To answer your first question: no, pantsing in writing does not mean pulling down the pants of a story an exposing all their private metaphors and symbolism.
Pantsing means writing by the seat of your pants, not knowing what will come next. Its opposite is outlining, which is when you know exactly what will happen next in your story because you created an outline beforehand.
Is one strategy better than the other? Let’s find out!
During the last stream, the viewers voted that we go over “pantsing vs. outlining.”
You can see our full discussion here,
or scroll down for the highlights.
Pantsing
- “Writing by the seat of your pants.”
- You have only a little (or even no) idea about what will happen next in your story, you just write it in the moment
- PROS: No constraint of an outline, plot feels more organic/less contrived
- CONS: Payoffs/ending might not work out, very easy to get writer’s block
Outlining
- “Creating a beginning-to-end outline for your story before you write.”
- You know what will happen next in your story because you create a start-to-finish outline beforehand.
- PROS: Easy to trust your story, less susceptible to writer’s block
- CONS: Outlines can be difficult, might end up constraining the plot
Overall
- Neither method is better than the other, and there are successful authors that do both.
- If you’ve only tried one method, and haven’t had success, try the other! Some people have been traumatized by outlines in school, and some people are terrified of not being in complete control of their story, but they’re both worth a shot.
- You don’t need to just do one or the other. For many writers, a mix of the two is ideal.
Check out the video for more details! After going over that, chat voted on two stories, one that we would outline and one that we would “pants.” Here’s what they voted for:
OUTLINE: Something is frozen in the arctic — people said climate change was dangerous, but nobody expected *this*
BEGINNING
- Scientists go on an expedition to investigate the Arctic because something strange has been going on there.
- The explorers humorously discuss how they’re now being better paid to study the melting icecaps because of climate concerns.
- They find something, and a throng of monsters/aliens kill them all.
MIDDLE
- Global warming has unfrozen a black hole in the Arctic that is constantly puking out aliens/monsters from other planets and stars.
- Our main character is a woman who worked as a chef for one of the scientists who died. She likes to hunt/cook the monsters/aliens and serve them to people as a way to emotionally deal with the trauma.
- She wants to go to the North Pole and tackle the monsters herself.
- She meets up with a crazy old dude who has tamed one of the monsters that can fly, and who is a bit of a conspiracy theorist. (He always goes on about how deserts were just set up by the government to distract people form the real problem — the Arctic.)
- Together they ride the monster to the North Pole to blend in.
- As they’re going there, they notice that all the world’s currents are leading to the North Pole, they assume it’s because of the black hole.
- When they get to the North Pole, they first see all of the monsters. It’s a breeding ground for them, so they try to find the queen, but while they’re doing that, they discover that there are scientists living there.
END
- They discover that it ISN’T a black hole in the Arctic, it’s a hole estimated to be even deeper than the Mariana Trench. It’s a massive circular waterfall down towards the center of the earth. (The hole threatens to consume all the water in the world’s oceans.)
- The alien/monsters and the hole itself were all experiments created by humans gone wrong. The scientists explain that the monsters were actually native lifeforms on Earth, and the humans are the aliens, having evolved from DNA that arrived via a meteorite.
- The main character and the crazy guy end up helping the monsters and destroying the facility, making it so that the monsters can more easily take over the world since they are better adapted to live in the new environment that’s being created. We don’t deserve it after all that we’ve done to it.
PANTS: A group of men shacked up in a cabin have to find the traitor among them, before they’re all killed off.
There were seven of us freezing to death in the snowed-in cabin, but only one of us was going to die tonight. I sat in the corner, eyeing the six others. I didn’t even know their names. Three woman, four men, as usual I didn’t like my odds. Everyone was doing the same, shifting glances toward the others huddled and shivering, wondering which of them was going to be our key out of here… our key made of flesh and blood.
I didn’t know who they were. I didn’t know why I was here. But I did know one thing for sure: I was going to survive.
One of the men who was sitting on the patched-up sofa stood to his feet. His face flickered nervously, caught by the glow of burning embers in the fireplace. His stomach bulged out as if someone inside was sticking their index finger right up against his belly button. His police blues strained against a belly too content with second-helpings, the buttons on his uniform burdened by strain. An empty holster hung uselessly off his belt.
“Okay, listen up,” he said to the room, rubbing his bald, sweaty head. “If we’re gonna be stuck here, we might as well talk about it.”
Like we talk about in the video, the difference between these two stories is huge. For the outline, we know what will happen at the beginning, middle and end, but we don’t actually have any of the story written yet. For the pants version, we don’t know what will happen next, but we have some of the story written.
Whichever method works best for you will vary, though a combination of the two is always a good idea: a bit of an outline mixed with some freedom for new things to pop up as your write. If you’ve only tried writing one way before, give the other a shot! You’ll definitely learn something.
After that, chat voted that we write a story about this piece of music: March of Farquaad (click to listen)
The soldier prepared for battle. Slipping on his heavy boots, heaving the firearm over his shoulder, and sheathing the knife in his belt. The leather holster hid the pungent smell of dried blood well. He stood and marched to the door, ready to go out in the night and answer the call.
As he gripped the cold doorknob, a voice squeaked from behind. The soldier stopped and turned to the little girl in her nightgown, standing alone in the shadows, clutching her teddy bear. It was missing a button eye, and wore a homemade tinfoil armor suit, helmet, and sword.
She pitter pattered up to him on bare feet, barely coming up to his knees, and held up the bear to him. The bear that had kept her safe and sound during so many nights, slaying nightmares with his crinkled tinfoil sword. The soldier took the bear, wrapped it under his arm, and saluted the girl. She raised her palm to her forehead back.
“Don’t worry, daddy. Mr. Buttons can keep you safe from bad dreams too.”
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you. We stream on Twitch every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 6:30pm-10:30pm (U.S. Eastern Standard Time).
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Scott Wilson is the author of the novel Metl: The ANGEL Weapon,
forthcoming March 2019.
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons, Pakutaso (Edited by me)
