I am going to start at the end and say, no matter what you are, you are a writer. We have to respect each other, decision, style and process. We want to write, finish our story, and so on. Arguing which style is better is like arguing which religion is better. Think about. You might defend yours with your last breath, and maybe so does the other person next to you.
Pantser
What it is referred to as a pantser is a writer who just writes! A person who feels the story. It does not know how the story will go as they see and hear the story unravel as they go. People who see themselves as pantsers think that outlining and planning will take out the creative side of the story.
Plotter
A plotter is a writer who likes to plan. Outline. They do research, bullet points, set up possible scenes and chapters to see the big picture. They think that by structuring more the story will make more sense.
On both sides, we have amazing authors. This is not a discussion on which is best. On both, you can be creative. On both, you can have a clear vision. At the end, you do what suits you better.
Let say you are outlining and created the chapters already. What you fill in those chapters to make it interesting is what you are going to use to be creative. Now, in this case, a plotter will have their agenda on and can see what they need to move forward.
You can have it both ways as well. Sometimes because you are outlining too much, you might get stuck. And you have all that energy, those creative juices in your head. You might just let loose from time to time and just write. You can always go back and fix things and structure again. Remember this: “Writing is re-writing.” You might take that white paper, computer document, etc. and just write. Write, let all your emotions flow and your story drives you.
How about me? Am I a pantser or a plotter?
I do consider myself a plotter. Nonetheless, I have thrown my million structures away from time to time because I’m not going anywhere. But then I go back. I studied art in middle school. I was not the best in my opinion having by my side a young prodigy like Karla Ortiz. But I’ve seen that from time to time you just have to throw your brush with paint on the canvas and see where it leads you. For the movie: Extra Terrestres, Carla Cavina, and our writing group we had index cards, notebooks, boards, newspapers, and even videos of everything. So it was very structured. For ROD, oh man. Notebooks, papers written all over. Yet I wasn’t moving. Then I started writing. And went back to structuring. Then I went back to just writing. And so on and on until the manuscript was finished.