When I first started writing, I would get excited about the concept of what I was going to write. Full of enthusiasm, I would sit at my typewriter and roll in the sheet of paper. Hitting keys, the first paragraph would take shape.
Then stall.
Struggling to get the book written, I would go days without a single word on paper, finally within six months admitting that – once again – I had failed.
The Secret
Most writers – like myself – assume that writing is a matter of “seat of the pants” work. You just somehow manage to write all those scenes, the words falling into place as you write.
Yet two years ago, I went to a Faith Writer’s convention, interviewing each self published author about their work process. I would find that out of all ten authors I interviewed, only one utilized a true “pants’er” writing process.
The Facts
This means that out of all the writers I interviewed, only ten percent were true pants’ers. Remember, this was not a statistical survey of writers, but rather a statistical survey of published writers. My informal findings are that the numbers tip the other way – 90% of unpublished writers are pants’ers, while only 10% of published writers are pants’ers.
These numbers are crucial.
The implications
When I first started writing, the impression I had was (as previously stated) that the writing process was all pants’ing. And certainly the process I use to write is considered by many to be pants’ing – but true pants’ers (I define it this way myself) consider my process to be the antithesis of pants’ing – the planner.
By the time I attended my first writers’ convention, I had come to the conclusion that there are no true pants’ers who finish novels. My interviews upset that conclusion – but only barely.
My interviews consisted of the following questions.
- Have you ever finished a novel?
- Have you finished more than one novel?
- Would you say you are pants’er or planner?
- Do you have any planning process prior to the writing of your novel?
- Do you approach a scene knowing what the outcome will be?
Here’s the conclusions of my informal research:
90% of writers consider themselves pants’ers
This is an obvious conclusion. Other researchers hold more to a 50% split – 50% planners and 50% pants’ers. I disagree with the findings, as no attempt is made to determine whether the writer has ever finished more than one novel, and whether they know the outcome of the scene prior to writing. Many who truly are planners call themselves pants’ers – and many who call themselves planners truly are pants’ers. According to the strictest definitions given to the two types, I would be called a “gardener pantser” – yet by my own definitions I’m a planner.
Is it important what we call ourselves? Oh, yes. Crucial. Because labeling yourself planner or pants’er literally is the key for finishing novels.
99% of writers never finish their first novel
A brief search of writers’ supply websites show results into the hundreds of thousands of books, all written with the purpose of getting writers to finish a novel. If there’s that many books, there’s a demand. There’s a fundamental flaw in how we write our novels if 99% of all writers never finish a novel. This literally means that if I interviewed ten writers, there’s 990 writers out there who never finished a novel.
That literally would dwarf the center the writer’s convention was held at – literally, it could not hold that many people.
90% of writers who finish novels are planners
This is a “drop the microphone” moment. Drop it, walk away, let everyone think about the implications.
The Results explained
What do the numbers show? The numbers listed above – according to my informal research – is that only a tenth of a percent of writers who use a pants’er workflow will finish their novel.
In other words, if you’re a pants’er, you have a better chance of being hit by lightning than finishing your novel.
The Solution
The solution here is obvious. I don’t even need to explain it. You’ve already figured it out.
Conclusion
Once I changed my writing process to planner, I began finishing novels left and right. Every time I returned to a pure planning process, my writing output stopped immediately. Every time I returned to planning, I again was able to finish books quickly.
If you believe that writing a thousand words a day is impossible for you – that you’ll never succeed at writing novels like that – then I challenge you. Learn a planning process. Implement it for one novel. Set a strong word count. Not two hundred words a day, but over a thousand.
Be prepared to be overjoyed. The incredible relief at finishing a novel is addicting. Plan your work, work your plan – and never again return to pants’ing.
