Outliners, otherwise known as architects or plotters, plan the entirety of their story ahead of time. Discovery writers, otherwise known as gardeners or pantsers, find their story through the writing process. I wrote an article fleshing out these ideas in more detail, which you can read here. In that article, I concluded that most people fall somewhere in a spectrum between the two identities. These concepts should function as tools to find what works best for you, even if your strategy wouldn’t work for someone else.
After much experimentation and tweaking, I’ve settled into a process that works best for me. Although I’ve maintained this same set of strategies for a while now, I’ve only recently thought to take pen to paper (so to speak) and clearly define every step. I haven’t heard or read of anyone that uses these exact same methods, although I’m sure plenty of people do.
What follows is a description of what works best for me. Determining my position in the spectrum between outlining and discovery writing helped me find my personal practice, but please note that my methods may not work for you.
1. Outlining and Worldbuilding
Before I pen a single word of my story, I always create two documents. The outline defines the major plot beats of the actual story, and it gives a preliminary glance at the struggles of the key players involved. The worldbuilding document focuses on setting alone. I could write an entire separate article, and probably will, about the strategies I use to create each of these.
Sometimes the worldbuilding comes first, sometimes the outline does. To use my most recent project as an example, I started worldbuilding for A BOY FROM NORRU a solid three months before I started outlining. I had an idea for several settings and several factions, but I didn’t have a story to tell in that galaxy yet. Later, separate character and plot ideas coalesced, and I realized that they would fit perfectly into the galaxy I’d created previously.
But the key point for each of these documents is that I do not get overly detailed. Or, if I do, I don’t remain too attached to anything. More on this in the next section.
2. Beginning the Story
I have my plot, character, and setting ideas. With those settled, I don’t need to worry about my brainstorming time bleeding into my writing time. I pick the latest moment that I could begin my story, and I start there. I don’t stop to edit; I can just go.
However, since neither of my preparatory documents were too set in stone, I still have room to explore. If I feel a character trying to move in another direction, I can allow them that, even if it feels antithetical to my overarching plot goals.
I write and write and write until the scene is done, or the chapter, or I get tired. And then, I move on to step three.
3. Back to the Drawing Board
Now, we’re back to the strategies of the outliners. To use the example from the last step, say I’ve let my character stray from the plot. Now that my writing time is over, I can take time to critique. What puzzle pieces can I connect to bring the character back to the plot? Or what plot changes need be made to accommodate for this character?
This phase usually takes place during the latter half of my work day, or when I’m on a walk, working out, cooking, and so on. I solve issues, continue fleshing out the story in my head, and connect dots that I would never have seen before beginning the writing process.
And then, I write some more.
4. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat
I flit back and forth between writing time and brainstorming time until the first draft is done. At that point, I begin the editing process, which is easier for the fact that I have a more polished first draft than would a traditional discovery writer.
There you have it. I switch between the outliners’ strategy and that of the discovery writers’. Outliners do most of their non-writing work on the front end. Discovery writers do it on the back end. What makes my process unique from others that I’ve seen is that I do most of my non-writing work in the middle, alongside the writing itself.
Benefits and Dangers
My writing process does have one major pitfall to be avoided. To employ these strategies, one must be entirely committed to separating writing time and brainstorming time. Allowing the latter to bleed into the former can significantly hinder progress, especially if one has never finished a manuscript before. The common advice of “just write” is intended to help beginning novelists form a writing practice. And if one adopted the methods I’ve described before developing that practice, one might get too hung up on making every word perfect rather than finishing their story. This pitfall can only be avoided if one is entirely committed to turning off their critique voice when it’s time to write.
Fortunately, there are many benefits to this practice, too. I’ve found that my first drafts are significantly more polished now than those I’ve written in the style of discovery writers. Yet I don’t have to wait as long as outliners to get to the fun bit, which is actually writing the story. Plus, I really enjoy daydreaming about what comes next in my story while I’m doing other things.
If you think that this process may work for you, try interspersing periods of plotting, brainstorming, worldbuilding, and editing between your writing times. Try switching between your gardener brain and architect brain. Tweak and refine, and soon, you’ll find what works best for you, and you’ll have a writing process that’s uniquely your own.
– AJG
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