Planner, Pantser, Lean, and Large: What Kind of Writer Are You?

And…Does It Matter?

Confession: when I was a baby writer, I thought that if I knew how published authors wrote their books, I could just emulate their process, and then I’d write a winner.

So I read a thousand craft books, articles, interviews, and so on with or by published authors. Okay that’s an exaggeration, but not by much.

I tried this process, I tried that. Write first thing, no fewer than 500 words. Write in the middle of the night, no more than 200 words. Never take a day off from writing. Take a break to get perspective. Outline your plot. Don’t outline at all. Write fast drafts. Write slowly and go back over your work every day. And so on and so on, yadda, yadda.

Here’s the thing. I didn’t understand my own process – the best way for me to make a book work – until I’d written three or four full manuscripts. Yes, it took me that long, and that many different projects.

And those three or four projects are resting comfortably in my file box, never to be published.

What Processes Does Everyone Talk About?

There are a few processes that pretty much baseline. Let’s go through them because you may feel comfortable with one – or more – of these.

• Planner. Are you someone who likes guidance through your story, likes to know where things are headed? Are you mostly either (a) intrigued by or (b) confused by plot? Maybe you need to plan your story before writing.

• Pantser. Do you prefer to wing it when writing? Do you feel most inspired when flying blind into your story and let inspiration take you wherever? Do your characters matter more to you than your plot, and do you lean into the emotional aspects of story? You are more of a pantser type.

• Plantser. Or maybe you like to blend these two into some sort of vague outline, that then you can write into as you feel so inclined.

• Lean. If you write lean, you write generally fast, and your word count is shy of the what editors call usual for your audience (and that number changes all the time, by the way). In revision you tend to go back and add more rather than cut because you’ve been so lean you’ve left out important stuff.

• Large. If you write large, you usually have a too-high word count and need to go back and cut, cut, cut. Trust me, if you write large, cutting will be essential, as word count maximums for new writers are usually way smaller than they are for best-selling authors.

• Fast-drafter. If you write like mad, get all those words out without really thinking, you may be a fast-drafter, which means you’ll be doing a lot of the work in revision.

• Turtle. If you go slowly along, revising as you write, then you might struggle with getting the job done. You’ll want to set navigable goals to keep you moving forward.

There Is No One Right Way

We all have our own writing processes. What I’ve discovered over many years is that my process is slightly different with each book. Generally now, I’m a plantser with a lean approach. But that’s way different from my earlier books, which were large and pantsed.

Here’s the thing. It’s only important that you understand your current inclinations. That you maybe try something different next time, in case that works better. That you understand that your process is yours alone, and you are not “doing it wrong”.

The only important thing: get those words on paper. Keep writing. Don’t stop, don’t give up, don’t let anyone else’s approach get you down.

I Have a Planner For You

Whatever your process, I’ve made a planner for you. You can find it here.

Keep writing!! The world needs your books!