Outlining or Pantsing

When I first starting writing I, like many new writers, started with short stories.  I went in with an idea, sat down, and wrote.  Who needed a plan? I didn't. 

When I started playing around with the idea of a full length novel I approached it with the same attitude.  I had an idea, and knew pretty much what I wanted to do with it.  After about a month of writing, changing my mind, rewriting, then finding myself going in a completely different direction, I decided I needed a plan.  So I started researching different writing techniques.

Now, anybody that knows me knows that I can research something to death.  I can take a week just to decide what hotel to stay at on vacation and other planing and mapping out restaurants and activities.  Not to mention the fact that any little thing seems to sidetrack me from my appointed tasks.  Hmm... I think the previous sentence might be proof of this.  But anyway, at the end of my journey I discovered a great book called, Outlining your Novel: Map Your Way to Success by K.M Weiland. (Her blog is amazingly helpful http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/)

After reading her book I discovered that, even though I truly wanted to be a pantser: a writer who flies by the seat of their pants, I was an planner.  This unknown fact about myself seemed to have helped me.  "Seemed" being the operative word, because now my outline is quickly eating up the pages of a three subject notebook faster than a herd of teenage boys at an all you can eat pizza buffet with no end in sight.  Which has left me wondering if I'll ever actually start writing and stop outling and researching and changing my direction and if I'll ever finish it in my life time.  I have nightmares where I'm still clutching a yellow three subject notebook with the number "100" written on the front, laying on my death bed and screaming, "but I didn't even finish my outline!"

Maybe there is no "perfect" way, no magic formula.  Maybe as  a writer you have to discover what works for you and go with it.  I am currently trying a mixture of outlining and pantsing.  Sliming down my outlines to something slightly smaller than Stephen King's It while still giving me a direction and keeping me focused.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that this is the answer for me and that I will eventually finish this novel if for no other reason than to keep, "Here lies Rebel Cooley, she wrote one hell of an outline." off of my tombstone.