The Importance of Planning

So as much as I said in an earlier post that I'd be better off planning out stories before jumping right into them, I find that a lot of my short stories, which I usually write on a whim and in one sitting, work really well with absolutely no planning. I go into them with a really general idea of where I want the story to go, make up a character, and write from there, letting the setting, character, plot, and everything else develop as I work. It's almost a writing exercise; it shows you how creative you can be. If you need to thoroughly plan out a story to get it the way you want it, that's probably a good skill to have. If you can sit down and create a wonderful piece of work without even trying, you're probably really damn good.