Plotting Style – Quilter

I have never found myself fitting into the profile of either a Pantser or Plotter. For a quick recap, here are the definitions:

Pantser: Someone who writes by the seat of their pants. If they know where the story is going beforehand, where is the excitement in writing it?
Plotter: Someone who utilizes outlines, character profiles, documents worldbuilding before writing the main novel. If you don’t know where you are going, how will you end up with a usable product?

While both are valid and both sometimes intersect (let’s face it, characters are notorious deviants), I have never felt like I fit in the two. I have scenes in my head and I can order them in a way that makes them plotfully sound, but do I really fit into one category or another?

It wasn’t until When Words Collide 2013 that I realized there was a third type that I actually really identified with. Meet the dreaded QUILTER!

Quilter: Someone who writes scenes, arranges them into their story, and revises them together.

Seriously. Why did I not know that this style existed? Why did I not embrace my style enough to give it a name as awesome as quilter?

As new writers, we are inherently insecure (If we’re not insecure, we are delusional). Writing is seen as a science that others have mastered and summarized into writing magazines as various 3 through 8 step processes. Character development? Answer these 4 easy questions! Plotting? Use the 3 Act structure, 5 Act structure, 8-step plot development! Building tension? Remember these 5 things.

We rarely take the time to go back to the core of ourselves and follow what initially worked.

The most important thing of writing for a new writer is the first draft. Why? Get your butt in that chair and do it. Do whatever it takes to get it down, written. Presentable? Doesn’t have to be! Revising in a framework of text is much easier than getting the words down onto the naked page. Then you can worry about, “Are all the aspects of my character there?” Or “Have I clearly conveyed her emotional state without being too literal and telling readers?”

I write scenes from all over, save bits and pieces from various drafts, and then I sew them together into one draft. With that draft, I revise with a balance of action and tension, character development and emotional destruction (not everyone will have that last bit in there. I’m really mean to my characters).

Does it matter if you fit any of these three? No.

Just write.