Outline or Seat-of-the-Pants

Writers fall into two categories in how they approach their manuscripts. On one side are outliners who sketch out an outline of their story. On the other hand are seat-of-the-pantsers who just start writing and see where it will go. I am a basic outliner: I write a simple outline, but once I start writing it always meanders into a direction I wouldn’t have predicted. As a mystery writer, I often don’t know who the bad guy is until about two-thirds of the way through writing. This keeps me engaged because I’m trying to figure out who done it as I write. I am currently experimenting with a manuscript with no outline. I work on it for a while and then take a break. I’m not a natural seat-of-the-pantser. I’ll keep working on it to see where it goes, but I find this much more difficult than starting with an outline. The beauty of writing is that there is no one way of doing it.