Are You an Architect or a Gardener?

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One of my writing friends took a class from Brandon Sanderson (author of the Mistborn series and, my favorite, Elantris.)  In one of his classes, he talked about two different kinds of writers: architects and gardeners.  When I first heard this, I thought it was an interesting analogy, but as my friend expounded on why he called them that, it really helped me to understand myself better as a writer. 

Why? I have attempted to be both a gardener and an architect while writing Cobbogoth, and after three years of floundering with several different manuscripts I'd been trying to "cultivate" or "grow," I discovered that I am most definitely NOT a gardener writer. 

What's the difference?  Well, if you're a gardener storyteller, you like to get down in the soil of your imagination and plant a bunch of different things, then see what grows.  You don't really start with a plan, you just kind of start writing and see what comes from it.  You "explore" the story as you write.

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If you're an architect writer, on the other hand, you do most of your writing through "blueprinting."  You outline and create the story in pre-production mode.  Once you have a satisfactory plan, then you begin to write. 

See, after I'd spent three years struggling over my story, I finally realized I had way to much going on in book 1.  My second draft was 600 pages +, and could've easily become three entirely different books--I'd planted too many seeds.  On my fifth attempt, I discovered the art of "blueprinting" or "outlining" as its more commonly known in the writing world, and it made all the difference.  After that one outlining session--my son's three hour nap--I had it, the version of Cobbogoth you'll be able to read for yourself in a little more than two weeks!  YAY!  I'm in the process of "blueprinting" my second book in the Cobbogoth series right now, and I have to say, things are coming along so much quicker than when I started writing Cobbogoth, and I haven't even written a line of dialogue yet.

But, while "architecting" has worked for me, I have good friends who are extremely talented writers who "garden" their stories.  Neither way is better than the other, however, understanding what kind of a writer you are will make the writing process all the better for you.

So, are you an architect or a gardener? Let's hear it.