When I sat down and began to write seriously, I knew that I had to figure out what kind of writer I would be. That is to say, pants-er or planner (ie. discovery writer or out-liner).
Pants-er or pant-sing are terms taken from the expression "seat of you pants." As in writing by the seat of your pants. This approach involves little or no planning, just sitting down, writing and seeing where the story leads. This approach works well for some. Don't believe me? Just ask George R. R. Martin, the "Game of Thrones" author how it's worked for him.
I thought that I would try the pant-sing thing as I wanting to get started and had a few ideas that I wanted to run with. While I did take the time to throw some ideas on a page, it was not an outline and it didn't take long for me to figure out that my new story was broken. The more I thought about it, the more holes I punched in it. I realized that I needed a better plan. The biggest part of that plan was an ending.
Having an ending in mind gives me a goal to shoot for. Something to work toward. After sitting down one night and writing an ending, I felt much better about where we were heading. Though it was plenty painful; I had to cut several scenes and chapters that were already written, I like having that goal in mind while writing and will apply what I've learned here to future projects. I will also put a lot more time into outlining before I start writing. At this point, it's safe to say that I'm an out-liner that will probably pants some things in the story as the opportunities present themselves. You can't plan everything after all!
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