Saturday 8 October 2016

I was recently asked to write a guest post on the weheartwriting.com blog which was exciting. I started to feel like a bit of a writer though the feeling soon passed. If anybody asks I work for Barnardo's - I am not a writer.Anyway, I digress, the subject of my post was 'Planner or Pantser?' Personally I am a pantser. Almost no planning went into TISHSaD and not a lot more for NRIMH. DB will take a lot more planning so hopefully I will discover that I am a planner at heart.
So my question id the same as my post Planner or Pantser? And, if any of the planners out there could give me a bit of advice I would be very greatful.
Mr Mc and I are heading off today for a few days away. We are celebrating our 34th wedding anniversary tomorrow. See you when I get back.

3 comments:

Captain Black said...

I do both planning and pantsing and have never seen them as being mutually exclusive. You can always plan a bit, pants a bit, adjust the plan when the characters disobey it (often), repeat, etc.

I'm a big planner. I get very uncomfortable with writing projects that don't have one. Even the smaller ones. I use all kinds of techniques, including: time lines; synopses – written at the beginning, not the end, then maintained throughout; outlines, as per synopses but in more detail; character profiles; mindmaps and other diagrams; chapter and scene breakdowns; storyboards.

Of course, you don't have to use all of those in any one project. The trick is to find what helps and what slows you down too much. Experimentation and practice are probably the only ways to find what works for you and your writing techniques.

Patsy said...

With short stories I sometimes have an idea how it's going to end. For novels I do a very rough plan (less than a page of words) and then change my mind half way through.

Colette McCormick said...

Interesting to see what how other people do it. I guess its all about what works for you. I am trying to plan more - especially with this third book. Planning now will save correction slater I think.