That's probably what most of us think when we consider the idea of extensive planning for something we want to write: planning everything down to the teeniest details that will never apply to what we're writing and—worse—we don't care about, anyway.
But that's a misconception. It's always good to plan things you won't actually use, because that backstory will then influence and seep into your actual story—Lord of the Rings, anyone?—making it far richer than it would've been, otherwise. Extensive planning doesn't (necessarily) mean planning out every single impertinent detail before you can even sit down and write.
No, extensive planning is more like those sentence outlines you might've hated in school: the ones that, when finished, are pretty much the paper in an outline format. As you sit down to string the sentences together, you'll likely have some reorganization and revision to do, but all the foundation is there if you've done the outline well.
That's what the extensive planner does: makes the full structure for the book and scenes so when he sits down to write it, he can start wherever he wants without having to worry (much) about integration, later. The middle, the end, the beginning—what he'd originally thought would be all the scenes of the book are before him so he can write them in whatever order he wants.
Might that extensive plan change during the writing process? Yes. But that's a good thing.
Some of us, though, lack the patience to plan extensively or know we have trouble flexing from a detailed plan when it's not working. In our cases, a form of minimal planning is best. But please, please don't handicap by not planning whatsoever!
And if you find yourself stuck working out details like the one listed in this post's title, close this window and start writing your story. Now.
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