I keep going back and forth about that--I didn't start out as a plotter, and some of my best stuff hasn't had a concrete beginning and end when I started it. But the more I work with word counts, the more I want to have a plan going into the thing. It does seem to take some of the magic out of it, I think, so I may have to just launch into a not-for-publication-sprawling-epic and see where it takes me. (In my copious spare time, of course!) :)