Planner - Writes a detailed outline prior to writing and follows it to the letter.
Pantser - Has a vague concept and maybe an idea of the main characters and begins writing, seeing where the story leads.
Plantser - Somewhere in between the two. This author may brainstorm some main plot points or even jot down a brief description of each chapter, but nothing is set in stone.
I always find it comical when the planners look at the pantsers and say, "How do you do it? You just write?" To which the response is almost always, "yes." Many also will say their characters tell the story to them as they write. This is where I fall.
Many times I will be listening to the radio in my car and suddenly a scene from my book will begin to unfold in my mind. I hear the dialog perfectly. My husband says I need to break out an audio recorder so I can better remember it. The sad truth is that if I do anything other than take it all in, the scene vanishes. I cannot speak the words as they are not mine. In those moments, my characters are telling me the story. It is then up to me not to forget it.
In much of my life, I am a PLANNER with a capital P. I like to have a schedule and firm due dates. I want to check off boxes and mark tasks as completed. I plan for every detail of every trip we take and a meal plan a month at a time. I feel lost without my plan. But when I write? Plans feel like a prison. The hardest writing assignments for me the entire time I was at the Institute were the assignments to provide chapter outlines. I've only just become acquainted with my main character, how could I possibly know everything he will endure for the whole book? And then I feel like if I stray from that plan, I have failed my book. Even this very post, the one you are reading right now, was unplanned. My husband mentioned I needed to write more posts and this morning the title of the post entered my mind. Now here we are.
I would never say it's my way or the highway. I fully understand the potential for chaos could drive others insane. Do I write myself into corners? Absolutely. My characters fill me in eventually or I write something vague and fill it in later. I am used to it. Some people wonder how can I plan to write a series if I don't have a detailed plan for each book. Ideas come to me out of order and as I learn them, I save them. Soon after I get enough, I begin to formulate a loose outline. For instance, in regards to my Light Keeper series: I know who the over-arching villain is. I know what the main problem is for each book and in what order those books fall. I have realized (over time) who dies and why and how it impacts my main characters. I even have a couple of scenes written out that won't occur until the end of book 5 while I haven't even written book 3. It doesn't matter, to me, the order in which I get this information, so long as I don't lose it.
So, which are you? Do your characters speak to you? Do you find more success when you have a detailed road map, or do you just like to know where you are going and who's in the car with you? If you don't know, that is fine, too. That's one of the things I like about writing the most, there isn't a correct way to do it. You can even plan one book and then fly by the seat of your pants for the next.
Would you believe me if I told you when I wrote the first draft for Light Keeper that Isaac did not have a name? Not until he first introduced himself had I thought of his name. It was the same for Cristo. When Isaac looks at that glass for the first time, I saw it in my mind and that's when I pictured the name. I always find it very cool when a character tells me something I didn't know.
Keep on writing and I will do the same.