Filigree said:
I politely disagree, Hamilton. Whether an author is suffering from procrastination, difficulty with plotting, or erratic pantser disasters, most of their problems can eventually be solved by writing - a lot, and often, until writing becomes a familiar activity. It's how most people figure out their writing style, and learn how to recognize the worthy efforts from the bad.
Sure, there is a place for abstract plotting. I write most of my scenes in my head before I ever sit down at the keyboard. But I had to learn how to do that through writing a lot of blunders.
Examine the argument from the perspective of new students at an art school. If they take any figure drawing classes, that means hundreds of charcoal and graphite sketches in the first weeks of class. The students don't have the luxury of pondering their approach; they're dumped in the deep end and told to draw what they see, fast and often. Accuracy isn't that much a concern at first, just teaching the eye and hand to work without conscious thought getting in the way. Most of those early efforts are crap. But the artists will get better with practice.
I would disagree that one needs to learn the ability to plot through writing. Plotting is just planning with 'ot' instead of 'an'. Heck, learning how to plan properly could be a skill in and of itself.
It's true all problems can be fixed by just writing through them, but many problems could be prevented by prior planning. Yet, when a writer declares that knowing where their story is going would make it boring, no one feels the need to tell them they should just suck it up and plan first anyway. But no one has a problem telling a plotter to just get over their discomfort with pantsing and just do it anyway. All the supposed respect for different writers' methods goes out the window.
As someone taking art classes, I don't think the metaphor quite applies. Drawing requires one to work on a single image. Sketches are small, quick pieces designed for practice. A long piece of writing is more akin to a final project. Beginners class or not, you'd sure as hell better make thumbnail sketches and gather up a pile of references, or even scan your project and experiment in Photoshop. The bigger the project, the more planning is often done because of the time commitment.
Let me share my own experience, on my first large project. I was writing a script for what was supposed to be a romance. I really wanted to plan it out, but I was too overwhelmed by possibilities, figuring out cause and effect...ADHD driven indecisiveness. I just started writing, because focusing on one scene at a time was easier.
It ended with the love interest stabbing the main character with a pair of scissors and putting him in the hospital, and they somehow decided to stay together anyway. (Nothing's as romantic as domestic violence)
What did I learn?
"PLAN ALL YOUR THINGS, HAMILTON, CAUSE WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"
i wouldn't assume nobody was worried about their confidence, Hamilton....sometimes, refusing to write so you can fiddle around is every bit as damaging. AND, I don't know the specific thread, but can think of several floating around in the past few weeks where what I said above holds true, and either they are asking questions to procrastinate, or because they're afraid to take that leap....and in either case, no, they really should JUST FREAKING WRITE because otherwise, they're not doing a damn thing. these aren't folks having their plotting interrupted.
Yes, sometimes refusing to write so you can fiddle around can be damaging. But sometimes refusing to write so you can fiddle around is called planning. I don't know what threads you're referring to, but the OP of the one I am talking about specifically mentioned what they had outlined, what was partially outlined, and when they expected to be done planning and ready to start writing. That doesn't look like needless procrastination; that looks like someone with a plan they're steadily working through.
And I do wonder, how do you know that the people in question are actually putting off writing? Some almost certainly are, but is it always clear?