Pantser or Planner?

My ideas notebook!

As I'm sure a lot of you know, Nano is coming up (CLICK HERE TO LEARN) and for a while my story idea was struggling. I actually completely changed what my idea was going to be from the last time I posted a blog post. Speaking of which, my blog posting will get better this next month. It's something I do to distract myself from nano, so expect a lot more updates!

Anyway, I was completely freaking out because I finally got my two main characters in my head, and even some side characters, but I had not yet decided when my conflict was going to be. Last year I had been planning my novel in my head for months, so I was definitely a planner. I knew almost every scene that was going to happen, or some variation of it. I knew what I wanted to happen. This year, it looks like I'm going to be a pantser. 

Now there is an in between the two which is a percolator, I believe that's what they called it, and I guess I could be considered that. The notebook in the picture above has some brief outlines of events I want to happen or could potentially happen. Nothing is definite.

Either way, not being a planner is an extremely scary idea to someone like me! I like to have things planned out! I like to know when something is going to happen and how it's going to happen and I even plan out every ending in my head just so I have some vague idea of all the possibilities. 

But I guess trying out something new will be a good exercise for me. Pushing my boundaries might actually help me grow as a writer, so that's a plus. I'm just worried that by pantsing it, most of it will be crap because it'll be stuff I spewed out just to get word count. I want something to work with by the end of the month.

This fear is struck deep inside me. What do all of you out there do when you write? Do you plan every detail? And if not how do you calm that organization monster inside you?