At a recent book launch I attended, the author was asked if she was a planner or a pantser. The author smiled knowingly and explained for the benefit of those of us in the crowd who may not have understood the question. “It’s said that there are two types of writers, those who plan out their books in advance and those who fly by the seat of their pants.” This made me consider my process. I am very new to the practice of writing and am definitely flying by the seat of my pants in my whole approach to writing and publishing a book. I am a terrible student. I get impatient. I fail to listen to directions. I am halfway through the next chapter of the textbook before the teacher has explained the assignment. As a result, I tend to just go ahead and do the thing (whatever the thing may be) and hope for the best. I took up writing during the pandemic as a way to distance myself from everything (EVERYTHING!) that was unpleasant in the world at that time. I started by taking an online course on memoir writing, which, unfortunately, wasn’t the sunny escape I had been looking for. Our homework for the writing course was to write for at least 15 minutes every day and to use writing prompts if we were struggling for a topic. One morning, I Googled writing prompts, and in the short list of phrases were the words “at the airport”. I chose that prompt and wrote for 15 minutes. When the time was up, I realized I wasn’t done with the character or scenario that had sprung to my mind. I continued on with my story for several mornings, each day’s efforts ending seemed like the beginning of a new piece of the story. I was flying along the storyline by the seat of my pants! I started to take some time each day before writing to imagine what my characters would do and say next, and gradually I developed a plot and story arc. I would have to say that in the end, I am both a planner and a pantser though I think being a pantser sounds like a lot more fun, don’t you?