Pants on, pants off

Believe it or not, this is not a sexy post.

Hey, Runners!

Have you registered yet? You should really get on that.

And here’s why: Because I’m going to stress about registration numbers until you do. Go grab your friends, get the discount, and register today!

(Or wait until the last minute and register then. You do you. Running starts September 9.)

Speaking of last minute… I was asked to write an essay for an upcoming Buffy anthology for charity.

I was asked in December of last year.

The deadline is early next week.

I wrote it this morning.

Look, we are who we are, right? We write how we write. Pants on. Pants off. Deadline focused. Deadline agnostic. Any attempt to control how we write and create is destined to fail, so don’t waste your energy.

For example; I am a pantser, a term derived from the idea of writing from the seat of one’s pants. I have no idea what I’m going to write, then I sit down, and stuff just comes out. This morning, after having had a full seven months to figure out this essay, I only knew which character and general topic I was going to write about, and that was only because I had been assigned that character and general topic.

I write best off the cuff. I don’t have to feel like writing, I just have to sit down and decide I’m going to write and I’m off to the races.

The best thing I ever learned about writing, and this includes all the stuff I wrote a book about, was to not fight how I am.

Today’s Comments Assignment:

Pantser? Plotter? What kind of writer are you?

When we get into our energy audit in the early days of the Run, you will have the opportunity to look at the kind of writer you are, and build your writing around it.

Instead of forcing yourself to plot because you think Real Writers Plot, you’re going to allow yourself to wing it.

If you’re a plotter, you’re going to get out your spreadsheets and give yourself the time you need to figure it all out before you start. If that means that you do that right after Discovery and don’t start getting words on the page during the start of Drafting, so be it.

Look, the whole point of this thing is not to tell you how to do your thing, but to show you how your thing needs to be your North Star on this adventure. You need to build your writing practice around you, and that means honoring who you are and how you write.

You will be so glad you did.