Pantser, Plotter, Producer—Which One Are You?

Last week I excitedly told you about Chris Fox’s book 5000 Words per Hour, and how I had added 914 words to my fiction WIP through 7 five-minute micro-sprints.

This week I wanted to bring you an update.

I upped my writing sprints to 10 minutes, and added another 1675 words.

One thing I found as I did my sprints is that if I only have a vague idea of what’s going to happen, I don’t know what to write. And my words per hour (wph) suffers for it. But then I got to chapter 5, “Organize Your Scene.”

There’s long been a debate about writing by the seat of your pants (thus, pantser) and plotting your story before you ever write a word (plotter). Neither is right or wrong; it’s all about what works for you.

I’ve been hearing from successful authors that the more often you publish a new book, the better for your sales. In other words, publish books more often than once every two or three years. Keep your name appearing with fresh material and it helps with sales of all your books.

For some writers, it’s years between writing a book. Hey, 80,000 to 120,000 words take time, right? By applying even some of Fox’s methods, you can produce a book faster, and still write a great book.

Pantser, Plotter, Producer

I’m a plotter primarily, but a pantser also. If I’m beginning a new scene when I sit down to do my sprint, I spend some time plotting the scene first. Chris provides some great questions to ask yourself as you do this. That makes my writing sprints more productive.

Mostly, I want to be a producer—someone who writes and publishes books yearly, if not twice yearly. How about you?

I’m not talking about shoddy work just because you do it faster, and neither is Chris.

A podcast I recently heard referenced Parkinson’s law, that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion” (Wikipedia). And I believe what Chris has done with his writing sprints is apply Parkinson’s law. If you have only 5 minutes to write, then you’re going to write (or dictate) as much as you can in those 5 minutes.

We all have 24 hours in a day, and we all must learn to prioritize our work and manage our time.

If you can only manage 5 or 10 minutes of writing Monday-Friday, but can carve out 1 hour on the weekend, then use that hour to plot your book, chapters, scenes. That then allows you to write productively during those 5 or 10 minutes the rest of the week—you’re not sitting there wondering what to write.

How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson teaches you a methodical, logical way to build your story, plot, and characters. I used it to develop the novella I’m currently working on. Whenever I feel lost, I just go back to the documents I created as I worked out the plot and characters. I’m not falling down rabbit holes as I write.

Yes, I read, read, read. And I take what works for me out of all those books and create my own best writing system. That’s what I’m encouraging you to do.

Challenging myself to try Chris Fox’s writing sprints is one of the best things I’ve done for my writing career in a long time. As stated last week, it showed me several bad habits I had developed. It also showed me I can be a producer, writing my books faster and getting them out there faster.

Download his book 5000 Words per Hour (it’s free!) and challenge yourself everyday for a week with 5-minute sprints. If you discover something new to help your writing, awesome. If not, you haven’t lost any money and the 35 minutes of writing gained you some words you wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Do you have a set time every day or every week when you write? What have you put in place that helps you write? Leave your comments below.

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