I recently found a wonderful video posted by well-known novel editor Ellen Brock, in which she describes four different types of writers. She continues this series by giving great tips on how each writer type can work in a way that suits them best.

I was delighted to recognise myself as a Methodological Pantser after years of struggling to pre-plan my plot structure before writing. I did follow some form of outline in my first book, but I tended to stray and change the order of scenes and events. Also, I could not stop myself from editing every chapter after I wrote it—which is a big no-no according to typical writers’ advice. I kept stopping to re-read everything I had written until it was completed to my satisfaction, and only then could I continue.

In my second book, I tried to follow a Three Act structure complete with sequences, inciting incidents and climaxes. But even then I relied more on my instincts and told the story the way it developed in my mind. Surprisingly, after checking the arcs, I found many scenes overlapped with the inciting incidents and climaxes by coincidence.

As a Methodological Pantser, it is apparently better not to focus on word count so much but to set a certain time to write each day. So thanks to Ellen Brock, I now feel much more comfortable and less guilty about my way of writing. I would recommend that every writer watches her video.