Rock Climbing for Writers - Pantsing vs. Plotting
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
“I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.”
As a writer, I am thankful to read about how other writers prepare, how they climb their mountains, some going so far as to share where they plant their flags. At risk of overusing this metaphor, I’ve learned some like Stephen King free hand it (pants it) while others like James Patterson bring enough gear to climb a mountain 10 times as high (plot it). Do I prefer one over another?
Well, when you are free climbing, you discover out what type of a person you are, what your last thoughts are if you fall down the side of the mountain only part of the way up, but you build up your strengths and rely on existing ones to get you most of the way there.
If you bring enough rope, it’s more likely you can make it to the top. Most people want to reach that mountain top and scream from the top that they are, in fact, a writer with a fully realized novel down to the cover for mass appeal. But you have to take all this equipment with you and if you don’t use it, you feel like it wasn’t worth bringing, so even though you can climb up and get there, you feel inclined to stay on the path and don’t discover the ancient cave where the entrance of a new civilization of cyborg cavemen set up shop.
To make the obvious metaphor more obvious, when you “pants” you can find new things, but it’s risky by opening a batch of new directions and it might take longer (although Stephen King seems to be doing just fine.) When you “plot” your way through, you can miss interesting things that you didn’t plan on, but at least you don’t risk falling down the side of the mountain when you thought the rock ledge would support you in fact was superficial at best.
Anyway, I’ve never been rock climbing. Honestly, I don’t trust the equipment or myself to give it a shot (maybe I’d try the one’s with the really soft floors in a mall or something) but writing takes persistence and some level of equipment for most (and I’m not talking pens, paper, laptops, phones, or smearing paint on paper.) I’m talking about the most advance piece of equipment in the world between your ears…your brain! We all have the potential to write. And we are always learning. And I don’t have to be a rock climber to imagine what it takes. Will I know each piece of equipment by heart automatically? No? So then, I look it up (at least enough for people know a quickdraw is used to allow a rope to run freely through protection while leading, not pulling a handgun out really fast and shooting a target which won’t save you when climbing up a mountain…at least I don’t think so.)
But we don’t actually have to climb a mountain to write about it. The world would be a boring place to just “write what you know” which really means, at least to me, write what comes from your imagination and relatable experiences. Even climbing a sand hill outside my childhood home, it was fairly steep…maybe 75 degrees in some spots. It was mostly sand, so no jagged rocks to get hurt on (in most cases.) And before the county made the shoulder on the road below deeper and made the hill overall less steep, it was a challenge to crawl up. Using that, I can imagine the thought of losing my grip or having something supporting me give way (usually a weed I’d cling onto that buried its roots deep into the hill.)
From there, I can escalate it and imagine an even steeper hill and before long, I’m pounding a piton into a seam of a cliff and attaching my trusted carabiner to it that is then connected to my climbing rope, and I’m on my way.
Or I’m gripping onto mass of rock and pivoting my foot into a foothold before moving myself up to the next one, testing each surface before proceeding as the sun fades behind the rockface and the wind bellows up from the canyon below.
See what I mean? I didn’t have to rock climb to share that, but I’m feeling a bit uneasy up here, don’t you? Let’s get back down for a bit. Hey, I see a nice warm campfire with coffee ready for the both of us. Oh, you don’t drink coffee? It smells pretty nice though…but what is that? I also smell tea with hints of citrus like the first orange of summer. Isn’t that pleasant?
Anyway, no matter what you use or don’t use, it’s up to each of our sensibilities, comfort levels, and the mountain we have ahead of us. You just have to know what it’s like to try to write each way, and the only way to know is to try.