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It Is (But Isn’t) Easier to Write as a Pantser
Reconciling being a planner vs a pantser 5 years on.
It’s been a while since I’ve written about this topic, and I felt this was a good time to address it again.
There are 2 primary types of novel writers out there (note — primary. There are always outliers and the like). These are planners and pantsers.
Planners plan and plot. They create outlines, do worldbuilding, dig deep into characters, and do other planning before they begin to write the novel(s). This can be incredibly detailed. For example, some planners create dialogue for scenes before they actually write them.
Overall, planners plot things out from start to finish before they begin writing the novel. That plan might be fairly general or chapter-by-chapter. Your mileage may vary.
Pantsers sit down and write. It’s called “pantsing” because you are writing by the seat of your pants. Often, pantsers have no detailed plans for their project, save maybe an overarching plot, character journey, or something else of that ilk.
A pantser might only have a scene in mind that they write. Then another. And then another. Before long they have a book.
Since 2014, I have self-published 16 sci-fi and fantasy novels. The first 8 were…
