Writing Like I Don’t—Pantsing

Could you ‘pants’ your way through a novel? I couldn’t.

Definition

‘Pantsing’ means writing without an outline—writing by the seat of your pants. That idiom, by the way, builds on the idea of mariners ‘sailing by the stars.’ In the early days of aviation, pilots who flew without instruments or navigational aids were said to be ‘flying by the seat of their pants.’

I’ve blogged about pantsing before, mainly here and here, but those posts contrasted plotters and pantsers. Today I’d like...