Guest Author: Betsy Horvath

Pantser or Plotter?

In the last couple of months I've been hearing the term “Pantser” floating around writing circles. If you're like me, when you hear this for the first time you immediately think that writers are going around pantsing random people on the street. "Hi, I'm Betsy Horvath, romance author. WHEEE! Hey, nice boxers." But that doesn't happen as often as you might believe.

After I dashed out of the hotel at the RWA conference in New York and pantsed a couple of strangers wandering Times Square, some friends pulled me aside and told that I had misunderstood.  To be a Pantser does not mean to pants people.  It means to write by the seat of your pants. It's also called "discovery writing" or "organic writing". Imagine my chagrin.

It's been said that art often imitates life, and I think that's the case here as well. I have some friends who are complete Pantsers. They just fling themselves over the cliff and trust that everything will work out while they’re on the way down. I have some friends who are complete Plotters. They plot and plan and strategize every single solitary aspect of a thing before they move forward.

I think of myself as a Pantser with trust issues. I'm a Pantser, but I have Plotter overtones. I have an overall plan because I like to know there's something soft at the bottom before I throw myself over the cliff. On the other hand, I don't take the time to worry about all of the pesky details before I jump.

That's the way I write too. I usually have an overall plan for the story or book. For my romantic suspense novel, Hold Me, I started with a situation. A woman is driving home from work. An FBI agent in trouble jumps into the car. Car chase ensues. From there I created a general outline of how I envisioned them getting to where they needed to be (the Happy Ever After).  A true Pantser would have forgotten the outline and just gone ahead with the writing.  A true Plotter would have had everything planned out before they began. So I'm a combo. I'm a Pantster-Plotter. I am a P.P.

Hmmm...that doesn’t quite sound right.

How about you? Are you a Pantser or a Plotter?  Or are you both?

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Hold Me is available NOW from:

 Carina Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books On Board,

and anywhere fine ebooks are sold.

Katie McCabe's life is going nowhere fast when FBI Special Agent Lucas Vasco jumps into her car at an intersection. Luc, his undercover guise blown, is on the run from the Mafia and expects to be killed at any moment. What he doesn't plan on is finding himself attracted to the firecracker beside him. He feels compelled to protect her when her life is threatened, and insists she stay with him for her own safety.

After learning she has become the target of a psychotic hit man, Katie is whisked off to Luc's house to hide. Once there, she's shocked to discover that she and Luc have an unexpected connection; a connection Luc already knew existed, but withheld. Will their intense attraction reach flashpoint despite their misunderstandings and the pain of the past?

Betsy Horvath was raised on MGM musicals, old skool Harlequins, and Nancy Drew, so it should not have come as a shock that one day she'd be writing romance.  The biggest surprise was that it took her so long to actually buckle down and do it.  Hold Me is her debut romantic suspense novel.

You can usually find her at her website: www.betsyhorvath.com, on Twitter or hanging around Facebook.