Plotting vs Pantsing

I’m a known pantser in my writing, aka, writing by the seat of my pants. This can be freeing and a lot of fun, not knowing what will come out of my fingers as I type, but it also can be a detriment and makes for extra cleanup during the editing phase of a story.

My first book, Does Love Always Win?, was completely pansted. I didn’t plot it at all beforehand. When I overhauled the story with an editor I hired before it got published, I did have to do some plotting then. The cleanup process from my pantsing was quite arduous. My second book, Superficial, which comes out in September, I had to do some plotting but mainly after I had a few beta readers tell me that my ending didn’t work. That’s when I pulled out my notebook and pen and tried to give this plotting thing a try and I liked it more than I thought. Granted, I didn’t completely stick to my outline, but it was nice having some sort of direction.

Now, I’m working on my third book, a young adult murder mystery, and I’m finding myself really leaning towards more plotting than I’m used to. It’s par for the course for the topic though. I need to figure out who did it and sprinkle in clues and also create other suspects, motive, etc.

Maybe this experience will make me a plotser? Is that even a word? I know I can’t completely give up my pantsing nature, that’s where I come up with my best ideas, but plotting is starting to become easier each time I do it. And it will hopefully make the editing phase a lighter lift. Practice makes perfect!