I love this Twitter thread about "Plotters vs. Pantsers." https://twitter.com/DSilvermint/status/1125856091261136896 Basically: "Plotters create a fairly detailed outline before they commit a single word to the page. Pantsers discover the story as they write it, often treating the first draft like one big elaborate outline. Neither approach is ‘right’ - it’s just a way to characterize the writing process. But the two approaches do tend to have different advantages." I've always been a pantser and it drives me crazy. I've even had stories (outside of chyoa) where I've heavily outlined in advanced but I always end up letting the characters dictate and tear it to shreds. Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Pantser for sure when it comes to CHYOA, as its what makes it so fun for me. I don't really know where my stories are going, and that's what makes the whole process so interesting. Take for example the Cindy arc for School Drop Off. If you told me a month ago that I'd end up turning Cindy from School Drop Off into a genuine romantic interest for the main character, I would have laughed and ordered double what you were drinking. Lo and behold, my last chapter is her becoming exactly that. Part of this was because I felt it would be an interesting twist, and part of it was also an attempt to make her more likable (as she's the only character who seems to cop negative comments). I also find writing on CHYOA more akin to public performance rather than plotting out a novel. I (somewhat) try to continue arcs that get the most likes and keep being active to maintain (and sometimes increase) my following. Of course, the rapid pace does mean that I've abandoned/forgotten plot threads, and possibly make more errors. Folding Ideas goes over this concept briefly in his review for the Fifty Shades series. I can't remember if he mentions the 'art as a public performance thing' in the 1st or 2nd video, but I'd give a HUGE recommend to the videos for all my fellow smut writers out there.
Pantser absolutely. Sometimes I have a plot point or a scene I am aiming at, but I don't sweat it too much if it changes along the way. It is much more about the journey than the destination for me.
Pantser for Lois Lane's Night Out; I have done outlines and more detailed workups for my non-erotic fiction, especially the longer-length stuff.
I generally plot out where I want to go before writing but my characters tend to do things by the seat of their pants once I get started writing. I can't turn my back on them for a second.
Kind of both? I generally plot out sex scenes in advance, but then I pants the connections and the actual details of the act...
Plotting Pantser. I generally write the first three or four chapters more or less on the fly. I then spend hours talking myself through various different possible plot threads, and then I forget about them somewhat. After the next couple of chapters I get a massive sheet of paper, put all existing and future chapters, tag those written, those published, and those imaginary. I can feel the shape of the story up ahead in each limb, each branch of it, but sometimes when I get to it, where I initially thought there'd be one chapter there's two, where I thought a limb would persist as one it splits in three branches, titles change even after being marked down on the sheet etc. All rather confusing really. Sex scenes are almost always improvised.
