As referenced in the submission article, George R.R. describes two approaches two writing:
>"I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect."
These two approaches are often referred to as "outlining" vs "discovery writing." My view is that these approaches don't describe two categories of writers so much as they describe two points along a spectrum, and most writers lie somewhere between the two extremes.
For example, Brandon Sanderson says that he extensively plans/outlines his plots and fantasy settings, but he tends to "discovery write" his characters: he will frequently write multiple versions of the opening chapters of a book to see which character fits best for the story he is writing, sort of like auditioning different actors for the role. Brandon didn't plan the Mistborn trilogy with a female protagonist; rather, he tried several different versions of the opening chapters, each featuring a different character in the role of protagonist, and he found that the story worked best with a girl in the lead role. He went on to make several significant adjustments to the events of the story to fit with his character choice (he has sometimes jokingly described Mistborn book 1 as "Lord of the Rings meets My Fair Lady"), but the world and the overarching plot structure still matched his original plan for the series.
>"I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect."
These two approaches are often referred to as "outlining" vs "discovery writing." My view is that these approaches don't describe two categories of writers so much as they describe two points along a spectrum, and most writers lie somewhere between the two extremes.
For example, Brandon Sanderson says that he extensively plans/outlines his plots and fantasy settings, but he tends to "discovery write" his characters: he will frequently write multiple versions of the opening chapters of a book to see which character fits best for the story he is writing, sort of like auditioning different actors for the role. Brandon didn't plan the Mistborn trilogy with a female protagonist; rather, he tried several different versions of the opening chapters, each featuring a different character in the role of protagonist, and he found that the story worked best with a girl in the lead role. He went on to make several significant adjustments to the events of the story to fit with his character choice (he has sometimes jokingly described Mistborn book 1 as "Lord of the Rings meets My Fair Lady"), but the world and the overarching plot structure still matched his original plan for the series.