If you‘re in the online writing community, you’ve heard the terms ‘pantser’ or ‘plotter thrown around. In case you haven’t and you’re staring at this screen with ‘wtf’ eyes, let me explain. There are two types of writers in the world, pantsers and plotters. Pantsers essentially don’t plan, they wing it as they write. Plotters on the other hand can be found with meticulous research and outlines.
If you know my personality, it’s not going to take a wild guess for you to figure out that I’m a plotter through and through. My main form of planning is chapter summaries. I find it so helpful to write down what the goal of the chapter is, so even on a day when I don’t have inspiration, I can still lock in some words.
Strangely enough, while working on ‘Where the Light Ends’ the kind of novel that definitely requires some intense plotting, I was starting to wing it. Ignoring of course my journal of timelines and who killed a who. Side note: a very messed up story. There’s even some math. *Shudders*.
So this writing diary records how I decided to knuckle down and do some good old plotting.
I am beginning to become really concerned about my browser history. There’s some weird stuff going on in there.
With all the mystery, drama and questionable deaths going on, Where the Light Ends was definitely becoming a plot driven novel. Feeling a little out of touch with my characters, I sat down in order to balance it out.
This is my brain storm of where I want Ruan to go as a character, his big movements of character development.
How do you plan out your characters? I’m really curious to know how other writers are doing this.
So, what are you, a pantser or plotter?
Before I let you go, here’s a word count update!
Are you working on anything right now? If you are, drop a comment below and tell me about it.
Hasnita Singh 