One frequently sees in the author social media groups this notion of potters vs. pantsers. A plotter is someone who outlines the book before writing it so that they know every plot twist, character trait, scene, etc. before ever actually writing the narrative of the book. There are many great writers who consider themselves plotters, and one can understand the value of doing this. Famous plotters include, J.K. Rowling, John Grisham, and James Patterson.

On the other end of the spectrum are pansters, who write by the seat of their pants. They may not know anything, or maybe just vague ideas before sitting down to write the narrative. These folks say that they come up with better ideas as they write as opposed to figuring it all out in advance. Famous pantsers include, Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, and my favorite, John Sandford.

I fall somewhere in the pantser category. I just don't get too many good ideas sitting there thinking about it. My best ideas come while I'm actually sitting down and hammering the keys. I might know details about what's happening a few chapters in advance, but that's it. In my current novel I've had this experience over and over again. As a matter of fact, I just had a major plot twist come to me as I was writing somewhere near the 50K word mark, and it really excited me and I think really added to the book. The problem with pantsing is that often when you get a crazy idea to follow you have to go back and edit what you've already written to make it fit.

As for my current novel in progress, the working title is Analog, and is the third in the Ingram Investigations series. It isn't coming quickly, but that's because I've been busy doing other things and haven't been able to sit down to write as much. In the past month, however, I've been very disciplined and have made myself a deadline to finish the rough draft by October 15. That will come quickly, as I've just now passed the halfway point. I'm hoping for a Christmas release, but who knows?