“Pantser or plotter?” is a description I learned through NaNoWriMo that categorizes writing styles into “fly by the seat of your pants” or “plot the entire outline carefully beforehand.”
I am *drumroll*
a Plotter.
I just can’t sit before a blank white page and make magic happen based on spur of the moment inspiration. I need to have an outline, bullet points that I can drag around and erase and add to in order to build the story without feeling like I wasted time. If I wrote the entire story first, then realized that a whole chunk of the story didn’t work, it would kill me to throw away all those thousands of words. I’d rather throw away four or five bullet points in my plan.
Plus, seeing the big picture helps me be more creative and clever during the writing process. I can more effectively foreshadow the ending and pace the story properly.
Pantsers: how do you do it? I admire your powers…
Ditto. I start with an idea. Then I add to it. Then I try to separate it out into different chapters… and so on. I would have so much trouble with pants-ing.
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