Are you a pantser or a plotter/planner?
If you’re a novelist and you’ve done even a little bit of reading about the craft of fiction, then you’ve likely come across the terms “pantser” and “plotter,” which is also called “planner.”
Simply put, if someone asks which kind of fiction writer you are, she or he wants to know if you:
- fly by the seat of your pants when penning a novel and just let the story come to you day by day, or …
- plot/plan out your entire tale ahead of time and then follow that road map step by step from the first word of the novel all the way until you type THE END.
Depending on the crowd you find yourself in at the time, you may soon be caught in the verbally violent crossfire between those entrenched in these two camps of thought.