what works best for each person is what works best for each person

General outlines help me stay on track, otherwise scenes wander and novels end up with 200,000 words.

Outlining. I enjoy coming up with the shape of the story more than I do writing it. Outlining let's me do all that at a high level and tweak it to give the story a good shape. I feel like it reduces the amount of time in editing because I never really took the story down roads that didn't really lead anywhere.

Pantser 100%.

All pantsers are liars. They don't outline externally, that's true, but in the backs of their minds is an image of their story that pushes their hands on the keyboard.

All outliners are liars. They don't jump right into the deep end externally, that's true, but in the backs of their minds are raging storms of scenes, splashing over the decks of their carefully planned boat deck, that start and fail so fast they can't even see them.

I go for it in the first draft. If I run into a plot / character issue in editing, I often outline it there so I know exactly what I’m working with. But I never outline before I actually start writing.

I'm like you, 50/50. I've done multiple outlines for my book, even drew a graphic once. it ended up not following most of it lmao

I prefer to have an outline. It's not uncommon for me to have an outline that goes all the way down to the chapter beats. I find that this helps me keep the structure of the story in place.

I also have a pretty good idea of who my main characters are before I start drafting. For fiction, I usually write in first-person or close third-person, so I need to know who the narrator is and how they approach the world.

When you come up with your story do you have a general idea and begin forming scenes or do you prefer to come up with a plot outline and in depth character outlines before hand?

The inclination of any story for me is an idea that I choose to nurture into a narrative with characters, setting and plot. If I just jumped in and went full throttle with the idea, it would be indicative of my first attempts to write; an unorganized semblance of a story without clear stakes, direction or message.

Like you’ve pointed out, not everyone benefits from outlining. I do though and follow its structure.

I just plunge in and wait for the little monster that lives in my subconscious to hand me lovely things.

I'm a bit of both. I've leapt into the deep end with full on pantsing, got something out of it. And I've planned things out and got something out of it too.

The benefit of streaming it is that I tend to throw more into it, which helps with word-count. But I often make silly mistakes (not like spelling, but repeating words when unnecessary and using the wrong words entirely). The downside I think is that it leaves me with a lot to deal with when it comes to the following edit passes. And editing as I go doesn't work for me because I get stuck re-reading the opener and editing that and I rarely complete the chapter like that.

Benefit of outlining is that the story is figured out mostly before the first word is written and you're filling in the details. Downside is if you rely on the rush of "fresh new shiny story" syndrome, this can kill your impetus.

And there's nothing saying you have to be one or the other. I see it more as a scale that can, and often does, shift around.

Outlines have never worked for me. It complicates the process and stifles creativity.
But that's me. Try everything, then do what works for you.

I outline because I write fast-paced plotty stuff, but only because pacing and plot is important to what I write 

When you come up with your story do you have a general idea and begin forming scenes or do you prefer to come up with a plot outline and in depth character outlines before hand?

I don't even have a general idea. I just go whichever way the wind blows in the beginning, and then when there's plot threads available, start working with those and planning more.

I’m a pantser with a general idea of where I want the story to go. When I’ve tried outlining, diagramming, and character analyses, I never made it beyond the first chapter. I want to discover the story as I write it.