Failure to Pants

I have written (at length) about my fondness for planning when I write. I love the notebooks, the pens, sitting down, and seeing a whole story tumble out in short form, coming to the sections that I know I will love to write. I am a dedicated outliner, and I have embraced that side of myself. (It's also the side that gets a little Monica Geller-ish at times. "Rules help control the fun.")

So I should have known that when I set out to attempt Script Frenzy with only the loosest of ideas ("Romeo and Juliet, but with dinosaurs! Also, singing.") that it wasn't going to go well. After some hilarious riffing over on Twitter and Facebook, I had a few ideas for songs, but that was about it. (The highlight: my friend Colin's suggestion that a dance number would be a "Dance Dance Evolution.")

There were moments when it worked out fine. I did have an outline of sorts, since I was loosely following the structure of Romeo and Juliet, and a couple of times when I got into a groove I wrote some sections that were, in my humble opinion, hilarious. But overall, every time I sat down to write, I felt like I spent most of my time flailing around trying to figure out what to write next. I know that's what people enjoy about pantsing—discovering the unexpected, letting your imagination take the lead, writing random hilarious things—but it just doesn't suit me. I like knowing what's going to happen next.

Maybe that explains why I don't like surprise parties.

The more I think about it, the more I come to terms with the fact that how I write is just an extension of my personality. I like being the one in charge, the one who knows what's happening. This makes me kind of bossy and really annoying when someone won't tell me something, but it also means I'm a great vacation planner and an excellent person to have around in a crisis. Being logical is not a bad thing. I've embraced it in the rest of my life, and I think it's time to accept it in my writing life, too.

I do envy the pantsers sometimes, though, just like I sometimes envy the people who can get on a plane and see where adventure takes them. I think, however, it's time to accept that I will never be one of them.

Awesome pants image by Flickr user José Antonio Galloso