Plotted Pants

2024.09.13

Good morning that wonderful way.

Back to work.

Hello again, it's me.
How's the day?
Too soon to tell?
What's that smell?

Rhymes to get the kinks out.

Too early to talk of kink, though.
So, on to the next subject.

Flower power at this hour? Sure.
Word association across the nation.

Plotting and pantsing, if you're not a writer it sounds like a kid's cartoon villain's plan for world domination.

To plot the pants.

Common theory has it there are two types of writers, those that plot first and those that sit and go by the seat of their pants, write whatever comes next, and put structure to it after.

But every plotter pantses and every pantser plots.

Every act of plotting is an act of writing. Every act of our pants is preprogrammed by our understanding of how story works. Preprogrammed, or plotted, means planned.

It's only a matter of time spent in rehearsal.

Terry Pratchett made a wise and helpful observation:
‘The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.’

It's just a matter of quantity. Plotlines or Pant lines and lines and lines and lines.

In the end it's all about comfort.

There's an interesting thing that happens with actors.

Here's an example: A young man is cast for the role of Hamlet. Now, it's one of the most prestigious roles to get. He should be happy. But he finds himself gloomy, wondering if he really is good enough.

Can he make the right acting decisions?
Perhaps someone a little older should get the role?

No, he is good enough, of course he is. The casting crew thought so. He got the part, landed the job, he is the right guy for it, so he is going to do it justice.

Maybe.

Regardless, he'll keep at it. Do his best. Ask a good friend in confidence for some advice and reassurance.

The actor's normal everyday positive disposition left with his newfound role. His days turned to gloom and despair, matched with a positive almost giddy gladness that he was cast, and so must be, worth the part. He decides to do his best regardless of his doubt.

Until new doubts show up...

In other words, the guy started to, unknowingly, act like Hamlet in his day-to-day life. Not method acting, more like the story acted on him.

Surprisingly, this is not a strange occurrence with actors.

At the moment, this ghost role is acting on me.
Time to disappear and write some prose.
See you later, when you can see me.