"Flying by the seat of your pants" is a common writing phrase. For those unfamiliar with the term, it's writing a piece with no clear goal in mind. There may be a pot of gold showing up in the next paragraph, or a scorpion nest. You won't find out until you get there.
This was my main writing style for many years. The writing classes I had were age appropriate, for the 8- or 9- year old I was. There was little talk about theory, and the ones I had were more research oriented. As such, I wrote by the seat of my pants, as that's what my classmates were doing. I didn't think about alternate methods.
Outlining is writing a synopsis of the story you have in mind. It serves as a framework which you later fill out with prose. One of my teachers might have had us outline as a writing exercise. However, he did not explain it well to my 8 year old self, so the lesson didn't stick.
Some writers prefer one over the other, or do both. Pantsing can lead to fun surprises as you write. I encountered major plot points in my first novel this way. I don't know about others, but it's difficult for me to write out prose when all I have is a cluster of raw ideas. Outlines give structure to people who prefer it. It's annoying though, when the prose deviates from the outline.
My first novel was heavily pants based. Since I want my second novel to be rather different, I wrote a detailed outline before starting. Twenty-thousand-words-long detailed. Though I have lots of thoughts and scenes plotted out, sometimes I outline a particular sequence to get a better idea of how the next couple of pages will go.
Because this style gives me a firm base for my prose to shine, I'm calling this corset writing.
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