• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Dawn Brookes

Author

  • Home
  • About
  • Books
    • Rachel Prince Mysteries
    • The Rachel Prince Mysteries Box Sets
    • Carlos Jacobi
      • Body in the Woods
      • The Bradgate Park Murders
    • Lady Marjorie Snellthorpe Mysteries
      • Death of a Blogger
      • Murder at the Opera House
      • Murder in the Highlands
    • Nursing Memoirs
      • Hurry up Nurse! Book 1
      • Hurry up Nurse 2: London calling | Book 2
      • Hurry up Nurse 3: More adventures in the life of a student nurse|Book 3
    • Audiobooks
  • Books Show
  • Contact
  • Free Book
  • Events/Courses
  • Philanthropy
  • Press
  • Rachel Prince Mysteries
    • A Cruise to Murder
    • Deadly Cruise
    • Killer Cruise
    • Dying to Cruise
    • A Christmas Cruise Murder
    • Murderous Cruise Habit
    • Honeymoon Cruise Murder
    • A Murder Mystery Cruise
    • Hazardous Cruise
    • Captain’s Dinner Cruise Murder
  • Carlos Jacobi
    • Body in the Woods
    • The Bradgate Park Murders
  • Lady Marjorie Snellthorpe Mysteries
    • Death of a Blogger
    • Murder at the Opera House
    • Murder in the Highlands
  • Nursing Memoirs
    • Hurry up Nurse! Book 1
    • Hurry up Nurse 2: London calling | Book 2
    • Hurry up Nurse 3: More adventures in the life of a student nurse|Book 3
  • The Rachel Prince Mysteries Box Sets
  • Children’s Books
    • Suki Seal & the Plastic Ring
    • Gerry the One-Eared Cat
    • Danny the Caterpillar
    • Ava & Oliver Series
      • Ava & Oliver’s Bonfire Night Adventure
      • Ava & Oliver’s Christmas Nativity Adventure
    • Miracles of Jesus Series
      • Jesus Feeds a Big Crowd!
      • Jesus heals a man on a stretcher
  • My Readers Top 20 Books Read in 2021

Plotter, Pantser or Planter

February 9, 2019

Plotter, Pantser or Planter?

You may have heard the term plotter and probably pantser and I’ve been mulling these writing styles over in my head and while doing so I’ve come up with a combination of the two, planter! What on earth is she talking about? All will become clear…

Plotters

In terms of writing, a plotter is a person who sits down and outlines a plot of their story following a structured approach. This approach will most likely drill down to chapter headings and a rough outline of the contents of each chapter ending with a finale. 

A story outline such as this is a requirement for submissions to agents and/or publishers and it is an approach many authors follow rigidly.

Pantser

The opposite to a plotter, the pantser sits down and writes, allowing their creativity to take over. There is no plan, the story develops itself on the hoof as the author writes. Authors who rebel against the traditional plotting already mentioned might swear by this approach arguing that the former inhibits their creative side. 

Some people argue that pantsing results in better stories while others say that it is damaging. Who’s right? Neither. It’s whatever works for the author or more importantly, the reader as he/she is the ultimate judge of whether it is working.

Planter 

In reality many authors use a combination of the two approaches and you can see what I’ve done here – creating one word from the two. I personally use a combination and when I was playing with this word initially it was a bit of fun. 

The more I think about it though, planting is what I do as an author. I have a seed of an idea, I start to write and for me as the story develops or the plant starts to grow, I start to structure my story by outlining chapters and what I want to include in those chapters. In my planter analogy this would consist of planning the next steps for the plant e.g. adding compost, fertiliser, re-potting and deciding where the plant will end up. 

The planter analogy even lends itself to the editing process where the plant or story is trimmed back, shaped, nurtured and turned into something beautiful.

Mystery Writer

As I am in the early stages of my writing career I wouldn’t presume to be an expert in anything but for now I am a Planter(a combination of pantser and plotter). I am discovering in my own writing life that when I plot out who my murderer is likely to be (usually a choice of two characters), as I weave the story, this changes and the murderer ends up being someone completely different to my initial one. The way I see it is that if I can’t guess who the murderer is it creates more of a challenge to the reader!

These are just my thoughts written down for consideration and for your information I used the Pantsermethod of writing for this short post, it is not meant to be a treatise on the subject! I hope my musings have been entertaining if not useful….

Primary Sidebar

Claim your FREE Book.
To get your copy of Death of a Blogger, tell me where to send it? You'll be added to my Reader list and will be the first to know about new books & offers.
Thank you for subscribing.
Something went wrong.
You can unsubscribe at any time. We will never spam you

Follow Me on Facebook

Cruise Ship Murder Mysteries

Bestselling Nurse Memoirs

Follow Me on Twitter

Tweets by dawnbrookes1

Pinteresting

Follow

Available Now!

The Bradgate Park Murders

 

 

Books for Children

Connect with Me

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Footer

GET IN TOUCH

Contact

 

Connect With Me

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Follow Me on Bookbub

Dawn Brookes

Affiliate Links

Dawn Brookes is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to generate an income stream by including affiliate links to Amazon. If anyone orders a product after visiting Amazon via one of these links, the affiliate receives a small referral fee from Amazon. Links to the Alliance of Independent Authors membership website also include an affiliate code.

My Book Progress

Murder at a Wimbledon Mansion
Phase:First Draft
100%

Follow/Like me on Facebook

Privacy

Privacy Policy

Join Alliance of Independent Authors

Alliance of Independent Authors /

Copyright © 2023 · Dawn Brookes All rights reserved

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
SAVE & ACCEPT