Well, as GRR Martin says, if you would plot every little turn and twist in your story in advance, there would be no fun in writing. Still, I have found that I'm at my most productive when I've given a story some thought first before I start adding some more pages to it. I see it like this: I...
I think it's not about the amount of detail you write down when you're creating historical events, places, people etc. but that it's more a case of learning, as a writer, what the most important things are and how to correctly place fragments from your notes in your story.
For example, when a...