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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26950
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I suggest we also have **"The Expander"**

You asked for something other then "Plotters" or "Pantsers". I would venture to offer the "Expander". An author who writes notes and even entire unpublished stories about off screen characters that they never intend to do more than refer to in a few short throwaway lines. (Or sometimes mean to come back to but either struggle or fail utterly at the return)

3 examples:  
David Eddings

He described his (& Leigh's) writing style quite a bit.

He wrote several sweeping Fantasy epics - for the Young adult market.

IIRC He described in the forward to one of his books "The Rivan Codex" that he wrote a significant backstory, fleshed out quite a lot of the basic plotline - but the characters went their own way.

What I am suggesting is that one of the best writers of our age wrote a plot. Fleshed out some pretty significant backstory - and then found the story departed into a life of it's own. Largely following the plot outline the author had set but deviating in some specific points. Sufficiently that the already written backstory in some parts was now incorrect.

Another author I know - L E Moddessit - has stated he will sometimes write a backstory around a particular character who may never even appear directly in the story.

JRR Tolkien is perhaps the most famous example - some of the notes he made have now been published as "Unfinished Tales and The History of Middle-earth" along with some other volumes.

Original score: 5