Plotting vs Pantsing

What kind of writer am I?

When I started my writing journey, this was one of the first questions I had to answer for myself. Before trying to write this book, I hadn’t written anything in decades. I wrote long emails, but I don’t think that counts. So, how was I going to write a book? Naturally, I turned to the internet. I found many helpful suggestions. Keep the first novel between 60,000 and 100,000 words. Find other writers who are willing to help. All of the advice made sense. But what kind of writer am I? In school, I was taught to produce a complete outline and conduct research before writing. When I tried to outline the entire first book, I just couldn’t do it.

 I looked further into the writing process and how different established authors went about writing their novels. I found two extreme camps. The pantsers and the plotters. Extreme pantsers wrote without any plan or outline. They literally just sat and wrote their novels. Whereas extreme plotters planned and outlined every aspect of their novel. These authors generated ideas from which they develop the premise of their story. They then developed story arcs for their main characters and created subplots. Afterward, they wrote a detailed outline from which they fleshed out their novel.

After writing the first five chapters, I found that I am a little of both. I liked to come up with a short synopsis and character arcs. I used the short synopsis as a guide and began writing. I enjoyed the idea of not being wedded to a rigid outline. Allowing my characters to do things they wanted to do in the story was fun.

 From the process of writing the first few chapters, I believe that I’m in-between a plotter and a pantser (aka a plantser if you will). Using this hybrid method, I am at currently writing chapter ten of my first book.