Where plotters are usually defined as storytellers who plot their stories before they start writing them, pantsers write by “the seat of their pants”. Most of us, I think, need a little bit of both, but some of us definitely has more inclination for planning their work than others. For me, writing seems to start with a few images or scenes in my head, or perhaps just a good sentence. From there I start to search through a hazy cloud after clues, and new images pop up as I go. If I don’t know exactly what will happen in the next scene, I just jump to one that I know, and work from there. It is a magical technique, but it is also a frustrating one. It takes a lot of editing to make everything work as a whole. And when writing four hundred pages with five protagonists, multiple timelines and plenty of plot twists, it became necessary at some point to do some plotting.
It all started with the image of a huge python. A friend of mine who was doing charity work helping ownerless cats find new homes, told me that she had this fear that one of the cats would end up at a snake owners house, as prey. I just couldn’t shake the thought. I started thinking of what sort of person would do such a thing. Could this be a good idea for a story? So, I knew what the basic idea was, but I didn’t know anything about the protagonist or what was going to happen when I started writing. I wrote about a man, then changed him into to a woman. I was going for a cold and heartless character, but as I was writing she grew more and more complex. I was writing scenes here and there, building character and figuring out the details of the story, doing research when it felt necessary and discovering interesting themes that I would never have guessed to begin with. Not until quite late in the process did I start to make plot charts or even taking plotting seriously.
For me, plotting is the least fun part of the process. I guess that’s the best reason I have for postponing it. I just love searching through that hazy cloud, and I love how the characters seem to constantly surprise me. I truly believe that the freedom I had in my writing process has worked wonders for the creativity, and that plotting ahead would have killed that creativity for me. But after dreading it for the longest time, I found out that I just had to do my plotting in a fun, creative way. So instead of making everything fit into neat little boxes, I let the whole plotting process be as messy as I wanted. And it worked. Not only did I finish my novel, Reptile Memoirs received great reviews and has spread wide across the Norwegian borders.
So, how to plot like a pantser? Colorful pens, physical paper and all the freedom you need. No need to limit or structure what you put on there. The plot chart is an assistive device, not a straitjacket. If you have an interesting thought, a new idea, a good sentence, feel free to put it anywhere. Don’t let the plot holes scare you – simply leave question marks and comments. Trust that you will find solutions to your problems. If you get bored, feel free to start drawing your characters on the side. If you start to feel that the chart is becoming an imprisonment, try to find a way out. After all, we could always use more rule breakers.
I recently sat down and started to draw a plot chart for the novel I’m currently working on. As I was putting down my planned and written scenes, I looked at it and felt that this straight line just didn’t make sense. Life is not like this, I thought, life is not this ridiculous straight line. So, in a spontaneous moment I wrote on the corner of the paper: “This is not a linear timeline. The story unfolds in an ever-expanding spacetime.” Then I drew a circle. I’m still not quite sure what it means, but it immediately spiked my imagination. I trust that everything will fall into place in the end.
Reptile Memoirs by Silje O. Ulstein Published by Grove Atlantic Press (Out now)
Liv has a lot of secrets. Late one night, in the aftermath of a party in the apartment she shares with two friends in Ålesund, she sees a python on a TV nature show and becomes obsessed with the idea of buying a snake as a pet. Soon Nero, a baby Burmese python, becomes the apartment’s fourth roommate. As Liv bonds with Nero, she is struck by a desire that surprises her with its intensity. Finally she is safe. Thirteen years later, in the nearby town of Kristiansund, Mariam Lind goes on a shopping trip with her eleven-year-old daughter, Iben. Following an argument Mariam storms off, expecting her young daughter to make her own way home . . . but she never does. Detective Roe Olsvik, new to the Kristiansund police department, is assigned to the case of Iben’s disappearance. As he interrogates Mariam, he instantly suspects her – but there is much more to this case and these characters than their outer appearances would suggest.
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Photo credit - Oda Berby
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