As I’ve explained here previously, there are two types of writers: planners and pantsers. Planners create detailed outlines and break the work down into planned chapters. Pantsers just keep writing to get their ideas out, and deal with the organization later. While I unequivocally believe that planning is better, I acknowledge that many writers can’t…
I frequently advise nonfiction authors to be planners, not pantsers (that is, seat-of-the-pants writers). Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work. True, some people have a conception of the whole book in their heads. This allows them to set down a table of contents and, after doing research, create a fat outline before writing each chapter. But…
In my experience, there are two types of authors: those that start with planning, and those that start with writing. Call them planners and pantsers (seat-of-the-pants writers) if you want. Both ways work. But the people who start with writing suffer more. If you’re okay with suffering, go for it. But you should at least…
Writing can be easy, provided you prepare properly. I’ll show how that applied to the op-ed I placed in the Boston Globe last Sunday. Let’s start by talking about two types of writers, planners and pantsers, a concept I borrow from fiction writers. Planners are the people who map everything out ahead of time, in…