Are your a Planner or a Panster

[Sunny Irene Roth]

Hi all,

This week, I have an article from Suzanne Lieurance about how important it is for us to know ourselves. I love the article, so I thought I would share it here. Her message is honest and uplifting as well as inspiring!

Enjoy, and keep outlining and planning if you are a planner. If not, I would at least have an idea of what my plot was and then you can start delving into writing your novel in November, if you are participating in NaNoWriMo.

Have a GREAT week!
Irene Roth

Are You a Planner or a Pantser?
By Suzanne Lieurance​

Aristotle said, "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." And, as I've been focusing on in this week's Nudges, knowing yourself as a writer is probably the most important thing you can do if you want to be successful. With that in mind, it's good to figure out how you work best. For example, I can't even imagine writing a novel without outlining the whole thing first. That's because I'm a planner. Yet, many other writers simply start writing and figure out the plot as they go along. They're what we call "pantsers" because they like to "fly by the seat of their pants" when it comes to writing. Sometimes, though, I think writers think they work best in a certain way, when they really don't. For example, if you say, "I don't work from an outline, I just like to start a novel and see where the story goes", yet you've never managed to finish writing a novel, then the system you think is working for you really isn't working. On the other hand, if you think outlining is working for you, yet you can't seem to finish your novel either—even though you've outlined the entire thing—it's probably time to put the outline aside and start writing where you left off and see how far you get. Today, if you're stuck on a writing project and can't seem to finish it, or you have a great idea for a project but you can't seem to get it started, take some time to figure out what you've been doing that isn't working, then plan another approach and see if it works better. Just because you haven't successfully reached a writing goal yet doesn't mean you won't ever reach it. It just means you haven't yet found out how you work best, so make that your first priority.