I’m a pantser through and through. If you haven’t heard that term before, it means that I create the story as I go, finding the plot. I don’t plan a story, I create it “by the seat of my pants.”
Probably the most famous pantser is Stephen King, whereas James Patterson is a good example of a plotter.
Ok, now that we’re past that, I want to explain about extraneous plot, and how I’m trimming a big chunk out of the last third of a novel to make the story flow better. There’s also consequences to the characters by doing it.
A very rough outline of the plot as it existed before excision:
Humanity discovers a work-around for faster-than-light travel, and goes out to discover that the galaxy is crowded with a multitude of aliens, none of whom use this technology because it causes reverberations that are fatal to some species. A confrontation between a human crew of explores and a couple of elder species ensues around a nearby star, Proxima.
Also, the aliens don’t believe we discovered it, they believe that a particularly aggressive species seeded the technology to us so they can harvest it and use it for galactic conquest.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, we’re following a high ranking assistant, who is aware that some of these accusations may be true. She’s helping the world council prepare to betray the aggressive species, and for humanity to make the conquest ourselves.
Our ship’s crew escapes back to Earth. The assistant warns them of both military and political danger. They flee back to Proxima, chased by a military force, and a final showdown occurs with four factions, two alien and two human.
The part of the plot that I need to excise is the return to Earth and then return to Proxima. It’s too much. The story flows faster and more dramatically if they don’t leave. But now I have two problems. First, I still need that Earth military force to arrive (solved rather easily). and second, the assistant’s story arc just got chucked in the bin. I need her to give me the background of what’s happening, politically, on Earth. But now she’s just an observer with no agency or story arc.
Oh, the joys of being a pantser… Actually, any inexperienced writer could have written themselves into this problem. You need to be able to give yourself distance from your story to see these things. That’s just where I am now.
If you enjoyed this, you might enjoy my short story collection The Maiden Voyage of Novyy Mir and Other Short Stories.
