by Ane Mulligan  @AneMulligan

Mary Poppins: The Intuitive Writer

Mary sits down, opens a new document and starts her first draft without anything but a kernel of an idea. As she writes, she populates her story with new characters and situations. And somehow, with a spoonful of sugar, everything comes to a happily-every-after ending. Granted, she will have a lot of editing to do. She must go back and weave in those characters who suddenly popped up. She’ll have to edit in some background (Q-Factor) for a rescue that would be implausible without foreshadowing. But in the end, Mary Poppins always succeeds.

Indiana Jones: The Seat-of-the-pants Writer

Indiana is different from Mary Poppins in that he has a goal in mind. He knows the end of the story. He also knows some of the stops he has to make along the way to reach it and get the prize. He knows his hero, having done a little background on him. He has the antagonist in mind but knows another might pop up, so he keeps his options open. What he doesn’t do is a detailed outline. He can’t follow one. So he has a vague “map” containing the beginning, the middle, and the end. The middle is rather sparse, since he doesn’t know the terrain yet.

Rocky Balboa: The Plotter

Rocky knows exactly what he must do to win. He writes a detailed outline, chapter by chapter, then fills in the details. His outline is close to a first draft by the time he’s done. Then, all he has to do is fill in all the details and flesh out the scenes. Rocky doesn’t have to do as much content editing as Mary or Indiana. His greatest creativity comes in the outline. His story is in there.

Scarlett O’Hara: The Planster

Scarlett falls somewhere in between the others. She has a goal and she knows what it will take to get there but isn’t always sure how that will happen. So, she sets down a vague outline, sparse in detail. As long as she can get to point A, then she can figure out how to get to point B. Scarlett spens more time in character preparation. She writes her heroine’s backstory to learn her secrets. By the time she starts writing the story, she knows her characters well. She knows how they will react to any given situation. Scarlett has the fun of Indiana or Mary in discovery, but she also has somewhat of an outline to follow, in case she gets blocked.

These are the four types of writers I’ve dientified. Where do you fall? And is there another type I’ve missed? Please join the conversation!

Ane Mulligan lives life from a director’s chair, both in theatre and at her desk, creating novels. Entranced with story by age three, at five, she saw PETER PAN onstage and was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. One day, her passions collided, and an award-winning, bestselling novelist emerged. She believes chocolate and coffee are two of the four major food groups and lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. Find Ane on her website, Amazon Author page, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, The Write Conversation, and Blue Ridge Conference Blog.