Plotter AND Pantser?

The last couple of weeks we’ve been talking about the writer’s choice of being a plotter (working from an outline) or a pantser (writing by the seat of your pants.) I should point out that neither of these approaches is an absolute. Right now I’m working on a novel using a kind of a hybrid approach. Yes there’s an outline but it is very rudimentary compared to what I usually do. It’s only nine pages long, and I’m making up scenes as I go to hit the broad strokes, the high points laid out in that bare bones outline.
Full disclosure: that nine pages of outline includes a character list. Even if I don’t know everything that’s going to happen in my story I need to know the players. I would hate to have to stop writing when a character is introduced to figure out who this guy is and how he’s going to behave. I need to know a lot about my characters, way more than I ever tell the reader. The character’s name had to come from someplace, and it says a lot about his background. I suppose if you’re a true pantser you can have people just appear and learn about them as you go, accepting that they may be a bit unpredictable.  
But as I’ve shown you, there are real plusses and minuses to both approaches. And at the end of the day, you have to accomplish certain things no matter what, if your story is to be a success. Which approach suits your style really all depends on what order you do these things in.
Just remember that no matter how you write, it’s not a story without conflict. Regardless of the genre you like to write in, even if you write literary or mainstream fiction, conflict is what makes it worth reading. Conflict drives your story forward. That doesn’t have to mean a fight. Conflict is not violence. But it is the motivation for the protagonist and antagonist and whether you plan out how they’ll oppose each other in advance, it’s the pivotal point that is needed no matter how you approach writing.