What is a Panster?
Let's start by saying it has nothing to do with my underwear or what I'm wearing.
A Panster is a writer who meanders their way through a story, letting the characters and atmosphere lead them toward the ending.
I’ve done this for years and after more than 30 novels, I’ve become quite efficient at subconsciously following my characters and adding scenes literally as they pop into my head. Sometimes editing the story it smooth sailing. Other times I end up with a reasonable amount of plot continuity editing to do, which is way too time consuming.
I recently realised this isn’t because I don’t know who the killer is until over the half way mark. It’s because I’m not sure what the killers true motive is until I get to know the characters better.
Weird I know.
I’ve tried plotting out my stories and failed miserably. I’m a Panster through and through and I don’t want to change that. But I do want to be more productive with my writing and editing time.
Before I start a new draft, I always have the murder scene in my mind. It’s usually clearly been defined in the blurb for the book on pre-order, so it’s the natural starting point.
Having just finished the final draft of Her Stolen Bones, I’m now on to drafting the next book in the Dawn Grave Series—Grave Risk. I have the murder. I have the opening scene in my head, but I decided to be more intentional going into this one.
I thought having a list of motives, and characters (suspects) ahead of drafting might give my imagination a few fluid boundaries to work with.
This doesn’t mean I’ll know who the killer is any earlier. I’ll still let the characters and circumstances drive opportunity, which motive wins out and who that motive suits best, as I write.
But having this information up front should save me a bit of time. I found researching the motives quite informative. As a mystery/crime author, murder is my business. Instinctively I know all the possible motives, the types of characters I want in each book, and the circumstances surrounding the murder, but seeing the motives in black and white was thought provoking.
Knowing which motives will feature in the story has given me a much clearer picture of who, what, where, when and why the next murder will take place.
It won’t help with story structure or keeping the pages flipping for readers, but I don’t believe this has ever slowed me down. Editing out my red herrings and making the police investigation clear is where this exercise will benefit the story.
Let’s see if it pans out. Oh, look. That could be where Panster originated from. It all pans out in the end. Right!???
No, it actually goes back to my clothing—or my knickers after all. It’s all about flying by the seat of my pants