Unpopular opinion: I finally hit 50,000 words on my novel draft and it convinced me that pantsing actually works better than planning

I spent months outlining chapters and then wrote maybe 200 words a day. Last month I just started typing without a plan and somehow cranked out 3,000 words in a single sitting. Has anyone else found that ditching the outline weirdly makes the story come together faster?

3 comments

3 Comments

abby_wilson512mo ago

Ditched my outline halfway through my own novel and never looked back. I was stuck on chapter three for two weeks because my plan said a character needed to do something that just felt wrong. Letting go and writing whatever came next got me to the end in about a month. Now I just write a rough idea of where I want the story to go on a sticky note and let the characters figure out the rest. My best scenes came from total surprises, like when my main character randomly started a fight with her best friend that turned into the whole turning point of the book.

graygonzalez2mo ago

Saw a writing blog say the same thing, the surprise scenes are the real magic.

alice_palmer201mo ago

My 10th grade English teacher drilled outlines into my head so hard I thought they were like a legal requirement or something. I spent six months on a planning board for my first book and then just stared at it every day. Then I read this thread about a week ago and tried writing without a plan for the first time, and my main character just randomly quit her job in the middle of a scene. It totally changed the whole direction of the story and I actually finished a draft for the first time ever, so yeah, I guess the outline people might not have all the answers.