Plotter or Pantser
There are two distinct types of writers, plotters and pantser, although many, like me, lie somewhere between the two.
A plotter is someone who outlines their story before writing it. They will usually do all or some of the following: Make a breakdown of the events that will occur in the story, story beats and produce character arcs. They are a writer who plans.
A Pantser is derived from the term: writing by the seat of your pants. Pantsers usually don’t work with a full outline, some with no outline at all.
A plantser is part planner, part pantser, this describes how I write my stories. When I sit down to write a story I have a idea in my head of what I would like to write. The ideas can form at any time, night or day, but usually when things are quiet and I have time to think. The plot ideas I have are not fixed in stone and many times I find the story tends to write itself. I find that this usually works best for me and I love it when a story takes on a life of its own, at times leading me down a writing path that I least expect. Although, I have to confess that there have been a few times where this hasn’t worked.
There is one area where I do not pants and that is research. I will never skimp on story research as it is a very important part of building a story, also in making the story believable. For me it is always better to have too much research than too little. The research rabbit hole is a familiar place for me. If you take a look at my newsletter archive I have written about it in Down the Rabbit Hole. If you are interested you can read it HERE.
