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Q&A Pantsing a story?

There are a couple of meanings for "pantsing" in writing. One is the saying that in order to write one must begin by applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. But by far the most c...

posted 5y ago by Mark Baker‭

Answer
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Mark Baker‭ · 2020-01-13T23:20:15Z (almost 5 years ago)
There are a couple of meanings for "pantsing" in writing. One is the saying that in order to write one must begin by applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. 

But by far the most common meaning is "writing by the seat of your pants," by which is meant, writing without a predetermined plan. Some writers don't start actually writing until they have outlined the plot and created detailed descriptions of all of the characters. They are referred to as "plotters" or "planners". Others just start writing with no predetermined idea of the plot of the characters and see where the story takes them. They are referred to as "pantsers", meaning that they create their story by the seat of their pants.

But these two extremes are probably misleading. Writers probably exist more on a spectrum of how much preparation they do in advance vs. how much they wing it. Some, for instance, may have a rough back of the envelope idea of the story before they begin. Other's may start out exploring a vague idea and then, once they feel it is going somewhere, stop and plan out the rest of the story. (That is how I work most of the time.)