I am an unrepentant pantser. One of the reasons I don't outline (and I have tried) is that for me personally, writing is very much about discovering the story. And if I outline, I have discovered the story, and it is really hard to muster the will to then build it out. That isn't a problem for me with pantsing.
I’m a full on crystallized to the point where I have the individual scenes mapped action to action. Can confirm it’s the writing equivalent of getting on your knees and slamming your head in an oven door repeatedly.
Hey, would you think about making a video talking about the “Crystallizer” type more? Or maybe share the sources and whatnot from where you heard about it? I’ve literally never heard the term before this video and it’s 100% me, but I can’t find any other people like me or any resources on it. It might be nice to have more information about it and talk to other people who have a similar process as I do:)
I've seen it referred to as the "Snow flake" method before. Most people probably call it that. It would make for an interesting topic as its not discussed nearly as much as the other methods.
Isn't the crystalizing method the same as the snowflake approach? Anyways, I would say I'm an outliner with a little weaver/pantser mixed in: I plan everything beforehand (like an outliner) but still keep it loose then allow the details to come to me as I write the pre-planned story beats and scenes (like a pantser). After that I deliberately throw a wrench into my own story--some random X factor that wasn't a part of the initial plans--then rewrite and reorganize scenes and plot points to make the story more interesting (like a weaver)
I keep trying to turn myself into a plotter and it keeps not working. Once I've got everything plotted out, my brain says "okay, done with this, what's the next story." Even if I do force myself through it, it's an unpleasant experience. Which isn't to say that I just get an idea and start typing. There is some crystalization there, maybe a few possible scenes roughed out, but most of my prep work is getting to know the characters.
I'm mainly a pantser with a little bit of weaving. I used to start out all pantser, but over time I would often get ahead of myself in my thoughts and then lose ideas I had in my head before I got to them, so I just started writing out thoughts as I had them and weave them in over time, but I'm still into heavy duty pantsing. Honestly, I think I started the whole weaving thing due to college, realizing panting a college essay is a horrid experience, sometimes I just had specific thoughts and things I wanted to say planned out, so putting those down gave me a basis of where I wanted to take those papers, almost a bit of a flexible outline, so I've started using it in creative writing. So essentially, I pants from the start until I have ideas that I want to weave in later, write those down, then continue to pants until I cant weave my weavement into my pants.
glad you mention the weaver, i definitely write out of order and through discovery. I have this super intense one page with culture, structure, narrative stage/phase, etc that I used to place scenes and episodes as well as smooth over the insanity of writing a climax 6 hours after writing the first scene. I'd say the one weird thing about writing out of order is that sometimes you write a scene and realize it's a photo negative of the actual scene. But that's very easy to deal with once you learn to look for it. It's definitely the most fun and sometimes the scenes you write to connect are better than the end points.
I always start pantsing because I have the Story Idea and how the charactes will evolve in my head. But when I have ideas while I write I note them and try to put them into something that makes sence and then I Just continue writing and see what will happen next
I guess Im an Outliner, because I made a map, some character designs, and I worked and reworked my plot through my head a bunch of times. But then I guess I Pantsed it after that.
Great summary. I'm a pantzer at the far end of the scale. I just let my fingers start writing without a premise and see where the story goes. I may have come up with a working title as a seed before beginning, but it never sticks. I plant clues to a mystery I have no idea what it is, but somehow I figure it out along the way, and it always works out in the end. If I don't make use of all the clues I planted I pick them up in a later book in the series. Somehow my brain creates a logically coherent story around the random clues I drop. It isn't planned. It just comes, but the later books are decidedly better written than the first ones.
Same here, I'm a pantzer but have an idea on what the ending looks like and how it should begin. I'm not sure but I also feel like I'm a weaver though. I let the story go and then put events in this part to make the character struggle and add interest to the story or even jumble the scenes to make it interesting. But overall, I follow my character's path.
@@KitsuyaKisaragi Most writers are probably weavers a little bit. I often move scenes from one chapter to another after finishing the first draft to make the story flow better, but it's easy to make mistakes and make a character mention something he couldn't know until after it happened.
I'm a heavy plotter, dipping into crystallizer and pantser territory. I start with a vague image of world, characters, and themes, brainstorm a basic outline, expand it into a heavy outline, write some of the draft, update the outline, repeat until a draft is done. Usually there are big chunks missing at this point, so I analyze it and update the outline for draft 2. Rinse and repeat until it's done :)
Not a novel writing method, but when writing screenplays, we'd often go with a short concept and then determine the structure, then write the story to fit the structure. Given it was primarily for a TV show, we had a few different 4 Act structures that we used - usually with 1-2 additional B plots that would relate to the A plot. I've heard scene play structures being said to be the right way to write a novel, but honestly, I can't imagine that being a good idea as novels hit on different dimensions than a screenplay. I think author/screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis put it well when he said "Books are not movies and I approach scripts and novels in completely separate ways. Scripts are about structure and novels are about consciousness."
When it comes to writing I'm a full on pantser. I write as if I'm reading, in that I have no idea where the story is going but can't wait to find out. That said, I sometimes get into full on architect mode, where I spend years crafting a world (love map building), a religion (with pantheon of gods), carefully picking characters (I have a file of photos of people I find interesting as well as a spreadsheet of names I like) and creating elaborate backstories (once had a character with a generations deep family tree, since her ancestors founded the town she lived in) however, I rarely get past the planning stage on these as it is not about the story but about the planning. And then, for another story I've had swimming around in my head I'm a weaver, as I'll think of a conversation or a scene idea and throw it in the file but it's all in bits and pieces. So basically, I do whatever strikes my mood or whatever the particular thing I'm working on needs. You'll be shocked, I'm sure, to know I have never completed a novel, though I was once a prolific fanfic writer, sometimes doing 3-4 stories at a time. Ah, the good old days.
I've always been a storyteller. I started writing formally and approach it like a black smith. I also have a unique way of imagining the layers of perspective. I'll map the plot in terms of microspection and macrospection. Then write the first act, hammer on it over and over until I am absolutely satisfied with it. Because if act one isn't believable or satisfying, the other acts are just going to be unbearable, and only going back and reworking act one can fix it. Like a black smith making a sword.
I honestly outline, draft, and revise all at once. Everything feeds into the rest. I start out more as pantser and then become more of an outliner by the end, with a lot of revising during that transition.
I do a mix of Crystallization, weaving, and outlining. I usually start with a summary of the plot, that then turns into scenes at random places in the book or their squeals (has happened more then once already, where I thought the scene would be at the end of the book, but it ended up being closer to the end of the 3ed book at lest. I hope it dosen't move again.) Then I start to take the scenes and plug them in approximately where they go and start planing and outlining how they all link together, and what has to happen between, before ect.
I’ve kind of gone through all of them. I was always more pantsing/weaving but never was able to finish anything for a variety of reasons, and as I’ve gone along I’ve gotten pretty hardcore into outlining. Sometimes the outline has a ton of detail and I have the scenes pretty well ready to write as I’m outlining them, other times I just have a general idea for where I need to be after the next few scenes, and will end up mini-pantsing (shortsing?) it for a bit until I get back to some of the more thoroughly outlined stuff. I’ll just have a general “they have to get to here” or whatever and can just write away. It can end up making for some more tension in areas I had no inspiration for while outlining. The plot is still moving along but I’ll end up having to get the characters to fight their way back onto the outline.
I started writing a novel and kind of been working on a half pants or the short term plan. I have an ending in mind but no real outline. However, often at lunch I find myself brainstorming a couple chapters ahead creating a general idea of where i'm going. I've found this helpful as it avoids some of the initial "so now what" without really committing to an outline of the whole novel.
I’m initially a crystallizer until I have expanded the seed into a story summary, then before further crystallization becomes unwieldy I switch to outlining the major story elements which then each serve as a new seed for additional crystallization growth and expansion. And as for crystallizing those various points of the outline, I definitely fall into the weaver category where I can tackle them in any order as my inspiration warrants because at that point I can see how the whole thing is coming together. The only thing I “pants” is the word by word construction of the prose that tells the story that has essentially already been fully developed.
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I am an unrepentant pantser. One of the reasons I don't outline (and I have tried) is that for me personally, writing is very much about discovering the story. And if I outline, I have discovered the story, and it is really hard to muster the will to then build it out. That isn't a problem for me with pantsing.
I’m a full on crystallized to the point where I have the individual scenes mapped action to action. Can confirm it’s the writing equivalent of getting on your knees and slamming your head in an oven door repeatedly.
😂
Hey, would you think about making a video talking about the “Crystallizer” type more? Or maybe share the sources and whatnot from where you heard about it? I’ve literally never heard the term before this video and it’s 100% me, but I can’t find any other people like me or any resources on it. It might be nice to have more information about it and talk to other people who have a similar process as I do:)
I've seen it referred to as the "Snow flake" method before. Most people probably call it that. It would make for an interesting topic as its not discussed nearly as much as the other methods.
Isn't the crystalizing method the same as the snowflake approach? Anyways, I would say I'm an outliner with a little weaver/pantser mixed in: I plan everything beforehand (like an outliner) but still keep it loose then allow the details to come to me as I write the pre-planned story beats and scenes (like a pantser). After that I deliberately throw a wrench into my own story--some random X factor that wasn't a part of the initial plans--then rewrite and reorganize scenes and plot points to make the story more interesting (like a weaver)
I like your cat.
I also like his cat.
I use the “don’t write anything and yearn about it for a while instead” method 😂
I know this method well.
I keep trying to turn myself into a plotter and it keeps not working. Once I've got everything plotted out, my brain says "okay, done with this, what's the next story." Even if I do force myself through it, it's an unpleasant experience.
Which isn't to say that I just get an idea and start typing. There is some crystalization there, maybe a few possible scenes roughed out, but most of my prep work is getting to know the characters.
From what I've heard, Diana Gabaldon talked about her process once on a panel, and it sounds very much like she is a Crystalizer.
I saw the C++ and gray's anatomy book, the cat painting and the actual cat and thought, "Would you be my friend? I like you" 😂😂
I'm mainly a pantser with a little bit of weaving. I used to start out all pantser, but over time I would often get ahead of myself in my thoughts and then lose ideas I had in my head before I got to them, so I just started writing out thoughts as I had them and weave them in over time, but I'm still into heavy duty pantsing.
Honestly, I think I started the whole weaving thing due to college, realizing panting a college essay is a horrid experience, sometimes I just had specific thoughts and things I wanted to say planned out, so putting those down gave me a basis of where I wanted to take those papers, almost a bit of a flexible outline, so I've started using it in creative writing.
So essentially, I pants from the start until I have ideas that I want to weave in later, write those down, then continue to pants until I cant weave my weavement into my pants.
glad you mention the weaver, i definitely write out of order and through discovery. I have this super intense one page with culture, structure, narrative stage/phase, etc that I used to place scenes and episodes as well as smooth over the insanity of writing a climax 6 hours after writing the first scene. I'd say the one weird thing about writing out of order is that sometimes you write a scene and realize it's a photo negative of the actual scene. But that's very easy to deal with once you learn to look for it. It's definitely the most fun and sometimes the scenes you write to connect are better than the end points.
I always start pantsing because I have the Story Idea and how the charactes will evolve in my head. But when I have ideas while I write I note them and try to put them into something that makes sence and then I Just continue writing and see what will happen next
Your cat looks like Batman. Nice mask!
I'm a poopy pantser. I write a lotta crap with no outline.
I’m pantser 🤚🏼
I guess Im an Outliner, because I made a map, some character designs, and I worked and reworked my plot through my head a bunch of times. But then I guess I Pantsed it after that.
Great summary. I'm a pantzer at the far end of the scale. I just let my fingers start writing without a premise and see where the story goes. I may have come up with a working title as a seed before beginning, but it never sticks. I plant clues to a mystery I have no idea what it is, but somehow I figure it out along the way, and it always works out in the end. If I don't make use of all the clues I planted I pick them up in a later book in the series. Somehow my brain creates a logically coherent story around the random clues I drop. It isn't planned. It just comes, but the later books are decidedly better written than the first ones.
Same here, I'm a pantzer but have an idea on what the ending looks like and how it should begin.
I'm not sure but I also feel like I'm a weaver though.
I let the story go and then put events in this part to make the character struggle and add interest to the story or even jumble the scenes to make it interesting.
But overall, I follow my character's path.
@@KitsuyaKisaragi Most writers are probably weavers a little bit. I often move scenes from one chapter to another after finishing the first draft to make the story flow better, but it's easy to make mistakes and make a character mention something he couldn't know until after it happened.
I'm a big Weaver, and I've even described my creative process as stitching ideas together a lot like since 5 years ago...
Me too!
I'm a heavy plotter, dipping into crystallizer and pantser territory. I start with a vague image of world, characters, and themes, brainstorm a basic outline, expand it into a heavy outline, write some of the draft, update the outline, repeat until a draft is done. Usually there are big chunks missing at this point, so I analyze it and update the outline for draft 2. Rinse and repeat until it's done :)
Not a novel writing method, but when writing screenplays, we'd often go with a short concept and then determine the structure, then write the story to fit the structure. Given it was primarily for a TV show, we had a few different 4 Act structures that we used - usually with 1-2 additional B plots that would relate to the A plot. I've heard scene play structures being said to be the right way to write a novel, but honestly, I can't imagine that being a good idea as novels hit on different dimensions than a screenplay.
I think author/screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis put it well when he said "Books are not movies and I approach scripts and novels in completely separate ways. Scripts are about structure and novels are about consciousness."
the weaving motion was very great for people who do know what weaving on a loom looks like lol. thanks for that
When it comes to writing I'm a full on pantser. I write as if I'm reading, in that I have no idea where the story is going but can't wait to find out. That said, I sometimes get into full on architect mode, where I spend years crafting a world (love map building), a religion (with pantheon of gods), carefully picking characters (I have a file of photos of people I find interesting as well as a spreadsheet of names I like) and creating elaborate backstories (once had a character with a generations deep family tree, since her ancestors founded the town she lived in) however, I rarely get past the planning stage on these as it is not about the story but about the planning. And then, for another story I've had swimming around in my head I'm a weaver, as I'll think of a conversation or a scene idea and throw it in the file but it's all in bits and pieces. So basically, I do whatever strikes my mood or whatever the particular thing I'm working on needs. You'll be shocked, I'm sure, to know I have never completed a novel, though I was once a prolific fanfic writer, sometimes doing 3-4 stories at a time. Ah, the good old days.
I've always been a storyteller. I started writing formally and approach it like a black smith.
I also have a unique way of imagining the layers of perspective. I'll map the plot in terms of microspection and macrospection. Then write the first act, hammer on it over and over until I am absolutely satisfied with it. Because if act one isn't believable or satisfying, the other acts are just going to be unbearable, and only going back and reworking act one can fix it. Like a black smith making a sword.
I honestly outline, draft, and revise all at once. Everything feeds into the rest. I start out more as pantser and then become more of an outliner by the end, with a lot of revising during that transition.
I do a mix of Crystallization, weaving, and outlining. I usually start with a summary of the plot, that then turns into scenes at random places in the book or their squeals (has happened more then once already, where I thought the scene would be at the end of the book, but it ended up being closer to the end of the 3ed book at lest. I hope it dosen't move again.) Then I start to take the scenes and plug them in approximately where they go and start planing and outlining how they all link together, and what has to happen between, before ect.
I’ve kind of gone through all of them. I was always more pantsing/weaving but never was able to finish anything for a variety of reasons, and as I’ve gone along I’ve gotten pretty hardcore into outlining.
Sometimes the outline has a ton of detail and I have the scenes pretty well ready to write as I’m outlining them, other times I just have a general idea for where I need to be after the next few scenes, and will end up mini-pantsing (shortsing?) it for a bit until I get back to some of the more thoroughly outlined stuff. I’ll just have a general “they have to get to here” or whatever and can just write away. It can end up making for some more tension in areas I had no inspiration for while outlining. The plot is still moving along but I’ll end up having to get the characters to fight their way back onto the outline.
I started writing a novel and kind of been working on a half pants or the short term plan. I have an ending in mind but no real outline. However, often at lunch I find myself brainstorming a couple chapters ahead creating a general idea of where i'm going. I've found this helpful as it avoids some of the initial "so now what" without really committing to an outline of the whole novel.
Stephen King is indeed a pantser, and his endings show that.
The first method works for me.
I’m initially a crystallizer until I have expanded the seed into a story summary, then before further crystallization becomes unwieldy I switch to outlining the major story elements which then each serve as a new seed for additional crystallization growth and expansion. And as for crystallizing those various points of the outline, I definitely fall into the weaver category where I can tackle them in any order as my inspiration warrants because at that point I can see how the whole thing is coming together. The only thing I “pants” is the word by word construction of the prose that tells the story that has essentially already been fully developed.
Yo nice video ❤ I do miss writing pantser style and find myself outlining as I get older.