Discover Your Writing Personality
There is no One-Size-Fits-All
Just seven days left until the start of classes. We have just 15 slots left. Still undecided? Over the next few days, I’ll be posting lessons taken directly from this course. I’m starting with one that defines the teaching philosophy behind this course. Click here to get full details on the course.
What’s Your Writing Personality?
If you have taken any writing course, you have probably been given a one-size-fits-all approach to creating a story. You fill out a form to creWhat’s Your Writing Personality?
If you have taken any writing course, you have probably been given a one-size-fits-all approach to creating a story. You fill out a form to create your characters. You draw a map or cut pictures out of a magazine to visualize the setting. You follow a proprietary process to create a plot outline.
I’ve seen them all. They all work. They all fail to work. What? Did I actually write that? Yes, I did because it is true. Each of these work for some people and they fail to work for others. Unfortunately, many people teaching writing are not educators. They don’t understand that different people learn differently. An author often believes that since their method works for them, it will work for everyone. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In my course, Write YOUR Novel YOUR Way, I take a different approach. Instead of me telling you to follow my method, I help you discover your own. I can teach you about the elements of an effective novel. I can help you understand things like point of view, empathetic characters, story structure, setting, editing, and publishing.
However, you have to discover your own process. I will be there to help you with that, but it will be YOUR process and not mine. It begins with discovering your writing personality.
Writing Personalities
In these courses, we will be discussing three types of writing personalities. I’m calling them Mapmaker, Trailblazer, and Pioneer.
Mapmaker
A Mapmaker is the person who feels most comfortable writing after they have set out a complete plan for everything. This includes a plot, detailed descriptions of each character, maps of every part of the “world” of this story. They do extensive research in advance.
The person is like the one who decides to take a road trip, but before they leave, they mark their maps carefully, they make reservations in advance, they know exactly when they will reach certain destinations, and they rarely stray from that itinerary.
This type of writer spends more time upfront in planning, but often less time in editing. On the downside, they can be inflexible if their planned story doesn’t quite work out as they planned.
If you feel comfortable creating dossiers for your characters, sketching out maps of the setting, cutting pictures out of magazines to create images of where your characters live or work, and writing detailed plot outlines before you start to write your first draft, you are probably a Mapmaker.
Trailblazer
The Trailblazer is also sometimes called a “Pantser” meaning they “write by the seat of the pants.” They only start with a premise and a general idea of where the story is going. They enjoy the process of discovering the story as they write.
This is the sort of person who throws the map out the window on a road trip and finds their way to their destination just by following the signs and making a lot of detours. But that’s okay, the detours are the best part of the trip for them.
One trailblazer said, “Sure, I create a very detailed plot outline. It’s 300-pages long includes narration, description, and dialog. It’s called my first draft.”
These types of writers are more spontaneous and flexible in their writing. On the other hand, they are more prone to writer’s block, find themselves straying from the storyline, they tend to spend much more time editing, and they need to do many more drafts than the Mapmaker.
If you get bored writing an outline or you feel it is useless because you already have the story in your mind, then you are more like a Trailblazer. You find outlines, dossiers, and maps to be a waste of time. You can correct any problems during the editing process.
The Pioneer
The pioneer falls somewhere in the middle. They start out with a rough outline of where they are going, but nothing really detailed. It’s like they have several destinations to reach in the journey of the novel, but they improvise the trips between those destinations.
Again, comparing this to a road trip, this type of person would make a reservation for the first night, and would have some general plans for the following nights, but they are willing to improvise along the way. They make reservations on the road.
The Pioneer has some of the strengths and weaknesses of both the Planner and the Trailblazer. They may get locked into those sub-destinations. They might try to reach them even if the path is convoluted or even tortured. They may also need to spend more time in editing.
The point I want to make is that NONE OF THESE APPROACHES IS BETTER OR WORSE THAN THE OTHERS.
And some of us may have a more mixed personality. For instance, I tend to be a Trailblazer/Pioneer when it comes to plotting, but I spend a lot of time upfront crafting my characters more like a Mapmaker.
If you would like a novel-writing course that respects your process, Click Here to find out more about Write YOUR Novel YOUR Way. ate your characters. You draw a map or cut pictures out of a magazine to visualize the setting. You follow a proprietary process to create a plot outline.
I’ve seen them all. They all work. They all fail to work. What? Did I actually write that? Yes, I did because it is true. Each of these work for some people and they fail to work for others. Unfortunately, many people teaching writing are not educators. They don’t understand that different people learn differently. An author often believes that since their method works for them, it will work for everyone. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In my course, Write YOUR Novel YOUR Way, I take a different approach. Instead of me telling you to follow my method, I help you discover your own. I can teach you about the elements of an effective novel. I can help you understand things like point of view, empathetic characters, story structure, setting, editing, and publishing.
However, you have to discover your own process. I will be there to help you with that, but it will be YOUR process and not mine. It begins with discovering your writing personality.
Writing Personalities
In these courses, we will be discussing three types of writing personalities. I’m calling them Mapmaker, Trailblazer, and Pioneer.
Mapmaker
A Mapmaker is the person who feels most comfortable writing after they have set out a complete plan for everything. This includes a plot, detailed descriptions of each character, maps of every part of the “world” of this story. They do extensive research in advance.
The person is like the one who decides to take a road trip, but before they leave, they mark their maps carefully, they make reservations in advance, they know exactly when they will reach certain destinations, and they rarely stray from that itinerary.
This type of writer spends more time upfront in planning, but often less time in editing. On the downside, they can be inflexible if their planned story doesn’t quite work out as they planned.
If you feel comfortable creating dossiers for your characters, sketching out maps of the setting, cutting pictures out of magazines to create images of where your characters live or work, and writing detailed plot outlines before you start to write your first draft, you are probably a Mapmaker.
Trailblazer
The Trailblazer is also sometimes called a “Pantser” meaning they “write by the seat of the pants.” They only start with a premise and a general idea of where the story is going. They enjoy the process of discovering the story as they write.
This is the sort of person who throws the map out the window on a road trip and finds their way to their destination just by following the signs and making a lot of detours. But that’s okay, the detours are the best part of the trip for them.
One trailblazer said, “Sure, I create a very detailed plot outline. It’s 300-pages long includes narration, description, and dialog. It’s called my first draft.”
These types of writers are more spontaneous and flexible in their writing. On the other hand, they are more prone to writer’s block, find themselves straying from the storyline, they tend to spend much more time editing, and they need to do many more drafts than the Mapmaker.
If you get bored writing an outline or you feel it is useless because you already have the story in your mind, then you are more like a Trailblazer. You find outlines, dossiers, and maps to be a waste of time. You can correct any problems during the editing process.
The Pioneer
The pioneer falls somewhere in the middle. They start out with a rough outline of where they are going, but nothing really detailed. It’s like they have several destinations to reach in the journey of the novel, but they improvise the trips between those destinations.
Again, comparing this to a road trip, this type of person would make a reservation for the first night, and would have some general plans for the following nights, but they are willing to improvise along the way. They make reservations on the road.
The Pioneer has some of the strengths and weaknesses of both the Planner and the Trailblazer. They may get locked into those sub-destinations. They might try to reach them even if the path is convoluted or even tortured. They may also need to spend more time editing.
The point I want to make is that NONE OF THESE APPROACHES IS BETTER OR WORSE THAN THE OTHERS.
And some of us may have a more mixed personality. For instance, I tend to be a Trailblazer/Pioneer when it comes to plotting, but I spend a lot of time upfront crafting my characters more like a Mapmaker.
If you would like a novel-writing course that respects your process, Click here to find out more about Write YOUR Novel YOUR Way.