Who'd have thought? LOL

I've always been more of a panster than a plotter. I start with a basic story idea, give the story two characters, a basic history and conflict and write. I let the story unfold from there. Even though that has basically always worked for me I have run into troubles from time to time. I've written myself into corners or realized that something doesn't fit and had to go back to change it. I've decided to try and shake things up a bit by being a bit more conventional. I have a story that I really need to finish. While my fingers danced on the keyboard yesterday waiting for my characters to tell me what they wanted to do next I realized I spend a lot of time doing that. Waiting. Starting a line and then hitting backspace.

Unfortunately, that isn't getting my story written any faster.

So I decided to try and plot out my whole book this time. I got out my trusty notebook and pen and started writing. Ideas popped into my head I hadn't thought about and I wrote them down. I organized things in the order they should happen and before I know it I had most of my story on paper. You know what? I think it's really going to help. Don't ask me why I did see it before but I think it will be much easier for me writing off an outline rather than searching my brain while I write. Don't get me wrong, I always know a few key scenes that will be in my book but I usually file them away in my head while I write and now I have them on paper, where I can see them, in some logical kind of order. Who'd have thought that would be so helpful. LOL. Sitting back now, yeah, I should have known this a while ago. Makes perfect sense but I'd always just seen myself and a pantser kind of author. Now that I'm getting busier, with deadlines I'm realizing that some times you have to step out of what you've always done. Some times you have to look for a different way to do things and in the end, it just might be a better way. I definitely think my time at the keyboard will be more productive and being a mother of two children not yet old enough for school, I need that.

Are you a plotter or a panster? Have you always been that way?