Razor,

Outlines don't work for everyone. There are some brilliant stories and novels out there that were written by the seat of the pants method.

What it boils down to is use an outline if it helps your creativity; don't use one if it seems to stifle your creativity. The one caveat is that on a large work, if you go without an outline you will probably have to do more rewriting and possibly backtracking.

It's all about finding the process that works for you.

rose