How much time did you spend planning?

I create a rough outline, one or two sentences for each chapter or major event I have "planned" and each has a check box. Then I leave checkboxes in the space between each with nothing written ( these will come.) I have the general idea of whats going on but those blank spaces are always a suprise. I pick a "random" box to check, write the chapter. Pick another box elsewhere in the story, write it, and then start to connect the dots and blank space. I'll have chapters 1-3, 5, 14, 20-25, 32, 40. Then jump in between each whenever I have a new idea about how to tie them together.

I spend no time planning. All the character and worldbuilding stuff happens during the writing process.

I do next to no planning. I write towards my understanding of the book. This leads to an enormous amount of discovery, and as people that pan for gold can no doubt attest to, a great deal of work for nothing. That's not entirely true. Nothing really goes unused. But for me there are lots of 'Oh...' and going back to the start with a new understanding. I don't know how else to work. I can't outline to save my life. I re-rack a book four or five times before I have a real first draft, though lately, I feel like I have a better grasp of what I should be considering as I'm writing, so the amount of re-working seems to be a little less.

I'll usually have an idea spinning in my head for weeks, but only take a day to outline it. The outline will definitely change as I write, but it's always a good jumping off point.

Honestly not that long; once I got the rough plot together I just started writing, and then the plot moved and developed the more I wrote.

My tutor actually said something really true, "As much as you plan for your characters to behave a certain way, make certain choices and the plot to go in a certain direction - that's you making those decisions, and when it comes down to it you have to let them make their own - because they will, and they will be different to yours.

Everyone's different, but the longer I do this the more I lean to the side of extensive planning. There are still times when I get overeager and start writing before I should, and those projects either never get finished or don't end being as good as they could have been. As far as how much time, my current WIP marinated in my head for a few months, but when I finally opened a word file for notes, ideas, plot beats, etc I outlined pretty intensely for two weeks before starting to write.

I usually plan more for my novels rather than short stories (and some shorts are written with hardly anything except character names and plot points). Yet, despite planning, sometimes I'll go according to the outline and hit a snag which forces me to do a top-to-bottom rethink. Even when I pants parts of a novel, I usually need time away to get perspective on it. For example, a fantasy manuscript I have is 180,000 words long. Took me eleven months to write it, only to realize I had ripped the narrative structure of "A Game of Thrones" and it was needlessly complicated. Should have been focusing on one or two characters throughout! Fortunately, most of that 180k door stop is useable but I'll have to rewrite the whole thing. Sometimes no amount of planning can make the end result any better. One more reason why they say, "The key to writing is to write."

Back to your question, I plan when I think I need to. Notes for reference are always nice.

I'm guilty of not being a planner. I usually write my novels in one sitting, at the annual 72hr Muskoka Novel Marathon fundraiser for literacy. I sit down with maybe an idea, sometimes not...and I write for 72 hours until I have an ending. No planning, no outline, no nothing. It's how I work. I can't plan. I've tried it. Many times. To each their own.

My characters do stuff and I write it all down. Of course I realize some people HAVE to plan it all out down to the last rivet on the tail assembly but whatever floats your boat.

I write for 72 hours until I have an ending.

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That's impressive. Sometimes I think I write fast (a book in six months). Amazing!

I used to think I was someone who could just write without a plan, but it was only after I planned each plot point and scene that I actually finished a coherent novel draft. For my current WIP, I wrote a dump draft, just going off of my main idea of theme and some general ideas of what I wanted to happen. Then I sat down and planned the thing out and found that more helpful in creating conflict that made sense and mattered, character motivation, as well as build up to the climax. Then I did a rewrite. I did find it helpful to have gotten it wrong on the first try; it guided me away from bad decisions (because I'd already gotten them out of my system) and toward ones that made more sense for my story.

I've never written anything that required much world-building, and I can imagine that it can be quite time-consuming and intense. My recommendation is to always keep in mind what your theme is and what your characters' goals are. Which parts of your world serve those purposes? That will guide you toward what needs to be talked about, in my newbie opinion.