Confessions of a closet pantser

What’s Jack up to? Today he’s still coming down from the NY GIANTS Superbowl win! He enjoyed a wild party last night with The DH, DD and DS. Dear Jack you’re looking a bit hung over today. Rest up.

During my excavation weekend I read Stephen King’s On Writing. I was surprised to read Mr. King confess that he plots “as infrequently as possible.” I was shocked! Stephen King, bestselling author of some of the most intricate stories ever, not a plotter, but a pantser. Suddenly my own wandering way of writing seemed a lot more acceptable. Heck, I’m in pretty good company.

Usually when I have a story I know point A and have glimpses of point Z, but only blind faith that there will be something exciting happening on all the points in between. Now I do plot in the lightest of ways, writing lists of things I would like to see happen in whatever book I’m working on. When I want to go more in depth I do Post-it storyboarding. But along the way, these lists usually start to feel confining and have to change when my characters suddenly take on lives of their own and turn in directions I never anticipated. What fun.

So writers out there, what’s your way? Would you admit to being a member of the pantser club along with me and, um, Stephen King or are you one of those extremely organized writers, that I always envy, who start out with a twenty page synopsis before typing CHAPTER ONE on the page?