Poll

I think it depends on the book. Sometimes you want to take your time exploring things, sometimes you want a clear direction, otherwise you'll meander forever. But I think I'm more of a planner than I used to be.

I started as a pantser when I was a child, and then I converted to a heavy plotter for many, many years. Now I use both techniques and love it.

Jennifer wrote: "I think it depends on the book. Sometimes you want to take your time exploring things, sometimes you want a clear direction, otherwise you'll meander forever. But I think I'm more of a planner than..."

Excellent point. Some of my books I plot more, some I pants more. :)

For my current project/first draft, I'm going back to the way I used to write, back to stories as "found things", back to more discovery as I go. I realize this will mean more revisions later on, but I'm okay with that.

That being said, I've learned some great outlining/plotting techniques over the years, and I hope to continue using them in future drafts.

So, still a plantser. I think. :)

I like to plan, but when it comes time to write I will often pants. I can get more words in by pantsing, but the story makes better sense when plotting.

I usually know vaguely where I want to go but I let the characters tell me how to get there :)

Jennifer wrote: "I think it depends on the book. Sometimes you want to take your time exploring things, sometimes you want a clear direction, otherwise you'll meander forever. But I think I'm more of a planner than..."

I definitely agree. I plot more on some than others.

It all depends on what I'm writing. I've been a technical writer for over 40 years. For last 35 years I have been ghostwriting manuals and books for the electric/electronics industry. Technical writers have to be, by the nature of the beast, plotters/out-liner's When it come to writing fiction I have always been a planster.

Gal wrote: "I usually know vaguely where I want to go but I let the characters tell me how to get there :)"

Love that answer! :)

I've always been a pantser but I'm trying to be more of a planner whenever I get a new story idea, since being a pantser has always led to my stories taking forever to finish.

Stephen King's stories and novels have plots, otherwise they would be anti-stories, and not beloved by many. I think he probably starts out with an idea for a story or a character and then writes away, with the plotting already part of the writing process that he has developed over the many years of writing. So the plotting comes after his story ideas and characters. Even his book On Writing has been plotted or outlined. And he doesn't have a ghost-writer so he probably took part in the "plotting" of On Writing along with an editor.
I'm a plantser. You can't use twists, arcs, plot points, and beats in the most entertaining way possible, unless you plot them out.

Thanks to my horrible sixth-grade teacher whom I have come to believe literally got his teaching certification in hell, I start having actual panic attacks if I try to write an outline before writing a story. I can do outlines for boring things like college papers with no problem, but if I try to write an outline before writing a story? Forget it!
That being said, my "chapter structure guide" for certain books probably could be considered a type of outline, but don't even think about telling me that.
By the way, what this man would do was have us write an outline and we were supposed to adhere to it, but if there were no deviations between the outline and the story, he'd know we wrote the story first and we'd get a failing grade. I've always loved to write and this jackwagon did his level best to make me hate it.

With only a few exceptions, I pants all I write. I get an idea for a character, a scene, something, start to write it down and then let it go to whatever length it turns out to be: flash, short story, novella, novel. Sometimes I don't even know the ending. The way I look at it, it's not my story, it belongs to the characters, and so I let them take me where the story needs to go.

Every time I try to write a story without planning it out, it takes me years and always feels undone to me. When I plan out a story it can take between 1-8 months depending on the length of the story.

Team wrote: "Thanks to my horrible sixth-grade teacher whom I have come to believe literally got his teaching certification in hell, I start having actual panic attacks if I try to write an outline before writi..."

Grade school made me hate it too. Somewhere around the same year.

Decades ago, I was a pantser - for a few messy failed first drafts. Then, as I struggled with my debut novel, I learnt to plot with more care - yielding better results/drafts. Now, I plan but leave room for unforeseen diversions written by the seat of my pants. Guess I've become a plantser.