Slow and steady wins the race?

It's Friday everyone! Partyin', partyin', fun, fun, fun. Just one item of business before we get down to my totally random thoughts. I have added a lovely tab bar above ^ that now holds a brief look into my current work in progress. (Yeah!)

With no further ado, a look into my brain -

Everyone has their own style of writing, everyone does their own things to get inspired and everyone writes at their own pace. To writers the question is often asked, are you a plotter or a pantser? Meaning, do you meticulously plan out every detail of your story before hand, or do you fly by the seat of your pants? I, for one, am a pantser.

I've tried plotting, but when I know every detail before hand it takes the fun out of creating. Sure, I know some things that are going to happen. (Like where I want my story to lead) but mostly I like the characters to be in charge, not me.

Before I started exploring the online writing community, I thought I was an averaged paced writer. Then, I saw some people on twitter saying they have written 4,500 words in a day. It was hard, but I had to remind myself that it is not a race.

Lately I've only been getting about a thousand words a day in, which suits me just fine. I want my book to be finished, I'm excited to get to the climax, but I really like to know how my characters feel first.

Yesterday, I was really struggling to even get to a thousand words. Pounding my head against the wall I couldn't figured out why I was struggling so. That's when it hit me. I've added a few new characters in a short amount of time, but I didn't really know them. So I had to leave my book and take some time discovering every detail of those characters. How they look, what they've been through, etc.

It was kind of exasperating.

I want so badly to just have it all done and tied up in neat bow, and I don't want to be distracted. But I realize I can't push it, it's going to come as it does and there is nothing I can do. I may be slow, and I may still have to work out a bazillion kinks, but I will get there. I just have to pace myself and hope I end up like the tortoise, not the hare.