4.4 Plantser Approach

The plantser approach to novel writing is a hybrid planning method that combines elements of the plotter approach, which relies on detailed advance outlining, and the pantser approach, which relies on discovery during drafting. A plantser typically establishes a limited set of structural anchor points before writing begins, such as a fixed opening situation, a midpoint turn, and an intended ending, while deliberately leaving the connective scenes between those anchors open to be discovered as the draft is written.

Core Characteristics

The defining feature of the plantser approach is partial rather than complete advance structure. Rather than committing an entire novel to a scene-by-scene outline, as a strict plotter would, or beginning with almost no predetermined plan, as a strict pantser would, a plantser fixes only the elements considered essential to preventing structural drift, most often the beginning, one or more major turning points, and the ending, and allows everything else to emerge organically during the act of drafting.

Motivations for the Hybrid Method

Writers adopt a plantser approach in order to gain some of the risk-reduction benefits associated with advance planning, particularly the assurance that a novel is heading toward a coherent and sufficiently escalating conclusion, without sacrificing the spontaneity and organic character development that discovery writing is often credited with producing. This approach is frequently chosen by writers who have experienced the drawbacks of both extremes in earlier projects, finding that pure discovery writing produced excessive structural revision, while pure outlining produced prose that felt overly determined and mechanical.

Common Practices

A plantser will often draft a brief document identifying only the non-negotiable structural elements of the novel, sometimes just a handful of sentences describing the opening situation, one or two major reversals, and the intended resolution, and then begin drafting scenes without further specification of how the story will move between these fixed points. As drafting proceeds and new details about character or situation emerge organically, a plantser frequently revises or adds to this minimal outline, treating it as a living document rather than a fixed plan established once at the outset.

Advantages Attributed to the Approach

Proponents of the plantser approach argue that it captures the principal benefit of plotting, namely confidence that the story is moving toward a coherent and sufficiently developed conclusion, while preserving the principal benefit of pantsing, namely the ability to discover character-driven complications and turns that would not have been apparent from a fully predetermined outline. Because only a small number of structural elements are fixed in advance, the labor cost of planning is also considerably lower than that of a full scene-by-scene outline, while still supplying meaningful protection against the story losing its way during a long draft.

Limitations of the Approach

Critics note that the plantser approach still carries some of the structural risk associated with pantsing, since the material between fixed anchor points remains unplanned and can still produce pacing problems, underdeveloped subplots, or scenes that do not clearly advance the story toward its next anchor. The approach can also require a degree of writerly judgment that is difficult to codify, since deciding which elements of a given novel are important enough to fix in advance, and which can safely be left to discovery, is itself a skill that develops with experience rather than a fixed procedure that can be applied uniformly across projects.

Position on the Planning Spectrum

The plantser approach is best understood not as a fixed method with its own strict rules, but as a flexible midpoint on the broader spectrum running from full outlining to full discovery writing, and individual plantsers vary considerably in how many anchor points they fix and how much structural detail they attach to each one. Because of this flexibility, many writers who do not use the term plantser to describe themselves nonetheless practice a version of it, fixing some structural elements while discovering others, making it one of the most commonly used planning strategies in practice even when it is not explicitly named as such.