What It Means To Be A Pantster

There are two basic types of writers: Plotters and Pantsters.

Plotters... plot. They know exactly what happens and where. Not a lot surprises them as they're writing, because they've plotted the book to go in a certain direction.

Then there are Pantsters. I am in this group. We have an idea of what happens in the story line, some of us have more plotting done than others. Usually we have, at the very least, an idea of the beginning, middle and end.

The novella I am currently working on, and trying very hard to finish, started out as a short story. I was going to submit it as an 8,000 word story to fit in with an anthology for Whiskey Creek Press. Then I decided it wasn't turning out right for that anthology, plus it really needed to be longer than 8,000 words. I figured it would end up being around 15,000.

Boy, was I wrong. I keep writing and writing, and the end just won't come. It's like some freakin' kind of literary Energizer bunny. (Okay, 'literary' might not be the right term, but you know what I mean.)

I had the perfect ending line, too, in the hero's point of view: He would spend the rest of his life trying to be the man he saw in her gaze when she looked at him.

Is that a cool line, or what? But it wasn't the end of the story. I'm at 21,300 and still going. I think it's going to end up to be around 23,000-24,000 words. But who am I to know these things? I'm apparently just the typist taking dictation from my Muse. Good thing I can type 80 words per minute, huh?