Pantser or Plotter?

I went to a conference last weekend; it was my first writer’s conference ever, and it was a pretty big deal to me! A conference solely around writing has been hanging out on my goals list for years. I had convinced myself that I would have to travel more than two hours or potentially need a plane flight to attend one. However, one of my dear friends told me about it, and I was pleased to find out that it was 20 minutes away. 

Then my next hurdle came into view... spending money on myself! Kids come first for me, and their needs can be spendy! I know... there are many parents out there who would argue that you have to do some things for yourself. However, I have not mastered the art of spending money on me. Still, I couldn’t beat the distance and the reasonable cost. 

So, I found myself surrounded by authors. Several were already established. Some were self-published, while some were picked up by publishers. There were people who had over 50 books out and others who had published a couple of essays. 

Here I was, little ol’ me, crutching myself around campus, excited to hear anything, meet anyone, and feeling like I was floating all at the same time. The terms “pantser” and “plotter” came up in one of the keynote speakers’ comments. I found out that I was, in fact, a pantser. 

Honestly, this was a relatively new discovery, even though I think most of the stories I’ve talked about from early on in my life came from my being a free-spirited pantser. 

Years ago, I had a very vivid dream that became a story I still plan on getting published, but I want to learn a bit more first. I was so driven to get the details written down that I decided to attend a writer’s workshop at the local library. The particular speaker, I know now, was a plotter. 

Honest to goodness, now that I know what I know, it explains why I don’t have that manuscript completely done today. So, whoever is reading right now, you might be thinking, “Why are you saying you are a writer then?” 

After I lost my brother in June, I was hit with such deep knowledge of how much he was struggling. Though I knew he was struggling and I was surrounded by evidence of his loss, I sifted through the different elements that held him back from being able to heal and move forward. Though there is no concrete way to know if anything could have come from all the “what ifs” that all of our family and his friends thought about after losing him, the simple truth was that he was a million miles away from finding a path to healing. 

His pain made me reflect on my own choices, dreams, and the excuses that had been tossed around in my mind. Writing, which had always been a passion, was craved but still not happening as often as I’d like. However, writing was always an outlet for me when I was trying to process things. 

Without any thought about what I would write about, I began to write about my anger toward the people who contributed to my brother’s pain and hardship. But! That was a very dark space for me, and I didn’t feel better. I decided I needed to do something else, and I wasn’t going to plan it out either. Instead, I decided to just write about something that felt right, was lighthearted, and was fun. 

I started with one character, the heroine, the one that I knew would be the person I’d want to read about. I could see her in this dark space, a black abyss, just floating in the air. I added the color and shape of her hair, the stature of her body, and then I started to create the environment around her. Her life and interests resembled mine. 

Though I know I’ve written about other people who have no definable similarity to me, I knew that I could probably write knowledgeably about someone who knew things that I knew. 

Then I created the next person, and the story that would happen between the two started to take shape. It was a small first step, followed by how to make them meet, what’s the challenge, adding some goofy characters, and creating the world around them. 

It all came into focus; I could see, smell, and hear what they were all experiencing. 

It became a world that I started to yearn to hear about when I was at work during the middle of the day. I wondered what my characters were doing and what they would be up to next. 

I would hear a song and think that it would be something they would listen to. An entire scene would play out in my head, and I would quickly jot it down. 

I let the world and things that were going on around me start to shine and intermix with the storyline of my characters. 

What do you do? How do your characters form? Are you a pantser or a plotter?