Hang around any gathering of prose writers, and soon you’ll hear the question: “Are you a pantser? Or a plotter?”
Pantsers write, per the old bromide, “by the seat of their pants.” Meaning, they plop down in a seat with a glimmer of an idea, staring at a blank computer screen or sheet of paper, and start writing—letting whatever comes out of their imaginations unfold, making up each character and scene as they go along.
Plotters, on the other hand, create outlines, synopses, and character descriptions before they start writing the actual project. Visions arise, from grade-school days of yore, of rigid Roman-numerated outlines.
But there’s a myth that drives these definitions: pantsing as a creative free-for-all; plotting as a rigid procedure. The myth continues:
