Write Hard - Plotter vs Pantser examples

Last week I introduced two different approaches to writing fiction: plotters (who like an outline) as opposed to pantsers (who write “by the seat of their pants.”)  I thought it might be useful to give an example of how a plotter like me might approach writing a story.
Perhaps we decide that a terrorist has a plan that begins with kidnapping a group of innocent people at a Christmas party. That’s really just a distraction because his real plan is to steal $640 million in bearer bonds from a vault in that building. We decide that a hero will get involved unintentionally. Then we plan each barrier the hero will face in stopping the villain, each bigger than the last, until the hero finally wins. [Yes, I’m writing Die Hard – from a plotter’s approach.] As I build that plotline, I’m deciding what kind of person would conceive of such an audacious plot. And I’m deciding what kind of hero would be both willing and able to thwart him. To an extent the plot tells me who the characters are.
So why be a pantser? Well I think the pantser likes to be surprised by where his narrative takes him. This is a writer who, instead of finding confidence in seeing the entire sequence before he starts writing, perhaps gets bored if he knows all that’s going to happen. He most likely starts with the characters and a situation.
So, imagine I want to write a story about a cop who’s a real cowboy, a wild card on the job who can’t keep his family life together. I want to show how this guy deals with a serious crisis and proves that he is, in fact, a hero at heart. Suppose I have him go to a Christmas party with his estranged wife. But then a bunch of terrorists takes over the building, endangering the still beloved wife. What will he do, how will he deal with this situation. And how will the villain, a worthy opponent, keep him on the edge of failure?
If a pantser wrote this story, he might not have any idea of the villain’s reason for crashing the Christmas party when he starts writing. But the characters tell him there’s more to it than simple hostage taking because this is a very smart bad guy.
So you can see how these two approached to storytelling could have created the same story. But what if the pantser story line doesn't work? Ahhh, that is a story for next week.