Confession... I am a pantster!
It's true. I'm a pantster. Have been for years, though I didn't know I was. No one had told me. In fact, I only learned recently what a pantser is.
You see, when a writer writes they tend to do so in two very different ways. Oh, there are a myriad of minutia that can make other categories, but really, there are just two and their variations.
The first, is the planner. This writer uses outlines and timelines to plot the course of their novels. They work studiously at framing each chapter to fit into their structure that they have created to tell their story.
I am not here to disparage anyone's technique that they use to write their novels. We all have our methods...but man does that sound boring as hell!...Sorry.
Anyways, I fall into the other category. The pantsters. Now these writers don't design outlines or timelines. They don't meticulously follow the guidelines of who does what when and to whom. No! They write from the seat of their pants(Did you make the correlation finally?) Oh, we usually know where we are starting from, and where we are going to, and who is involved... but what happens in between? Well, that can be a mystery to us writing it, as it is when you read it. For me, this has always been how I wrote. When I DM'd dungeons and dragons, I wrote all my own modules and I found that things that I had set forth when the characters were level 1, played out when they got to level 5. It just always managed to fit together. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me as I have written, "The Awakening: Part One and Part Two." It happened often, and I know it will happen throughout the series. It's as if my brain has already written the story and is just giving me the parts that I need to write at the time I am writing it.
I'm sure that the different styles have something to do with right brain and left brain, or type A personality or type B, but... whatever. The point is, I'm a pantster, and I'm proud!
