Planning

I like to think that I am good at planning. I'm a bit like Tabbi in Realms Beyond; I want to know what I am doing, where I am going and what I will do when I get there. Often, I use Google Maps to look at the lay of the land before I arrive. When it comes to writing a chapter, I generally have a plan in mind. But then.... I start writing. I was recently writing a chapter for Realms Unravelled and had done a lot of research, brainstormed it and was ready to go. As soon as my fingers touched the keyboard, I thought of a different way to do it. Before I knew what had happened, I had written the entire chapter in a totally unexpected way. Reading it back, it turns out it was much better than my original ideas. It did make me wonder if other authors did similar things. Do they meticulously plan and stick to it, plan a bit, or just wing it?