“Are you a plotter or a pantser?”

To be honest I never knew what those terms meant until I attended a local conference a few years ago. I knew about a fourth of the people in the room.

The speaker of the class I was attending asked our group that question.

Those around me pointed to me. The speaker chuckled.

“Which one is she?”

“Pantser!”

I was at a lost. I’m a pantser? What the hell is a pantser?

That is when I was educated on the two terms. Plotters are those who make an outline and plot their entire novel. Pantsers are writers who write by the seat of their pants. Also know as we don’t plot.

Yep, that is me. I rarely plot out a book let alone write a full outline for it. I will have in my head the general format of characters, plot lines and sceneries I need to get into. Nothing in great details. Just thoughts. I will generally know the beginning, the middle and the end to some degree.

I just never knew there was a term for people like this. I like it. I like it very much.

I just want to write. I love the feeling of writing without restrictions and rules of engagement that can come with writing. The freedom to take a book in any direction or to let characters decide for you and not be restricted to some outline is freeing. My best books come when the characters take over.

To be perfectly honest I just don’t want to be bothered until I am done the first draft of any novel I am working on. There will be plenty of time for edits, revisions, synopsis, naming the book and the whole kit and caboodle that comes with creating a book.

The pure joy that fills me as I write does not want to be interrupted. It is hard enough to get a novel into shape that it needs to be in. That is not so much joy. Why ruin the moment for me? More importantly why ruin it for my characters?

I’m a pantser. I wave that flag proudly.