Plotting vs. Pantsing

Alright, I will be the first to admit that I see the value in pantsing. I've done it myself before, for my first novel, and though I'm not quite a fan of the writing in that now, (because it was from two years ago and I like to think I've gotten a lot better since then) but I think that the general plot came together very well. It isn't dull, (a few people have read it and told me that they liked it - not just my mom!) and it moves along at a good pace. All this is subjective of course, but for the purposes of this blog post, let's pretend that I'm right.

And yet, if anyone saw my post from Saturday, you'll know that I'm definitely not pantsing this new novel. Why? Well, I tried that. And it didn't work. I got to chapter four and suddenly I was like, hmm. I don't really know where this is going. And I don't really have enough for a novel. At best, I have enough for about six more chapters - if I'm lucky.

And then there was this weird scene with an imp and the medical examiner and I just got really confused very  quickly.

Consequently, I turned to the book Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success by K.M. Weiland. It was either 3.99 or 4.99 on Amazon for kindle, something around that, and it was worth every penny. In the book she goes in depth on her kind of outlining and how she treats every step of the writing process. Now, as I was reading, I knew that it wouldn't all work for me, but a good amount struck me as pretty easy and not complicated, so I started doing it.

And, voila! I have pages in a notebook on my M.C. Blaire and everything I could possibly need to know about her, another notebook with pages of handy 'What if...?' questions that I can use to explore other subplots or richen my current plot, and my handy-dandy storyboard with all my scenes on it, in sequential order. (But if the mood strikes me, I can easily move them around).

Because of all this, I feel fairly relaxed, and able to focus a lot more creatively on this first draft instead of having my inner-editor beat me over the head with a frying pan for every misplaced comma.

I think this firmly places me on the plotter side of this debate - though I do have a soft side for pantsing. And who knows? For my next novel, I might pants the whole thing. :)

So what about you? Where do you think you fall? Plotter, pantser, or maybe somewhere in the middle?