panster | Susan Baganz

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Author Confessions: To Know or Not to Know?

I’m sitting here trying to get stuff done and trying to not fret about all the things that I need to do at some point. Funny how I was editing a book and my own words, written to my character, resonated with what I needed to hear today:

Ask God for the next best step to take right now.

I’m a planner. I like to know the plan. I can be flexible but it can emotionally be more of a stretch for me. The irony of that? When I write I don’t plan. I might have a back page blurb or even a character intereview but usually I don’t know how the story is going to unfold. Writing becomes a fun adventure.

Real life is truly no different. I am aware that there are certainties I will face this year and need to prepare for: taxes, building a house, eventually moving, finishing up some books so they can come out in November. Thinking about those things…and the multitude of steps and amount of time and energy they each require–can stress me out! And those are the things I am aware of! God may have other surprises up His sleeve (please, let them be fun ones!).

A wise person confronted me last week, telling me I’m too hard on myself. I expect too much of me, and can be overly critical when I don’t reach my own unrealistic expectations. Be present. Live in the moment.

Wow. That’s hard in so many ways when the future problems are twirling around in my brain!

So what am I doing? Writing a blog post about what I’m struggling with right now. After that? I’ll ask God.

In many ways, living in the present means enjoying every moment as it happens. I do have moments where I can do that. Some tasks I undertake, eliminate my ability to muse about the future. Most of those I enjoy. Playing guitar (when I took lessons) made it impossible to focus on anything else. Creating something new, embroidery, puzzles, making cards. On the not so fun side: organizing paperwork for our taxes!

Unfortunately I can’t spend my entire life doing those things alone. But blog posts won’t write themselves, and I have other things to do, that might get me “out of my head” as it were, and maybe I’ll be able to set aside all the anxieties over things that haven’t happened yet, and enjoy the moment in the here and now.

Sponteneity doesn’t come easy for me (except in writing a story), but God will continue to grow me in my abilitly to appreciate the surprises He has for me so I can relax and enjoy the many gifts He’s giving… as He gives them.

Whatever happens in the future–He will be there for me in that moment as well.

Happy 2026! Praying you can live in the moment too and savor the many gifts our Savior gives. I’m curious if you are a know or not to know person- planner or spontaneous. What keeps you in the present moment?

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Before I started writing my first novel I had heard about people outlining their books but had no concept of what that could possibly be about. I just started writing…and kept writing…and 21 days later had a book that was way too long!

When I write a non-fiction piece of work, whether a talk I’m going to give or a book, I do outline. But I find an outline restrictive to the creative process for me as a writer when I’m writing fiction. People who outline struggle to believe there’s another acceptable way to write.

So I learned there are two kinds of writers. Actually—there are two extremes. Pantsters who have no idea what there are doing and wing it and planners or plotters who outline their books, do in-depth character interviews, understand the motivations, story arc, and plot points.

The funny things is, I do some of that now, but not as much as a pure plotter would do. I’m co-authoring a series with a plotter. The first book we did together was torture for me trying to make sense of this story arc and the characters and there were timing issues that I needed to fix. That was primarily because it was handed to me to start the rough draft. I did manage it and the story is wonderful, but it was challenging on so many levels.

My plotter friend, DeeDee, and I now do much of that work together. She comes up with the main stuff and we wrestle through plot points and we talk it out quite often. I give her stuff to write as well so I’m not the only one putting original words on the page. For me getting to know the characters well has been huge for this. Plot points are suggestions and sometimes I come up with fun surprises. I figure if she reads it kind of knowing what is going to happen and I can surprise her, then I can surprise the reader too! It’s a balance that so far seems to be working for us.

Either end of the spectrum is fine. Pantsters want some love too and maybe some of that is personality or part of the unique creative soul some of us have, but it’s OK and no way of writing is right or wrong as long as the writer, in the end, produces a great piece of fiction.