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The Best Way of Building a Book
Plotting … or Pantsing
We writers seem to fall into two distinct categories: plotters, and pantsers. The pantsers often wish for plotting skills; the plotters wish for a bit of a looser leash.
A plotter refers to a writer who plans out their novel in detail before writing it. A pantser, on the other hand, is a writer who prefers to “wing it” or fly by the seat of their proverbial pants. They don’t plan at all; they just go where the muse takes them. Other writers like to call themselves “plantsers,” which means they do a little of both. This is the tribe I am most drawn to.
Sure, there’s a certain amount of freedom that comes with being a hardcore Pantser. There are no rules, and you can do what you want. It’s a big club, full of big ideas, but it’s also full of a lot of half-finished manuscripts. If you’re a pantser, like me, you tend to rush out of the gate, all inspiration & sticky notes, only to fizzle and stall around the mid-point of your story. Sure, you’ll get it finished, but it might take five years. This is fine, if you’re OK with that pace, but if you’d like to speed things up, it might be wise to try to change your ways a bit. I’m giving it a shot. And while I have some published books to my name (three traditionally published and four as an indie author), I’m not getting any younger. I want to churn out a few…
