THE TWO TYPES OF WRITERS

Do you know which one you are?

There are as many types of writers as there are writers out there, but after reading hundreds of interviews and talking with tens of authors, I feel most of their styles can be placed somewhere in between two camps: The Botanists and The Architects.

THE BOTANIST

The Botanist is the type of writer who profoundly understands his character, so he sets up a problem for them, and then he just “documents” what the characters would do in that situation.

The Botanist discovers the story as he is writing it. The characters are like seeds he plants; the story is watching those seeds grow into fantastic and robust shapes. Hence: The Botanist.

Stephen King famously writes like this:

“I want to put a group of characters (perhaps a pair; perhaps even just one) in some sort of predicament and then watch them try to work themselves free

King believes stories are fundamentally character driven; this means the character should be more interesting than the plot.

This could also be seen as micro to macro writing, the characters are the center of the story, and everything grows outwardly from them.

BENEFITS:

• The story can be shocking for the audience because not even the writer knows where it’s going.
• Strong character foundation.
• It’s really fun from the writer’s perspective.

RISKS:

• Wandering story without a clear ending.
• Plot points could be few and far apart.
• Abrupt end.

Sometimes the seeds grow too big and wander too far from what the writer was expecting. Arguably this is what happened to writer George R. R. Martin with his Game of Thrones series, A Song of Ice and Fire. The seeds are now an overgrown garden. Writing a satisfying end for every little branch is going to a titanic if not impossible task, but the ride was really fun!

Two Botanists greeting each other.

The Architect

The Architect is the type of writer who knows where he wants the story to go. He roughly understands the changes his characters will have to go through, and the plot points he needs to write to make that happen.

The Architect knows the beginning of the story, the midpoint, and the end. For him, writing is the process of filling in the gaps with the actions that should happen for the character to reach those stages.

As you can probably guess, this is a slightly less organic way of constructing the story. It’s more based on structure, hence: The Architect

Brilliant screenwriter, playwright, and best-seller author David Mamet puts it like this:

“In a screenplay everything is plot.”

“What about characters?” you might ask, well this is his answer:

“There is no character. There are only lines upon a page.”

Mamet writes the plot and if the plot is excellent and believable, so will be his characters and the story. Everything else excessive and unnecessary.

These type of writers usually plan everything that’s going to happen in the story, before they sit down to write it. If they ever have doubts while getting the words down, all they need to do is follow their beat sheet as a carefully planned itinerary for the adventure in the story.

BENEFITS:

• The story will probably have a satisfying and cohesive ending.
• A strong plot with timely twists and turns that keep the audience engaged.
• It’s easier to write once the story has been plotted.

RISKS:

• Stiff characters that constrict themselves to fit the plot.
• Smart audience members can predict plot points.
• Might be less fun to write for after everything has been plotted.

An Architect after finishing his schemes.

Clearly, all writers exist in a spectrum between Botanist and Architect. What’s great about this scale is that if you know where you land, you know what you’ll have to improve in your re-write.

When a Botanist rewrites he needs to focus on trimming down the branches of his story and making the plot pop forward.

When an Architect rewrites he needs to focus on smoothing the edges of his plot and giving the characters in his story more life.

Hope you found this helpful, happy writing!