Seat of the pants versus planning

There are two bodies of thought regarding planning your book out in a careful and precise way and plotting and outlining it.

Do. Or don't.

Pretty simple, no? :)

Put simply, most people plan their novel. They have the theme, then they add chapters. They know ahead of time that in chapter 16 the spaceship crashes. They know when Darth Vader will reveal things to Luke. They know.

Or, there's the seat of the pants people. Like me.

I usually have a vague idea when I start writing what'll happen. I know Darth is Luke's father, but I'm not sure if he'll tell him, or if the reader will know, or why anybody is hiding it. I just know that Luke hates Darth, while Darth is kind of proud of his kid for being so darned mean to him. I mean, come on, who doesn't want to see their kid blow up the Death Star, even if it's YOUR Death Star? I know Darth is conflicted. I know he's a whiny baby pretending to be a big, tough man.

What else do I know?

Well, not much, really. Let's write!

And it flows out, and when halfway through Luke actually starts to have a bright idea, instead of squishing it because he's not supposed to have it yet I let him go with it. To me, that makes sense.

I tried writing a really structured book once. I planned out every scene, how it would advance, what would happen.

It was plotted very well. By which I mean, everything happened in just the way that it needed to, and we got to the end when I had planned. In between? Sometimes I had to make my characters idiots. Sometimes they acted out of character. Because, let's face it, I never did give them any real reason to do that.

I'm done writing that way.

I'm rewriting that book now, Seat of My Pants. And I got to a crucial scene where before the male lead fell for the female lead... and he's not there. Instead, this time through, he's going to try to KILL her.

What? Well, it's where his motivations are. It's where he is at this point. It's what makes sense. Not only that, it puts some real tension between them instead of the faked up little tension I had before. It puts them at odds. It makes their later romance a little more twisted, a little harder, a little less likely. It really sets a tone for the book that's a lot darker.

How will we avoid having him kill her at this point? How will they reconcile? Darned if I know. But this also provides her with a much-needed impetus to turn on her own father, since this is his fault. This drives the whole book forward, with a much-needed burst of energy and life.

And it just makes sense.

Maybe planning and careful plotting could have solved this the first time around, but I live and love my characters too much. I drive them forward with a methodical attention to what they're doing and why, and to me that makes them so much more real.

And I know what happens in the end. I know that both characters are attracted to each other despite their initial hatred. I know that both characters have a growing respect for each other's fighting ability. I know that this will end badly, and eventually kill both of them.

I'll be darned if I can ever stop flying by the seat of my pants!

Do you plan and plot, or do you fly by the seat of your pants?