[James Ewell Brown Stuart]

I like your suggestions. What I do is usually work it out in my head first. I work out every detail. Mostly, if my characters (as I have written them) would react that way. (For the novel I am working on now, I'm using real people, so that is a must) If there are holes, then either I erase or I go back to the text and fix it.

The second thing I do is I write dialogue. For me, dialogue takes on a life of its own. I write things that I never thought about before, and dialogue is easier to write than description.

I have to ask...did the Toaster of Doom use llamas to do his dirty work? What kind of dirty work would llamas do?

Did you ever see the Calvin and Hobbes where Calvin discovers the toaster. He puts the bread it, pushes the lever, the toast pops out. Hobbes says that its a neat trick. Calvin looks in the slot "yeah, but where did the bread go?"

[TalonDJ]

I am really bad about planning things out. Being an engineer I like to have all the little meaningless details figured out. Since I like scifi that means inventing everything there is to invent about that universe. Most of which does not really matter. And the more I think about it the more the details drift and change here and there. Just enough that I feel like I am never ready to start writing. So I really needed nano to show me how to 'just do it' and loosen my grip on the nitpicking. Now I prefer to basically stock up enough ammo and a 'good enough' map. So I know where I am headed (the big plot) and I have enough bullets (plot points, twists, characters, settings, etc) to shoot along the way but I don't have to have inch by inch maps and a footstep-by-footstep plan of how I get there.

I still need a ton more writing experience so take it all with a grain of salt. For me thought NANO was just what I needed.

[RosieCotton]

I do a lot of imagining stuff in my head, too - in the car, as I'm getting ready in the morning, as I'm wandering around... I'll imagine scenes that may not even make it into the story, but that give me a better feel for the characters. Also makes for a good way to entertain oneself while waiting for appointments and such. ;-) But there are times when I just get stuck, and that's when the other methods come into play.

Heh...you know you've been thinking about your characters a bit too much when you're in church and start thinking "I really should pray for [Character] - he's been having a rough week..."

Yes, the Toaster did use llamas. He trained them as ninjas, with the help of a devious laptop and some really lousy movies.