I voted "It Depends". Usually my stories start with an idea, but I'm always so anxious to get stuff out of my head and on paper that I never want to take the time to write an outline. Maybe that's why I stay away from A-plots that require some careful thinking <g>!
I always know where I'm going to start and where I want to end up and generally what road I'm going to take, but sometimes a detour pops up. Mostly, though, I keep a fairly tight reign and try not to let the characters take me too far off course. Otherwise my stories become far too long and veer away from the basic premise.
Occassionally a character becomes more important or has more exposure in the story than I first planned. A good example for me is in Rage, where Adam Jenkins ended up playing way more of a pivotal role than I'd ever anticipated. He got me out of a tight spot by lending me his point of view and just grew from there.
Lynn
