The Indiana Jones Method

Plotter. Pantster. Plotter or Pantster? Plotter and Pantster? Sounds sort of like a law firm, doesn’t it? “Plotter and Pantster. We can make your legal troubles disappear.” Or maybe a clown act. “At this moment in ring three, you can see the rib-tickling antics of those hilarious funnymen, Plotter and Pantster!”

Actually the terms are a lot more mundane than those examples. A plotter is a writer who prefers to write from a detailed outline. A “pantster” is a writer who writes by the seat of their pants. Other than a general story arc, a pantster doesn’t always know where the story is going when they first sit down to write it.

I’ve been a pantster for most of my writing life. It’s a relatively new term to me. When people ask me how I write, I reply, “I write by the ‘Indiana Jones Method.’ I’m making this up as I go.” This method isn’t really a choice for me. It’s just how I work best. I try filling out character charts and turning point charts. Most of the time, they remain depressingly blank, and I shut down even the thought of writing in sheer frustration.

For me, when I sit down to write, the story unfolds like I’m watching a movie in my mind. I can see the setting and the characters. Sometimes I have a specific scene that I’m working toward, and sometimes the scenes just appear. It’s the way I’ve always done it, and the other way just doesn’t seem to go for me.

The Indy style does make it hard to write and sell by synopsis. It’s also true that sometimes the story takes wild tangents, sometimes you have a character walk into the middle of the book and try to take over, and sometimes you bog down and wonder, “What the heck was I thinking when I started this story?”

I have nothing against plotting. It prevents wandering, “middle of the book” blues, and gives a writer tools to make sales. Some writers are reluctant to give up “pantsing” because they think they’ll lose the freshness of their story. They’re afraid to be penned in by what they see as a rigid structure.

For my part, I’m not worried about freshness or structure. I just get more writing done when I sit at my keyboard and say, “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” Then I fight my way through the story from beginning to end. It may not be the best or most profitable way to write, but it’s the way that works for me.