Works in Progress...

Often don't progress. 

I'm a Plotter. Writing murder-mysteries practically requires it. I have to know whodunnit, why, where, how, and when. It's not the kind of thing IMO that can be done using the Pantsing method without needing a lot of refining, head-scratching and rubbing out in many subsequent drafts.

I write an outline before I start on any Veronica Nash story, filling in details as they occur to me. The process can take weeks, sometimes months, but I think it's worth it as it makes writing the manuscript that much easier.

That's not to say plotting out a story beforehand is foolproof.

For my current manuscript I wrote an outline as usual then set to work. It pootled along quite nicely for the opening chapters then hit a snag. The characters were going places and doing things that jarred with what I had in mind. Fixing it required a lot of thought - often subconsciously - and a bit of time. I let it be over the holidays then returned to it afresh. 

And that's when I saw the problem was in the outline, not the manuscript. By rearranging where the principal characters are and what they're doing I overcame the stoppage (Writing is similar to plumbing: Discuss). Once that was solved everything began to flow again.

Moral of the story - Outlines are never set in stone, nor should they be.