Why Pantsing Your Novel Isn’t the Problem (and What Is)

Bust the pantsing vs. planning myth—learn to balance creativity & structure for a story that’s fresh, focused, and finishable.

The Pantsing Myth That’s Killing Your Novel

If you think real writers just sit down and let the story bleed out of them without a plan, you’ve been sold a myth.

And it’s probably killing your novel.

It’s why you get halfway through a draft and suddenly lose steam… or why your story ends up meandering, unfocused, and nearly impossible to fix.

Here’s the truth — pantsing isn’t what you think it is. Once you see what real* writers actually do, you’ll be able to fix your process and finally finish a marketable story you’re proud of.

Myth #1 — “Pantsing = Drafting”

You might think that when you’re pantsing your book—just letting the story pour out scene after scene—you’re drafting.

But pantsing—discovery writing—is not drafting. Pantsing is brainstorming. Of the idea generation variety.

Yes, it’s valuable. It’s fun. And for a lot of writers, it’s how you finally start to see what’s in your head actually take shape on the page. But it’s important to distinguish this phase from the true drafting phase—especially if you’re not just aiming to write for yourself, but you’re aiming to ultimately have a marketable book.

The Brain Science Behind It

When you’re discovering your story as you write it, your brain is in an immersive form of brainstorming, driven by the brain’s idea generation systems.

Studies using brain scans have shown that this type of writing mostly runs on the Default Mode Network (DMN)—your imagination network. The DMN excels at spontaneous idea generation, associative thinking, improvisation, and unconstrained narrative exploration—in essence, the core activities of free-flow thought.

This network gives you your wildest plot twists, vivid imagery, and original story ideas. It’s what lets you invent characters, build worlds, and follow unpredictable threads as you write scene after scene. It’s exactly what you want for exploring voices or feeling out your story’s tone or world.

But the DMN doesn’t naturally impose order, structure, or goal-oriented progression. Left alone, it risks wandering, getting lost, or producing a draft that lacks coherence and direction. It doesn’t organize all its ideas or track pacing. It doesn’t test whether the big twist actually pays off. Or evaluate if your subplot is stealing the spotlight. It doesn’t even work toward a goal—a point for your story—on its own.

Enter the Executive Control Network

That’s the job of your Executive Control Network (ECN)—your brain’s planning and decision-making system. It organizes plot beats, sequences events, structures, and sets goals. These are crucial pieces needed for drafting that’s more than an exploration of ideas.

In brain science, creativity is typically defined as the ability to “generate novel and useful ideas”—ones that are suitable to some situation or have some value or impact. Because the creative process extends beyond idea generation to selection and evaluation. It’s how it happens in our brains.

Where the Real Magic Happens

The most successful creative work doesn’t come from one network alone—it comes from the interplay between the two.

The DMN generates possibilities; the ECN selects, organizes, and strengthens them so the story works as a whole. Neuroscience studies on creative performance show that this back-and-forth—toggled by the brain’s salience network—is where the real magic happens.

If you rely on pantsing as your drafting process, you’re going to get a lot of raw material without giving your ECN a chance to step in and shape it. Which means your “draft” is essentially a very large brain dump document—exciting and full of possibility, but also meandering, unfocused, out of steam, and often impossible to revise without tearing it apart.

The Real Problem

The problem here isn’t that you brainstormed through discovery writing—it’s that you treated the brainstorm as the draft.

More on that in a bit.

However, because I know you’re thinking it, let’s just get it out of the way… aren’t there “real” authors who wing it and can pants their way to a marketable novel?

First, let’s address the fact that distinguishing authors as “real” or not based on some success metric rather than the fact that they’ve authored words in some fashion is completely bogus.

And even if we do go with the idea that some authors can wing it and do just fine… well, they don’t. Not exactly.

The Unicorn Exception

They either do plan their novels, or it only appears that they can “wing it.” The latter are rare. They’re mystical. And their “pantsing” isn’t even quite the kind we’re talking about here.

These unicorns have internalized story structure and technique so deeply they can “write into the dark” in a way that manifests on the page in a pretty publishable shape. But they’re usually only skipping steps on paper.

They may not be as conscious of all the process stages anymore because they happen in the background, drawing on that knowledge as they draft. But that level of mastery takes years—often decades—of craft.

And even they tend to circle back to planning, structure, or basic exercises when something isn’t working or they want to push the story further.

A real unicorn knows it’s better to do what needs to be done to produce the best story possible—no matter how that looks.

Why This Matters Even More for ADHD Writers

You need to get the most out of your brain—your most valuable asset as a writer—despite the relationship you may have to the way it works.

ADHD brains tend to have increased activity and connectivity in the DMN, meaning idea generation and creative leaps come easily. But the ECN, which handles structure and follow-through, is less active and harder to engage without external scaffolding—like the more structured, goal-oriented phases of the writing process.

Plus, the salience network, which helps switch attention between idea generation (DMN) and focused evaluation (ECN), is less effective in ADHD. This can lead to familiar challenges:

• Trouble prioritizing which ideas are most relevant or useful
• Difficulty shifting from brainstorming to more focused drafting or editing
• Feeling stuck between daydreaming and task-focused work

That’s why so many ADHD writers end up with endless pages of “draft” that’s really just unstructured brainstorming.

By reframing pantsing as what it really is—idea generation—you can intentionally pair it with the planning phase your brain needs to finish a cohesive, marketable book.

The Real Problem Isn’t Pantsing

Pantsing, for anyone, isn’t the problem—it’s stopping there or thinking it’s more than it really is that keeps you stuck or feeling like a failure when it’s not shaping up to be the story you imagine so vividly in your head.

The real work—the part that turns your ideas into a marketable story—happens when you take that brainstorm and shape it into a plan that works.

Myth #2 — “You’re Either a Planner or a Pantser”

No — “real” writers aren’t pantsers or planners. Once you understand that pantsing is idea-generation brainstorming, not drafting, it’s easier to see why the “planner vs. pantser” debate is built on a false choice.

You’re not a pantser. You’re not even just a planner. Use the term “plantser” if you must, but honestly, you’re a writer — a creative human working with your brain’s processes of daydreaming and evaluating as it must for your writing. By understanding this, you can make your creative process more efficient by knowing how to use each stage, each network, to its strength.

Why Your Brain Needs Both

Your brain’s creative process needs both. Brainstorming — not just the free-flowing idea generation kind — needs both.

The DMN and ECN must work back and forth together for creativity, but efficiency and productivity increase dramatically when their strengths are applied in the correct stages. That means you can optimize your creative writing process by following the writing process stages in a way that lets the DMN lead first, then the ECN, cycling between them throughout.

Where Pantsing Fits In

For many writers, it’s absolutely necessary to “pants” at least some of the time to discover what they think as the words spill out on the page. Discovery writing doesn’t cancel out planning and outlining — it might start the process, or be a tool to get unstuck.

But to ultimately create a marketable book, you will always have to “go back” to plan. In my experience, this almost never works the other way around. Authors who pantsed their draft without a foundation in story structure always needed to replan it. The pantsed draft was still useful — a great exploratory brainstorm — but without outlining, they didn’t know how to move forward with revisions.

The Role of Outlining

An outline or preliminary structure allows the ECN to set the “problem space” for the DMN to operate more productively in during drafting. The ECN constrains the DMN’s generative capacity so that drafting is directed toward completion rather than endless generation.

For ADHD and neurodivergent writers, this balance is even more critical. Outlining acts like an external scaffolding for your ECN, helping you focus, prioritize, and actually get to “The End” instead of endlessly wandering.

Without a plan or outline, you’re in for cognitive overload and decision fatigue.

Your working memory is constantly tasked with inventing new directions, organizing information, and maintaining coherence — overburdening both DMN and ECN, often causing projects to stall or fragment. Without structure, assessment and revision become overwhelming, leading many pantsed drafts to require complete rewrites.

Planners, You’re Not Off the Hook

I’ve seen plenty of outliners stall out, too. Sometimes the novelty and momentum are gone by the time they draft because they’ve already “told” the story to themselves. Or they cling so tightly to the outline that they never give the DMN space to surprise them — and the draft ends up feeling flat, a mere stringing together of beats.

The Truth About Resilient Writers

The best novels — and the most resilient writers — use both modes without letting one dominate. Some initial discovery fuels the outline with richer ideas; the outline then shapes those ideas into a story worth finishing.

The best way to know where your story is going or how it’s working is to do an overview outline. That’s exactly why I created my Spellbook Outline template — a high-level guide to your story’s turning points. It’s just enough structure to keep you moving forward while leaving space for discovery.

Whether you’re deep into a pantsed draft or staring at cold planning notes and outline variations, this approach keeps both networks engaged and your momentum alive. You can grab it at the link above and start plugging in the major beats as you develop them.

Great writers don’t lock their identity into one or the other — they use both pantsing and planning, and switch between them when the story needs it.

Myth #3 — “Outlining Makes Your Draft Bland and Formulaic”

If you’ve ever said, “I can’t outline — it kills my creativity,” I get it.

Maybe you’ve tried outlining in the past and ended up with a story that felt lifeless by the time you drafted it. Or worse, you lost all motivation because you’d already figured the story out and the novelty seemed dead.

The Problem Isn’t the Outline

The problem isn’t actually the outline. It’s how you’re using it.

A good outline doesn’t dictate your creativity — it gives it something to push against. It offers direction and limits that make you more creative in a positive way. It’s there so your story can do its thing — but better — giving you the freedom to explore while ensuring the story actually gets somewhere worth going.

When Outlining Goes Wrong

A rigid process of outlining first can leave little space for the DMN to do its creative work and see what your story needs. Planners, this might be why your story feels stale.

But an outline that’s too loose — or barely there — causes the opposite problem. You get lost in the weeds, drift from the story’s goals, and lose touch with its emotional or thematic core.

This is why discovery writing still has a place as a valid way to brainstorm — but that’s the real role it plays. Recognizing this nuance helps you avoid treating discovery writing as a finished draft.

The Discovery Writing Trap

When self-proclaimed discovery writers see their brainstorming as the drafting stage, it almost always ends in one of three ways:

1. The draft fizzles out because they don’t know where it’s going.
2. The draft needs to be re-planned and overhauled from the ground up — usually by going back to an outline anyway.
3. The project drags on for years or decades as they try to perfect prose, only to find out the story still has major content issues.

And I’m sure you know how crushing that feels.

Reframing for Better Results

By seeing discovery writing as a way to uncover ideas, it becomes easier to feed those ideas into a robust outline and draft a solid story — not just a brainstorm version.

Or, if starting with an outline feels impossible, you can still write your discovery “draft” as a messy, fast draft. That way, you reap the benefits of idea generation without trying to make it pretty — and without confusing it for a finished draft.

This approach keeps your DMN active in its rightful stage, so you can then engage the ECN to judge what’s working and organize it for a marketable book.

When you explore ideas through discovery writing, then shape them through planning and outlining, you get the best of both worlds.

You can still keep the thrill of “writing into the dark” — but without wasting time. You’ll be able to order your ideas effectively and deliver a story that works on the page.

My Go-To Method: The Test Chapter

Here’s my favorite way to facilitate the switch between DMN and ECN: write a test chapter.

If your outline feels too hypothetical, or you can’t tell what your story needs until you’re drafting, take some dedicated DMN time to write a test chapter. See how it plays out in practice without committing to drafting the whole book this way.

Then return to your outline or planning process with new insights about the details, worldbuilding, and character personalities — and how they affect the broader story.

This way, you avoid starting over, wasting time on plans that don’t translate, or having to rewrite completely.

Here’s how it works:

1. Start by mapping your story as far as you can. Write a high-level outline — just your major beats and turning points. That gives your ECN enough of a map to work with.
   
2. When you get stuck — maybe you don’t feel you know enough about the point-of-view character or the flavor of the story (tone, setting, or other details) — stop forcing the outline and start writing.
   
   This helps you switch into DMN-mode and write a small portion of your story as an exploratory exercise. But — and this is important — don’t get too carried away and procrastinate the rest of the planning process.
   
3. Write just enough — a chapter or a few scenes — to immerse yourself, play in your world, and feel out the life of your characters. If all goes well, you’ll have the insight and inspiration you need to finish more of your outline (or whatever format you plan your books in).
   
4. Unfortunately, it’s not magic. But it is brain science… which is basically magic. The creative process requires the ECN’s analytical phase to determine if what you’ve created works. You may need to repeat this process — outline, test chapter, refine — more than once.

Why It Works

Brain science also tells us it’s helpful to push forward in your planning document first. That way, when you switch gears to write a test chapter, your brain has already been activated in ways that spark more creative output. Sometimes, “forcing” the outline is exactly what primes the pump.

Then circle back to your outline and refine it based on what you’ve learned. This back-and-forth keeps both networks — DMN and ECN — doing what they do best. It keeps you creatively engaged without wandering off-track, and it preserves your story’s structure without strangling the life out of it.

You’re Not Alone in This

In an episode of the Writing Excuses podcast (S19 E46), powerhouse speculative fiction author N.K. Jemisin revealed she uses test chapters at the planning stage. It’s one of the tools that helps her craft those deliciously complex narratives she’s known for.

Fun fact: Jemisin was also diagnosed with ADHD later in life — and it suddenly makes sense why our processes look so similar! So if you’re a little bit (or a lotta bit) neurospicy, this trick might help you too. It keeps you switching intentionally between DMN and ECN, avoiding the stall-out that comes from getting stuck in one mode too long. You’ll explore enough to keep your excitement alive while still building a coherent plan that will carry you to “The End.”

The Bottom Line

Outlining doesn’t have to kill your creativity. Done right, it’s the secret to keeping your story fresh and finishable.

If you’re ready to outline in a way that supports your process, preserves your excitement, and still gives you a story structure that works, the next step is to learn how to build it.

I’ll walk you through exactly how to create a Beat Sheet using my Overview Outline method — the foundation of my Spellbook Outline template. This flexible structure is built from universal story beats, distilled to their most powerful cores so you can hit reader expectations without making anything feel forced.

It’s how you keep your creativity alive while making sure your story works all the way through “The End.”

Check out the next article and let’s build an outline you’ll actually want to use.

*Real writers are just writers. If you write, you are a real writer. But it’s easy to make stuff up about what “real writers” must do and exclude yourself because you can’t live up to the impossible, made-up expectations. They’re not real. You are.*

Selected Bibliography

• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26260900/
• https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/about/news/releases/2015/interactions-between-attention-grabbing-networks-weak-in-adhd.html
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6497005/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33035524/
• https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/409179/1_s2.0_S0149763420305935_main.pdf?sequence=1
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-07470-9
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6869990/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36240723/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28497802/

The field of cognitive psychology is quite theoretical. I'm extrapolating for authors what I can based on the findings we do have (and I'm certainly not a neuroscientist!). To explore a fuller background, you can see this article about a breadth of brain science sources (and their abstracts/descriptions) in my site's private resource library. Note: You'll need to register a free student account to access it: https://www.inkybookwyrm.com/blog/sources-on-the-science-of-story-craft-and-creativity

Categories: : creativity, novel drafting, novel planning, outlining, writer mindset