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Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"[[No Plot, No Problem|No plot? No problem!]]"''|Motto of ''[[NaNoWriMo]]''}}
Some authors plan meticulously. Before they even start to write, they have a detailed plot synopsis, character biographies, pages on setting, and a detailed backstory to the main tale... at the least.
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Like most things, this can be done well, or badly. [[The Chris Carter Effect]] and [[Kudzu Plot]] is what happens when Writing By The Seat Of Your Pants leaves too many loose plot threads.
This is the novelistic version of [[
Please only add examples where the author ''admitted'' to doing this. This is not a page for speculation.
{{examples
== Anime And Manga ==
* Writer Tsugumi Oba admitted that this was pretty much the way he wrote ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'': he'd write Light into a massive jam at the end of one chapter, and would then try and figure out how to get him out of it only when time came to write the next one.
* [[Tite Kubo]], the author of ''[[Bleach (Manga)|Bleach]]'', is infamous for using this trope ''and'' for his special use of [[
** This becomes particularly apparently after the Ichigo-Grimmjow fight. Before then Kubo did a decent enough job that it at least seemed as if he had a plan. After that fight the story became increasingly sloppy, to the point where several characters were just forgotten about and given no resolution. Aizen's "plans" also started making less and less sense.
* Before Tite Kubo, Akira Toriyama did ''[[Dragonball]]'' 98% like this. Some few things he thought ahead, and he did plan each chapter before drawing it, but otherwise he improvised each week how to follow the story. Sadly, some fans seem to think he had a carefully planned plot that [[Executive Meddling]] didn't let him do - not true at all.
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* [[Tim Burton]]'s ''[[Batman (Film)|Batman]]'' was constantly being expanded, edited and rewritten. Burton himself once recounted a situation wherein he had [[The Joker]] take Vicki Vale hostage and move into the Church, with no idea what to do storywise after that point.
* [[David Lynch]] infamously wrote ''[[Inland Empire]]'' scene by scene during filming. What effect this had on the film's [[Mind Screw|(lack of) coherence]] is up to debate. Seeing as it's David Lynch, however, [[Crazy Awesome|it really doesn't matter too much]].
* ''[[Magical Mystery Tour (Film)|Magical]] [[The Beatles (Music)|Mystery]] [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made On Drugs?|Tour]]'' is an excellent example.
* The 90's movie of ''[[The Fugitive (Film)|The Fugitive]]'' was largely made this way, on the fly--although one would never suspect by watching it, as it ''looks'' very carefully planned.
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' movie trilogy was shot like that. Even as the cameras kept rolling, scenes and plots were being rewritten again and again - some versions of the script reached not just the double digits, but went up to 40 and above. Actors frequently got their lines only at the night before the shooting and major revisions resulted in whole scenes being re-shot. Ironically, the writers insist that each iteration was ultimately closer to Tolkien's work and even stated that some of the remaining controversial changes might have been gone too, had they not reached a deadline by then.
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* [[Cory Doctorow]] wrote ''[[Little Brother]]'' in eight days.
* The [[NaNoWriMo]] project lends it self to this approach. Participants are given 30 days to see if they can write at least 50,000 words. <ref>Not all NaNoWriMo writer write by the seat of their pants. The rules allow writers to have character sketches, plot summaries, and even extensive, detailed outlines -- as long as none of the actual prose is written before 12:00 AM on November 1.</ref>
* The Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe [[Extruded Book Product|churned out novels for Badger Books]] on the basis of a book cover, a title and a very short deadline. Badger's policies mean it's impossible to tell exactly how many he wrote, but the estimate works out at one 158 page book every twelve days. To manage this, he dictated into a reel to reel tape recorder, then shipped the tapes off to a pool of typists for transcription. To hit the word target, he would [[Padding|pad out]] the books with philosophical discussions, mundane detail and [[Department of Redundancy Department|redundant descriptions]] (robots: "Metal things. Metal things that could think. Thinking metal things"), but then could be told that he had only three pages left to wrap up the story, so he had to [[Ass Pull|pull out]] a [[Deus Ex Machina]]. Despite, or perhaps because of all this, Fanthorpe's work has picked up a [[So Bad
* [[L Ron Hubbard]] claims he wrote by meditating into a trance-like state and typing constantly for hours at a time. According to [[Harlan Ellison]], Hubbard used the Jack Kerouac method -- he rigged a roll of butcher paper of the appropriate width to feed into his typewriter, wrote for several hours, and at the end cut the long sheet down into even pages.
* [[Douglas Adams]] wrote ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (Literature)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' this way largely - throw out tons of ideas, then return later when it seems like one of them is funny or could be made relevant (like the potted plant saying "Oh no, not again"). As you can imagine, Adams was terrible at deadlines and finished the first book at that page because his publisher was furious. He once remarked, "Writing is easy. You just stare at a blank page until your forehead starts to bleed."
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* [[Terry Pratchett]] usually writes with a plan, but in an interview said that while writing the assassin's "driving test" in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Pyramids|Pyramids]]'', he had absolutely no idea how it would unfold, and consequently it is one of his most favorite moments in the ''[[Discworld]]'' series.
** When he sat down to write ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Guards Guards|Guards Guards]]'' he intended for [[The Cape|Carrot Ironfounderson]] to be the main character, with [[Knight in Sour Armor|Samuel Vimes]] being a minor character who was there to provide a viewpoint character in the city before Carrot arrived. As he wrote the novel Vimes took over as the main character.
* [[Haruki Murakami]] swears to this type of writing, never knowing the ending when he begins a story. [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made On Drugs?|It shows]]
* [[Stanislaw Lem]] wrote ''[[Solaris (Literature)|Solaris]]'' that way. It is considered to be his best book which is saying something, because his other works are nothing short of brilliance.
* The cast of the ''[[Writing Excuses]]'' podcast have often talked about the difference between being a outliner vs. a discovery writer. [[Dan Wells]], author of the ''[[I Am Not a Serial Killer|John Carver Trilogy]]'' is a self-confessed discovery writer.
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** Matt, his partial [[Author Avatar]], does this in-universe in ''[[Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip]]''.
* Many committee-led series will change plot and emphasise characters depending on audience responses to broadcast episodes. Sylar and Hiro in ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'' received such a favourable response they were given much larger roles in the long run {{spoiler|including Sylar being allowed to live beyond the Season 1 finale.}}
* The writers of "[[Glee]]" seem to be really, very, extremely guilty of this, partially because of their fondness for [[Pandering to The Fanbase]] and partially because they think of the show as a "pop-culture tribute" and basically just write around whatever's currently popular or of note in some way. And they also just [[Shrug of God|change their minds]] a lot, like when Ryan Murphy broke up Quinn and Sam because he "got bored" with them. Overall, this keeps the humor of the show extremely up-to-date and relevant, but it also leads to many, many [[Out
* A relatively small point: [[Suddenly Ethnicity|declaring Elaine not to be Jewish]] in ''[[Seinfeld]]'' was something [[Larry David]] or [[Jerry Seinfeld]] or ''someone'' had literally just thought of when the opportunity came to write about "[[Shiksa Goddess|Shiksappeal]]." She had previously been considered by the writers and inferred by the audience to be Jewish.
* The series finale of ''[[The Prisoner]]'' was written in a trailer over a weekend. Not surprising that it's one of the most infamous [[Mind Screw|Mind Screws]] in television history.
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[[Category:Script Speak]]
[[Category:Writing By The Seat Of Your Pants]]
[[Category:Trope]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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