Plotter or Pantser?

I am an outliner. At one time, I hated Excel. Now we are friends. On August 30th, I will be moderating a panel on plotting and pantsing in Nashville at Bouchercon. People like Hank Phillippi-Ryan, a self-proclaimed pantser amaze me. Until today, the art of pantsing was like a magical trick to me. After hearing John DeDakis describe his journey from CNN and the Whitehouse today, I have a better understanding of how Hank and John, both very reputable investigative journalists,

can write as pantsers. It's about characters talking to each other and things happening, then new things happening.

Here's my confession. This sequel, Eleven Seconds has characters that hijacked the middle. Young people. So I thought I'd pants for a while until I can write to where I want to go. That means deleting a fair amount, and I need to move those ghost soldiers in place. Now I can see that pantsing is like a chess game. You move characters around and react to things that happen along the way.