Writing can be a pain

Many writers will tell you they love to write. Others will tell you they have to write; that they don’t know what else to do.

Some writers (and these are usually the ones who ‘make it big’) write highly disciplined, story-structured, character- arc defined, plotted conflicts with expensive, panoramic conclusions directors can choreographic, using crane shots like the dramatic, iconic ending of Die Hard, but now more economically produced with AI.

These writers are called ‘plotters’. Even the word ‘The’ doesn’t appear in the script or novel before all the story’s elements are in place.

The other archetypal writers are called ‘pantsters’. They just start writing and let the characters emerge and the story take them where it will. But in a story’s evolution, pantsters will adapt some plotter’s disciplines. These moments often arrive like uninvited pimples when the writer hits the cerebral barricade:“What the fuck do I do now?”

The story’s journey is the confluence of each of the character’s journey through the story. Like our species’ journey.

What I wonder about our story-telling, whether we are plotters or pantsters, is how we genuinely feel about the characters we have created out of thin air and plopped into situations we have constructed in our story. Are the emotions and traumas of a character simply the writer’s technical constructions? Or have you ever wept for a character you created simply from our collective spiritual ethos?

I have. And I am not ashamed to admit it.

BTW, ‘pantsters’ has its origins in aviation when pilots often flew literally by the feel in the seat of their pants while making maneuvers.

I have a pilot’s license. But I rely on instruments.