Panster/Plotter.

An email from my editor encouraged this post, I never thought about what I am in regards to the way I write, so when she mentioned that I am a panster I researched and concluded that I am both a panster and a plotter.

When I have a shiny new idea that sticks in my mind for more than two weeks I start to research, first I need to know the characters, setting, and the conflict even if the conflict is not fully fleshed out I at least need to know vaguely what I want it to be about.

In my handy character notebook which I have for each book I write
(dollar stores are my bff) I write maybe a paragraph or two of the intro so that when I do go back to the wip I am already at the starting line.

I am a panster because I would say 70% of the time I wing it at this point I am just writing not worrying about editing, however, I'm still focused on the plot.

Con of a panster
The problem with this is that when it comes to revisions you will likely have more revising/cutting to do and you should have had a notebook that has relevant facts or else it will be a daunting task to back track these information.

Thank goodness I did that but I still have a huge mss to reorganize. ECLIPSE is a novel I wrote last year if you have read my previous post I queried too early and even though I got a few agents request for partials and couple fulls it fizzled because it had numerous holes in it, so I decided to rewrite my novel, using some of the scenes from the old mss and revised according to the changes in the rewritten book.

Plotter
You must know all the details, the good thing is that your revisions may not be as long because you structered your novel according to your outline, so I thought about this more and came to the conclusion I am, both a panster and a plotter and I feel that being both enables me to get the advantage and disadvantage of both, that's the key to anything that you want to do in regards to the journey of becoming published I think each person has to evaluate how they write.

I think as well one should be flexible maybe there will be a time I have to solely be a panster or a plotter so the point is to expand your horizon out of your comfort zone which will enable you to continue your growth as a writer.

As always write with plenty of joy and chocolate or whatever else helps you quiet the voices in your mind.