To pants or to plot? That is the question. At least, for a writer it is.

I’ve been tossing around a new idea in my head lately, but so far that’s all it is—a general circumstance, a few characters, and a handful of humorous dialogues. I haven’t put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard to be more accurate) though, because I’m still trying to nail down exactly what’s going to drive the story, what I’d like to build it around.

After my last project, the first two thirds of which I wrote by inspiration (a.k.a. by the seat of my pants), I was certain I would thoroughly plot my next big undertaking to speed along the process and hopefully save myself some grief while editing, but now that I have this idea, I’m not so sure. I really like the idea of plotting, of knowing exactly what I’m writing towards & having a set pace to get there, but I’m also ready to jump in right now and flesh out the scenes around these little dialogue bits floating around my head, whether or not I know where they go in the story yet, and see where they take me.

Anyway, that’s been the major debate this week. Fortunately, I’ve had a little bit of editing to do to help put off the diving in & buy me some time to mull over the plot a bit more.

How about any of you, are you pantsers or plotters, or a bit of both?