Is your prefered method

[Snowfax]

I've been planning everything out for two years now on one of my bigger writing projects... I'm serious about it so I can't just start writing! Each book has to work each other and I plan on there being plot links and twists throughout the whole series!

I think it's much better to plan or at least know where you're going.. or else you'll end up rambling on and it will just be a long drabble of a story... rather than a well thought out plot

[Chiona]

Typically, I make a very general plot. If I think of details that I want to add in or that play a huge part in the plot, then I put it in the outline. After that, I let my imagination fill in the holes.
In that way, I use a mixture of planning and not. Some details lend themselves better to planning while others tend to come out better on the fly. Besides, I'm sure if I tried to plan absolutely everything, I'd end up changing a lot of the outline in the end.