What type of writer are you?

It’s that time of the week – Discussion Tuesday.

From those who are new, each week I post a topic (relevant to my WIP) and try to unravel the mysteries and perspectives of it.
Last weeks topic was Dialogue in Novels, and the week prior was Information dumps. 
If you did missed out, you can click on the link above and read.

For now, this weeks discussion is:

What type of writer are you?

Many writers are unsure of what type they are. For this discussion, I will keep it simple and state two types of writing: Outline and Discovery.

• Outline writers are people that plan out their stories. This means you know the beats that your story is going to take. You know the ending, and you know the tipping point when everything goes wrong for our protagonist.
• Discovery writing is when you don’t have anything planned, anything major that is, and you just want to write a story.The process is very free flowing and organic.

Sometimes you can dabble into both of these or one, everyone is on a different journey and working out what suits your ability best, will flourish your stories.

For me, I am more of a discovery writer but I know the ending and where I need to get my characters for the story to conclude. I want the character to get to point J but they venture to point A, B, C etc…

I also agree with Stephen King’s quote on discovery writing,

“You create some real, believable characters, put them in a challenging situation, and then let them decide where the book would go. If you have done enough work on character development, then your characters should be able to decide how they would act in a certain situation.

The fun in this approach is that the book can take strange, surprising turns, which can surprise both the readers and the author.”

I think the main thing you should take away from this blog is: write as much as possible, and figure what suits you.

You don’t have to be purely an outliner or discovery writer, you can mix and match and do whatever. At the end of the day, it’s your story and you get to decide what is the best way to tell it.

How do you write?

Post your comments and answers below. If you think someone has an interesting point of view and answer, please invite them or share this post to them.

#DWTSmith #discoverywriter