Pantsing Vs Plotting

This is a dilemma I face each time I start a new book. My brain says, “Sit down, plot it out.” But my heart says, “Just go with it, you'll be fine.”

As, I'm not known for my reasonable approach, I inevitably start typing away. About halfway into chapter 3 I no longer recognize my MC and have no idea who this cast of hoodlums are that are following his/her every move. Then I'm stuck....

Do I go back and start over? Or do I incorporate these ballsy bullies who've butted their way in? Well, you've probably already guessed, I write them in. After all, what fairy story doesn't need a one-eyed psychopathic demon-eater with morning breath and a hankering for milkshakes?

And all is fine for a few more chapters.... But once I'm forced to start tying everything altogether, I run into massive roadblock. Boulders are dropped from cliffs, cars crushed beneath and my fairy has sprouted demon horns and developed a madness for poltergeist sherbet. Don't ask...

When all this happens I can't even remember where the story was supposed to go in the first place. Sigh :( Which is where I find myself now. My current WIP, a YA Dystopian is running amok on me. I've tried spanking her back on track, but she'll just have none of it. While this one, I made a flimsy outline of the plot, (spent nights obsessing right before falling asleep and tucking it safely into one corner of my manic brain) I seem to have taken a wrong turn or six.

It's not that I don't like where I am, I absolutely love the story. But I'm on the down slope and the climax is growing instead of diminishing. Is that a good thing? Will my Ezra blow up One Globe or will her rapidly expanding love for both the baby in her belly and the gun-boned ghost from her past slow her down? I don't know! I just don't know...

Drop me your dilemma. Are you a pantser or a plotter?

Still looking for a good match on a YA critique partner, help!

Dadnabit, Dog Gone it, and Damnation…or Dystopian

Things I say when I smash my thumb or my darling doesn’t finish the job adequately. But that’s probably TMI.

I have the perfect dystopian novel plotted out, but it’s not coming out on paper the way I see it. (When I say plotted, I refer the jell-o bouncing around in my brain.) My MC is boring; she’s flat, unattractive and scared of her own shadow. So how in tarnation is she going to save mankind?

I’ve tried a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting with her, and while she’s down on her knees, she doesn’t seem to be praying, she’s still pathetic. I’m currently considering an ALICE IN WONDERLAND move and in the spirit of the Queen of Hearts, “Off with her head”.

Here’s another issue with the plot, (yes that junk in my head) I have her getting raped by a descendant of the most hated man in America. Is that too much for a YA novel? The rape scene isn’t graphic and the only reference to the origins of the surname is the surname itself.

Does that make any sense?

Okay a few more issues… The opening scene she’s just started her period, sounds gross right? But it’s integral to the story. Oh crap, maybe I’ll just toss the bloody thing and start over.

D is for damnation! I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t.