What type of writer are you: pantser vs plotter vs plantser

What type of writer are you? Do you prefer to outline everything in advance, make up your story as you go or somewhere in between? Knowing what type of writer you are can help you establish your ideal writing and editing process and successfully write your book. This blog article analyses the three types of writers: pantsers, plotters and plantsers and their main features.

This blog article includes:
Pantsers
Plotters
Plantsers
What type of writer are you?
Conclusion
Further reading

Pantsers
A pantser is a writer who writes “by the seat of their pants”. They have an idea, a theme, a character or some story events in their mind and start writing their story immediately without any written notes. They are called discovery writers since they like to let their imagination and creativity lead them as they write their story and like to have the freedom and flexibility to write whatever they want without being restricted by an outline.

 Pantsers can create notes while they are writing their story. A pantser can write the most important information of each scene such as the number of the scene, word count, pov character, present characters, setting, the main story event and any other comments in an Excel spreadsheet or their preferred writing software to help them keep track of the important elements of their story and make their lives easier during the editing process.

Plotters
A plotter is someone who plots their story in advance. Plotters like to know everything about their story beforehand and outlining in advance saves them a lot of time during the editing stage.

Plotters like to trace story arcs and character arcs, create detailed character sketches, plot detailed beat sheets with subplots and write down chapter-by-chapter summaries to guide them when they start writing their story. They can use character, beat sheet and worldbuilding templates they find online and they fill them with detailed information. 

Plotters like to know everything about their story before they start writing it because they can write the first draft of their story more quickly and have a clear picture of every aspect of their story.

Plotters avoid writer’s block because they know what will happen next in their story but they are more confined to their outline, meaning that if they want to make major changes halfway to their story, they might need to rewrite their entire outline.
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Plantsers
A plantser is a combination of the pantser and the plotter’s styles. Plantsers can use characters, beat sheet or worldbuilding templates but they don’t fill them with detailed information. Instead, they briefly write down the most important information of their story in bullet points.
Planters like to have a sense of direction. They like to know where their story is going but they still want to discover new aspects about the characters and the story events.

What type of writer are you?
Are you a pantser, a plotter or a plantser? Knowing what a type of writer you are can tremendously help you during the writing and editing stage of your story.

If you are a seasoned writer, you might have already established a writing process and know exactly how much preparation you need to do before you start writing your story.

If you are a new author, experiment and see what is best for you. Try to write one chapter of your story as you go without any notes and another chapter with detailed notes. See what method you like the best.

Don’t worry if you don’t know what type of writer you are yet. It took me a few years to find mine. I started as a heavy plotter but I quickly realized that outlining the story in great detail takes out the fun and the creativity from my writing process. I also noticed that heavy outlining is a waste of time for me because a lot of things change in my story as I write it and I had to revise my outline several times. 

I am a plantser. I prefer to write some important information about my story’s genre, tropes, main character and the 15 beats in bullet points to help me guide my story. The whole process takes about 2-3 hours. Then, I create a separate beat sheet, character profile and timeline template which I fill in as I write my story. (I write my fiction stories using the 15 beats in Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel by Jessica Brody and  Campfire.)

Conclusion
This blog article explained the three types of writers and the different outlining process that each type of writer has.
What type of writer are you? Comment below and tell me about your writing process!

Further reading
 If you want to learn more information about how to outline your novel, check the following links:
Learn how to brainstorm your novel’s genre and main characters
Learn why authors need character profiles to write consistent and compelling characters (+ free character profile template)
Learn how to outline your novel using the 3-act structure

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About the author

​​Maria Georgiou is a professional developmental editor for romance authors. She specialises in editing contemporary romance, YA romance, romantic suspense, paranormal romance and romantasy. She is a member of the EFA and ClubEdFreelancers. 
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