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A pantser is basically someone who writes by the seat of their pants. They don’t put too much effort into the outline, preferring things to evolve more organically. There are pros and cons to this, just as with anything. I believe with pantsing, you get much better characterization. Whereas a strong outliner would get much better plot with a greater ability to do twists and turns. @InvidiaRed Have you really outlined the whole story, or just been very meticulous with the setting? Cause that in itself is a bit different as well.

Kinda like when you RPG you have to get a feel for the character or characters. Keep a general idea. events usually happen that will get you from point a to point b. The last time I tried to be meticulous about it I rage quit and deleted the entire thing. The only notable exception is Oceania in general. Haha.

Just the setting. Once you build a world and continuity as long as you don't violate the rules of the world and the guidelines everything else is easier to let it happen more organically. Only outlined a whole story once. Hated everything about it and deleted it wholesale.

What the heck is a pantser? Desiderius Price and BronxWench, I never thought of using images to help with inspiration and description. That seems very effective. I will try that. Participating in RP helped a lot with character development as sort of a sandbox for the way a character might behave and act. Being able to bounce them off others can make them more fleshed out and creative since you can put them in situations that you wouldn’t have anticipated. I came up with a lot of characters RPing with friends when I was younger, although we stopped doing that after high school (a favorite was a Christmas horror theme where a sugar plum “fairy” terrorizes... – hm, might be a good one for a Christmas submittal here ). I’m glad I’m not the only one that suffers with too much planning. Thanks for detailing your processes. The only thing I write beforehand is dreams that can be used for plots. If I don’t write those down 10 minutes after I wake up, I forget them. Some of my best ideas, including a story I’m working on now, have actually been my subconscious talking. For some reason, my dreams tend towards comedy, puns, and satire that is far more clever than what I can come up with when awake...

Normally it’s inspirational, unclogs my neurons (so usually explicit pictures … use your imagination ) However, I have done some 3D-modeling, drawing, etc, when it comes to figuring out layouts to places, or even a family tree. I’m a bit more toward a pantser when I write, but I do tend to have some rough idea already. However, I will let the characters surprise me … heck, had a “surprise” blow job in the story the other day, I wasn’t planning on, but it just spontaneously happened. My balance of pantsing vs outline depends on the complexity of what’s happening – a chapter that’s essentially smut is nearly always pants, while more intricate plot or action, would have an outline, or even blow-by-blow (depends on the timing required). My general outline is “stuff happened”, and I’ll refine the stuff in between beginning and end as I write. One thing I will try to do is to write the key scenes, just a draft, so I know what I’m headed for.

Yeah, most writers are pantsers or outliners at base. If you have trouble with outlines you are probably a pantser. It is a continuum so there’s no hard edge. I think I have the most problem if I try to plan character behavior or feeling stuff ahead of time. I’ve done detailed grids and flow charts for action sections or to keep track of cast locations when multiplots are at a climax. Background and culture I don’t plan enough, but I do record bits in a separate file/location for later reference. My notes file makes for interesting reading in its own right. My notes mentioned someone wanting to shave someone’s beard as payback in chapter two, it finally happened in chapter 28. That wasn’t planning from before I started writing, but more like weaving in loose threads and plot hooks I left behind me. Often my Maguffins like the beard threat aren’t planned consciously, but my muse makes very good use while my ego is pleasantly surprised. One character got threatened in what I thought was a throwaway chapter ending, but is making an interesting subplot now… It’s not always ME doing the planning, but my muse. Recording the mass means I can weave the story back into itself and look much cleverer by not being totally episodic that ignores earlier changes. Continuity errors make ya look bad.

Well… now I kinda wanna bring out the Lamia’s I made and then shuffled off to the side.

Do it! Do it!

I’ve checked and as you say it’s updated and now showing anon reviews allowed on your story Samahlen. I guess this shows the same pattern with the issue as I had. It will be interesting to see if it remained set to anon reviews allowed in 24 or 48 hours for you – I’ll be checking my stories while logged out to see as well. I guess it depends if there was a one off system event that turned them anon reviews for some of us, or if it’s something that keeps happening despite the ‘yes’ setting. If AFF has lost the anon review settings for many users who haven’t noticed (as I hadn’t!), or is no longer retaining them for long afer clicking, then this could maybe be a reason for review amounts dropping off! I’m sure I used to get more anon than logged in reviews. Thought I ought to raise it for archive tech support either way. Thank you for your time (and that of any other folks!)

Huh. I checked my account, and I am allowing anonymous reviews. I clicked “Yes” again, and updated it, so maybe it took this time?

Very much a pantser. I do have a general idea of the ending I’m aiming for, but if I start analyzing the desires and antagonists and obstacles too much it stifles instead of making sparkles. Only in the last week did a revisit of old character friends made the story really flow. I work so much better as a pantser, but that leads to bigger issues for longer pieces. Short ones are usually light on those qualities like theme, development, and world building so I think I’m okay. I’m trying to figure out why my fanfic has gotten so much less spontaneous… and why my originals I’ve made so hard. I suspect it’s because the results of two novel length pantsing ended up messes and wasted of all the time spent on them. I desperately need an editor, but budget-wise that won’t happen anytime soon unless I win a lotto. So I muddle through as best I can with the occasional opinions. I love a good review that points out things… at least once I calm down. :p I get ideas from anything, and keeping them long enough to get them recorded is an issue. I break ideas into fandom/series and a bucket for original ideas. When I finish a story i may take a day or two to relax, and then check my idea files. That is best case, sometimes a plot bunny will not let go, hence a Neverwinter sequel has displaced my NaNo projects for the moment. Usually I have at least two active stories and one or two a semi active. (right now, active original, three active Star Wars, and a Neverwinter… NaNo has kicked my muse into high gear but not the direction I planned on) On a good week I post for two stories, on a bad one, nothing. (that is one thing about NaNo that leaves me antsy, I may not post anything that month) Once I have the basic idea down I usually have the starting point and a major plot arc. That can usually be sumarized in a single sentence or so, no matter the final intended length. Names, quirks, background, etc I make up as I need it. I use highlighting to mark areas to fill in and clean up later, staying a bit generic. ‘Search and replace’ is my friend. character studies killed my muse dead in 2010. There are random generators too for lots of details. I concentrate on the story flow and love cliffhangers, and hiding the answer in plain sight where I hope it was overlooked. Pushing and concealing answers in the story, means I prefer 1st person for the same reason its favored by mystery writers: a fair mystery! I don’t want characters to look incompetent in any genre by making the events too obvious. I also don’t want the readers to get frustrated because the reader didn’t know some obscure fact like one car doesn’t come in stick shift that year, so the clues should be given to the character and reader. That is a tricky balance and sometimes I lean toward underexplaining. One of my bigger problems is that I have too much going on in the last chapter so it ends up huge. But finishing a story is important so every one is a victory. The next big problem is editing and selling, but that’s more a publishing challenge than a writing one as I see the 1st draft as foundation and blueprint. All the revision in the world can’t help if it wasn’t written down.

I am very much a pantser. I’ll come up with an idea, a setting, and characters, and start going from there. I’ve had character arcs shift from original ideas and outlines entirely because it was what was working as I wrote. Current story I’m still not entirely sure what’s going to happen with one of my major characters and if she’ll be hero or villain. To me I find if I go too close to any kind of outline, things get a bit too wooden.

I am something of a pantser when I write by myself. When I co-author with someone else, I keep copious notes, but left to my own devices, I let my characters tell the story. It’s not even remotely efficient, but it’s how my brain works best when I don’t have someone else to bounce ideas off. The only thing I might make notes for are certain elements of the backstory, like pantheons, place names, and a very, VERY rough timeline. Otherwise, I wing it madly. I also do collect pictures as mental prompts, which I save to private boards on my Pinterest, just to fuel the imagination a bit, or aid me in describing something. I’m very visual in many respects, even if I prefer not to describe my characters in such minute detail as to rob readers of a chance to imagine the characters themselves.

Double shift on thanksgiving.