Planner or Pantser?

I was first asked the question 'planner or pantser?' at the Festival of Writing in York last year; Emma Darwin, the speaker in that session, blogs about the subject here.

In a nutshell, it means when you write, do you have an idea and just start writing, wondering where it'll go,  (a 'pantser' - as in 'flying by the seat of your pants') or do you have to have the story planned out in fairly fine detail before committing pen to paper? I suppose I view this as an analytical vs creative approach. Yes, I know it's all creative, but there are significant differences in the two approaches - bear with me...

Another writer remarked recently that he was amazed that I wrote fiction, because the work I had completed on his factual manuscript was very analytical - very different to how he perceived an author would write fiction. I think he expected non-fiction writing to be analytical, and fiction to be more - what? Airy-fairy?

To some extent, his observation was right. Y'see, going back to the planner/pantser thing, I still don't know what I am. I think there's a bit of both in me, and depending on what I'm doing, one or the other will be dominant in my fiction.

So - The Planner will write the storyline, knowing where we start, where we end up, and why. The Planner will also do the chapter summaries to make sure the pace is increasing and every chapter moves the story on. And The Planner will also sketch out the characters, using a mixture of visuals and notes to capture the essence of a personality, as well as working out exactly what the castle/boat/island looks like.

But then, The Pantser takes over. It's The Pantser who gives the main character his twitch or the villain his accent. The Pantser who throws in an unexpected blizzard on the mountain-top and watches to see what happens next. The Pantser who comes up with stunning visual effects when all The Planner wanted to say was 'the box exploded'.

The two of them are constantly vying to be heard - but the trick, I've found, is to know which one to listen to - and when.