Oh, here's something I can weigh in on.
Okay, first: as Chris said, players don't come to the table with preplanned stories, so why should the GM? At the same time, when I'm a player, I come to the table wanting to *do* things, and I demand my players do the same when I'm GMing. I've played with GMs who preplanned everything and I get supremely frustrated each & every time. Because I play characters who are active and curious, who want to do things, not react to things.
So, I expect players to come to the table with characters who will seek out conflict. They have goals and dreams--you know, that bit at the top of the character sheet where you write your character's goals: "learn to surf" or "find the 'calling spirit' of his secret quest" or whatever. The player is presumably having their character work towards that goal--if not, why the hell did they write it down? As the GM, I throw complications in the way of completing that goal. Similarly to Chris, the prep work I do for GMing is to come up with a bunch of NPCs who are all dynamic and passionate and plotting. They, like the PCs, want stuff. Frequently, the want stuff that conflicts with the PCs' goals. Or they want to use the PCs towards their own ends. Combine PCs who *want* things with NPCs who *want* things and you get conflicts. And that drives the sessions.
Do I have secrets? Sure. The NPCs say they want one thing, but they really want another. Or one NPC is secretly in love with another NPC, and that relationship causes trouble for the PCs. But the point of play isn't to figure out my secrets, the point of play is for the PCs to get what they want (with me throwing complications in the way). Do I have plots? I have certain events that will happen, although the specific details will often change depending on what the PCs have done. But I never have, "The PCs will go here and talk to this guy, and then they will go to this place and rescue this person, and then they'll go here and grab the Magical Dingus." The players are free to have their characters go where they want and do what they want.
As Mike has said about his GMing, if you watched one of my sessions, I don't think it would look all that different from anyone else's session. The difference is mostly what we do for prep.
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