To plot or not to plot

I've figured out why I was having such a hard time getting into my 3rd MS.

See, my third MS is a straight crime narrative (titled 'Next of Kin') and I was treating it like a psychological thriller. The former requires heavy plotting in order to keep the narrative coherent, whereas the latter - I've found - works much better when plotting is minimal and the narrative is allowed to evolve naturally.

Let me explain:

My first MS is titled 'Goodnight Angel' and it's about a retired private eye who's dragged back into investigation when a mobster's daughter is killed. It was a straight narrative with flashbacks drizzled throughout the plot and it took forever to get it right. I'm thinking of re-writing it now, actually, because I think the tone could be improved now that I've had a few more years to practice and mull it over. But that's not the point.

The point is: my first MS was heavily plotted because it was a straight crime novel. No real psychology (although I put as much depth into the motive of the killer as I possibly could without making it cheesy) and because of that, I'd worked out everything that was going to happen in the story before it actually happened. I didn't stifle the plot, like I thought I might by setting it down so early. I simply guided it.

My second MS is titled 'Tell No Tales' and it's about a playwright who kills people to describe their deaths in his plays. It's very twisty and turny and it was the most fun I've had writing because I had no idea what that bastard was going to do next! I went in completely blind, with no plot or ending in mind. There were even a couple of times where I had to flip a coin to decide how the plot would move after certain developments. The result was a psychological thriller that was heaps of fun and over before I realised it.

This latest MS is more similar to the 'Goodnight Angel'. It needs a concrete plot, or else I have real trouble figuring out what's going to happen next, or how to make my characters act in one scene since I don't know how it will affect the next. In 'Tell No Tales' this uncertainty was a thrill. In 'Next of Kin' it was a huge problem that's given me three false starts already.

So, I now have a plot set in stone. With any luck, I'll have a first draft done by the end of the month. Wish me luck!

TTFN