Planner or pantser? How much of each?

I have to ask - have you ever planned anything? I mean, anything! When the mood takes you you've just gotta get it down, no? Splurge. Get the characters moving, get your thoughts down and giddily twisting until you find out what you want to say.

What about nights out, holidays? What bit's planned? What bit do you allow to just wow you with its minute-by-minute magic.

Some people call themselves PLANNERS. They love to plan it all out - nth degree - holidays, romances, life, rigid all the way...

In writing the opposite gets called PANTSERS (seat of your pants writers). Let's just sit at the desk and let that suff flow. No plan, no direction, just waiting for the muse...

I don't know about you but I don't want a holiday with either extreme. I like to plan some things - let's head towards New York, let's get there for the 4th July. But other things can just come - let's see who we meet on the beach.

That's my planner vs pantser writing tip right there. Plan the things you can plan. Feel your way through the things that will just pop into your head because you've been stoking the fire.

Yes, you need to plan something. For a start, you should decide where you're going.

So for example, if you've got at least a sense of an ending then you can work out all sorts of things, style, characters, a few of the ups and downs. So what's going to be the high-point climactic, wow ending. Are you going for a romantic ending - a horror ending - an underdog victorious ending - a 'who'd have thought it' mystery revealed… If it's an essay - how are you going to nail that punchy last sentence?

Once you’ve got that - hey - it’s the start of a plan. When you start pantsing from the beginning you at least know where you’re going. Maybe there’s some more we can do with this...

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