Pantsing as Experimentation

I saw a meme on Facebook recently saying that pantsers (writers who don't outline their stories) use the first draft as an outline. While that may be true to some extent, writing the first draft provides me with more than an outline. The first draft allows me to get to know my characters better, beyond what a character sheet can tell me. As I write, I can feel out my characters' quirks, reactions, and more. It also helps me establish settings and help me figure out how the characters solve problems. Of course, it's possible to develop all of this separately prior to writing the book, and even I will agree that it feels like a lot more work to write a draft, then try to extract an outline, transfer information to a writing bible, and of course take the story through one or more additional drafts before finishing it. Why then does pantsing seem to work for me when outlining ahead of time doesn't?

I think for me, part of what drives me to write is the experimentation aspect of fiction. As a writer, I get to create characters and worlds, put them in tough situations, and see how they work. I need the details provided by actually writing the story to determine how successful it will be. Sometimes it doesn't work; like all writers, I have trunk stories that will never be published. Sometimes I start a character down one path and decide it's not working, so I have to scrap what I wrote and start over. While it can be frustrating, it's part of the process. As I go along, it gets easier. It took me about two years to write the first draft of Dryads to Discover but only five months to finish the first draft of Dryad in Doubt. Part of that was because I was working on more short stories during Dryads to Discover, but part of that was that I didn't know the characters very well with the first story. I felt more confident with them in the second book, and it was easier to draft a middle section.

Now it's time to start the final book in the series, Dryads and Dragons. I'm torn between starting where I left off and trying to create a rough outline first. Given what I've said above, I should start writing it. I don't want to do a scene-by-scene outline, but I do feel the need to establish the major acts of the book before getting started. Hopefully by the time this post goes live, I'll know what approach I want to take and be on my way.

Do you feel your stories are experiments, or do you like to outline them first? How much do your stories change as you draft? Feel free to share in the comments.