Pantser or Discovery Writer or Planner

Well, you say, what on earth are you talking about?  There are three different accepted words that are used for people who write fiction in different ways.  I first encountered planners when I was beginning to take fiction writing seriously and it seemed a pretty good idea.  You could have every detail of the book laid out and there would be no surprises in the writing.

I must admit I don’t know what kind of writer she was but just think of someone like Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote her epic novel which became the catalyst to free the slaves on little pieces of paper in the minutes she got between all her other duties!  My goodness, she was a brave and resourceful woman and I admire her greatly.

My initial thought about planning was that yeah, it sounded excellent, but I planned out a particular novel that i wanted to write and had actually started.  I had enjoyed the beginning and had some vague idea of where it was going to go, and now I began planning.  Do you know something?  Very soon I started to lose interest in the story and quite frankly I look at it now and go and find something else to write about!

I had heard about “pantsers” - ie those who fly “by the seats of their pants” and it seemed to me this was a bit odd.  Just because you didn’t want to plan everything to the last tiny detail, you were named this and for me it had dreadfully negative connotations.  I mean, REALLY?!  So did this mean if I didn’t plan I just became someone who just wrote anything?  They didn’t have a clue?  Or am I wrong to think this?

Last night I was chatting to a friend who is also a beginner writer and we were talking about it and she said she had no problem with being called a pantser and she had known I was one from the start when she met me.  Well, for me, it IS a problem.  A big one.  Then we talked a little bit about Steven King who has sold (I would guess) millions of books by now and he doesn’t plan his writing out and is known as a discovery writer.

I will admit at this point, I haven’t read any Steven King book - not even his one on writing!  A few people have suggested it to me but I wasn’t in the right place to read it yet.  I am coming round to the idea of reading what he says about writing. 

A discovery writer.  YES!  THAT’S what I want to be known as.  I find I get inspiration at certain times - right now it’s about 3am and I couldn’t go to sleep and realised that actually it was because I needed to write this.  It has been sitting on my mind and just wouldn’t leave me.  So I had to tell you all. 

I AM A DISCOVERY WRITER.

When inspiration strikes me, I don’t want to stop writing.  I don’t want to finish until the last wee drop of inspiration is out on the page in front of me = whether via computer or pen/pencil.  There are times Kevin will come in and see me on the ipad or whatever and I’ll hold out my left hand in a stop sign and will just grunt agreement to his statement he can see I am writing and do not wish to be disturbed! 

I would have liked to be a planner, but quite frankly I have never been one and it killed my love for a novel I was writing.  And I don’t like the thought of people thinking I don’t know what I am doing.  I am taking inspiration and running with it.  I am now going to be allowing myself to let the story tell itself.  I don’t need to judge how it is either when it comes from inside and I don’t have to think about it. 

Life and writing are so much easier when I allow myself to just let go and inspiration guide me.  A story can tell itself.  I don’t need to be thinking about it too much.  I can write this way and I should write this way as it is ME!  Pure and unadulterated me.  Changing how I am to fit someone’s idea of what I should be or the way I respond to something just isn’t right or sensible. 

Should I start at the beginning of the story?  In the middle?  Quite honestly it doesn’t matter.  ALL writers are individual and have their own way of writing and processing their own ideas.  So be exactly who you are when you write and do it the way it suits you -whatever that is.  Don’t allow your light to be diminished.  And send it to the world when you’re ready and just see what happens.

One thing I just want to leave you with is no matter what you do or who you are, the best gift you can give to the world is yourself in the fashion that suits you best.

Love and blessings.