Plotters, Pantsers, and Playing the Whodunnit Game

By Skye Alexander

From the very beginnings of our books, mystery writers start setting the scenarios for our stories and planting clues. Mysteries are games we play with our readers. Your job is to try to figure out whodunnit before the reveal. Our job is to trick you, so you don’t guess correctly until the story’s climax. But although the objective is the same, we authors go about it in different ways.

Plotters and Pantsers

Unless you’re a writer, you may not be familiar with the terms “plotter” and “pantser.” Plotters are writers who carefully plan out their stories from the get-go, outline the events that take place, and organize the plot’s details so everything comes together neatly at the finale. Pantsers, on the other hand, fly by the seat of their pants. They dive into their tales without knowing where, when, or how their stories will unfold––and that’s part of the fun. For pantsers, writing a book is an act of faith, and they truly believe it will somehow work out in the end.

When I wrote my first mystery novel, I chose the plotter route. I meticulously outlined every step of the journey before I started writing the book, jotting down a paragraph about each scene in each chapter from beginning to end. This worked out well until an afternoon when I was driving down the highway and one of my characters slid into the passenger seat beside me and said, “We (meaning the characters in my book) have gotten together and decided you need to know whodunnit. I’m here to tell you it was me.” That revelation required me to go back and rewrite the first half of the book. It also changed me into a pantser.

Whose Book Is This Anyway?

Writers and characters work together to produce books. We’re co-creators with a joint goal. Like many of my writer friends, I rely heavily on my characters to tell the story. Sometimes I refer to myself as the “designated typist” who simply listens to them spin out their sagas while I tap the keys as fast as I can. Often it feels like I’m a surrogate mother who’s been chosen to birth the child of the Muse, without knowing what I’m getting myself into. I suspect my colleagues can relate.

Characters have a way of taking over the whodunnit game, surprising us by dropping unexpected information, backstory, and plot twists in our laps. A bit player may push her way into a leading role. A nice guy may reveal he’s a villain in the story’s final lap. I believe characters also send us tips that can help us develop our stories. An overheard snippet of conversation in a restaurant, a picture that pops up during an internet search, or a “found” object might be a hint from a character. Once I discovered a golf tee on the floor of my car. I hadn’t played golf since college and no golfers had ridden in my car in years. However, the tee turned out to be an important clue in one of my books.

The End Game

Do authors know how our books will turn out when we begin writing? Sometime yes, sometimes no. Agatha Christie supposedly carefully planned her stories’ plots before penning her novels, so she could design clever puzzles for her readers to enjoy. Stephen King, on the other hand, believes, “Outlines are the last resource of bad fiction writers who wish to God they were writing masters’ theses.”

Plotters probably don’t waste as much as time as pantsers do writing, editing, deleting, debating with themselves, and rewriting. For me, however, handing over some control and responsibility to my characters takes me down side streets I might not have explored on my own. It also gives me a measure of freedom and a sense of camaraderie. I’m not in this alone, and I trust them to see me through to the finish line.

Sometimes authors think we know where a tale will go and where it will end––but then “the plot thickens” as the saying goes and the path we were following leads somewhere else. That’s what happened to me in When the Blues Come Calling, the fifth novel in my Lizzie Crane Jazz Age mystery series, scheduled for publication in October 2025. The suspects kept changing, and I didn’t know whodunnit until the next to the last chapter of the book. I hope readers won’t either.

For me, writing a novel is an exciting adventure, an escape from the problems of the everyday world, and a search for meaning all rolled into one. Having my characters and my readers along for the ride makes the journey a joy.

Bio

Skye Alexander is the author of more than 50 fiction and nonfiction books. Her stories have appeared in anthologies internationally and her work has been translated into fifteen languages. In 2003, she cofounded Level Best Books with fellow crime writers Kate Flora and Susan Oleksiw. Her Lizzie Crane Jazz Age mystery series includes five traditional historical novels set in the 1920s: Never Try to Catch a Falling Knife, What the Walls Know, The Goddess of Shipwrecked Sailors, Running in the Shadows, and When the Blues Come Calling. Visit her at https://skyealexander.com