Common misconception about writing #amwriting #author #fiction #writing #writingcommunity

There is no such thing as a true pantser writer. Now, for those of you freaking out, let me explain what I mean. If you don't actually understand story structure, if you don't understand how to tell a story from the beginning to the end, and you sit down and just start typing, you're not going to go anywhere. You're never going to write something that actually works. But then if you're thinking, yeah, but what about Stephen King and all these other writers that say they pants their novels? Well, the problem is they know writing so intuitively, story structure so intuitively, they're not actually pantsing. They're following a path they've walked many times. Think about, like, you driving to work. Once you've done it for a few weeks, you get into your car and kind of black out and end up where you're going because you've done it so many times. However, if you're in a new city and I just plop you down somewhere and then I tell you to, you know, get to the grocery store, you're probably going to wander around and not actually get yourself there because you don't know how to get there. So professional writers that say they're pantsing their novel, they're just walking a path they know so intuitively they don't have to think much about it. But when amateur writers sit down and try to pants their writing, they just end up with a mess that wanders and doesn't go anywhere. All stories follow fundamental structure of how a story actually works. If you can't do that intuitively yet, then when you sit down to write, you should probably actually take the time to learn structure and plan it out so you know the path that you're walking. There is no such thing as a pantsing writer. Writer. There are writers that know story structure and writers that don't.