exhilarating...plus faster. Since that time, I've always written with an outline, although things periodically change. There must be a solid beginning, inciting incident, midpoint, climax, ending, and at least 3 plot points between each, plus a solid cast that I've come to know before beginning a draft. If it's a fantasy world, I have to know the rules of magic etc, and the social ecosystem. However, if I try to plot every little detail of every scene, the muse rebels.

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    1. I'm the same, in a sense. My muse is happy to let me plan a rewrite, but even that needs freedom. And I need the bare minimum of planning for a rough draft or the muse is displeased. ;-)

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