Hello, my loves.
I know it's been about a week (in business days) since you last heard from me.
I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to take a hiatus, it just kind of happened.
It turns out that while my posting was slow-going while I was abroad, my posting upon jet-lag-ridden-return is much slower-going.
I've been running around all week doing things and seeing my nephew and realizing how much more I need to plan in advance for this blog.
It turns out, while pantsing it can work, I probably need to be a bit more of a plotter.
Most of you are probably wondering - what do these terms mean?
[Or maybe not, because I hear them getting tossed around at book events and on Twitter all the time. But I'll clarify anyway.]
Well, to start with, I usually hear the words panster and plotter when it comes to writing. They denote the kind of writer you are.
But I think pantser is just another way of saying procrastinator and plotter is another way to describe one who does not procrastinate (which I guess is just an organized person who does things not the night before that thing is due).
And in case you need more specific definitions...
A Pantser is someone who doesn't really plot things out. He/she just flies by the seat of his/her pants and hopes he/she can make all of the things (whatever they may be) happen.
A Plotter is someone who draws up outlines and thinks about the details and the course of events before sitting down to do something. He/she might also do things in advance and doesn't wait for the 11th hour.
I am most certainly a pantser (AKA a procrastinator.)
I don't plan things, really. I don't schedule or work too far in advance. My brain has this way of knowing just how much time I'll need to get any one thing done and so I'll rush and squeeze everything in just under the wire.
I recognize that my life would be easier and a bit more put together if I was a bit more of a plotter. My blog would be a bit more organized. I would have posts up more regularly. But not a single bone in my body wants to open up blogger even a second before I absolutely have to.
Honestly, the fact that I get any content up at all astounds me. And it's pretty significant proof that I like this particular hobby and all of you guys.
But I really do need to change.
Maybe not entirely, but at least a little.
I need to sit myself down and force myself to be a bit more of a plotter - if not for my readers' sake (that's you), then for my sanity.
Obviously it's not going to be a complete transformation. But I think it's time to force myself to take control of this hobby I turned into a blog 11 months ago.
[I mean, it's not like I'm not reading the books. I'm just terrible at sitting down and making myself write the reviews.]
So let's see how this goes.
But now I want to turn this to you guys.
You don't have to be a blogger to fall into one of these categories.
You could be a writer.
Or just a human.
Either way, I want to know...
Are you a pantser or a plotter? If you're a pantser, does that work for you or do you wish you were more of a plotter? If you're a plotter, please share tips in the comments below because dear God I need them.
