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I push myself away from writing down the ideas I get until it gets to the point where it's literally physically hurting me to not let these ideas out. That is when I consider an idea ripe to write. Once the idea has been unleashed, I write incessantly, non-stop, without thinking. It is only when the idea begins to tamper out, that all the days and weeks of thoughts begin to run sparse and the highly-detailed points become thin, do I sit back and look through what I had written. It is at this point that I begin to flesh the story out. The world it takes place in, its history, political inclinations, culture and creed. Then I flesh out the main characters in the same way - personal history, social status, base personality traits, defining characteristics (physically, emotionally, personally), opinions and beliefs, things like that. After the main characters comes the secondary characters (those who are not the protagonist but are prominent characters) with the same development, and then finally the support throw-away characters who are given little more than a name, general build, and general personality type. I do not really outline things; I have a basic idea of main events, and discuss them with some confidants to solidify them. I do, however, outline all of the background information - it's not uncommon for me to create appendices with all of the history of people and places and mythos that are around 10 pages long. I am a world-builder. The most enjoyment I get is from building complex, fleshed-out worlds. The next level of enjoyment comes from creating unique characters. Then comes fitting those characters into the world and defining the symbiotic relationship between world and characters, and characters to other characters. The least enjoyable part for me is describing present-tense motion, or the actual linear story. That's the hardest part for me. So do I just sit down and write, without much of a plan? Sort of. I often write without an outline or a draft or anything like that to steer my path, but I sit down with general ideas in my mind that I want to strive toward. Of course, I am also a proponent of the concept of "surrender yourself to your writing," where you effectively take a back seat once the seed has been planted, and allow the story to progress in whichever way it wants to go. I can sit back and sort of trim it when it starts to wander too far off the path I had planned for it, but I give the story plenty of wiggle-room. It is my belief that if you want a story to feel organic, then you have to let it be organic; you have to let it grow and find its own path through the rings and hurdles you, as the author, set up for it. That's my personal belief.

Usually I have some sorta plan when I write. I've thought the most important parts of the dialogue, the locale, the characters, the general feeling. It's like I've watched a movie and all I have to do is describe it. At points, I wish I had the budget to shoot movies, because I could play with camera angles, something that's incredibly hard to write. There are things I don't intend to happen, it happens, and I work it out. I refine dialogue. I think of better things, of extra scenes, and I just write the crap out of it. Sometimes it's totally out of the blue... and at times, I honestly don't like it. It messes with the images that I already have in my head and it may totally fuck my own ideas up - that kills it for me. So I end up rethinking everything, reimagining scenes, actions and so on. At other times, it flows perfectly, and I'm proud of how things turn out. So even if I do think when I write... I reach automatic mode eventually. It works. Lately, however, I've been overthinking things and as a result, I can't seem to write anything. I'm trying to fix that though... once again *sigh*.

I'm mostly Irish. The rest is Swedish, which leads to an occasional desire to pillage myself. And drink mead.

I think stream of consciousness as a style refers to the style of writing where you literally record your thoughts without attempting to instill order or conform to normal rules of grammar. Sort of like when you;re thinking to yourself and something totally unrelated pops in before you return to your original train of thought. Kerouac might be an example of that sort of narrative flow, or even James Joyce. It's actually not a bad technique to add some drama with a good internal monologue in that form, and it can make a character really come to life.

I have a blast when writing, simply because the characters take on a life of their own and I get to see their interactions in my head - almost like a movie, but usually against a black screen. (Usually. Depends on if there's a place I have in mind or if they opt for certain surroundings.) The downside to having characters take on a life of their own, of course, is that, when they're arguing with each other about something they want written, I can't get them to shut up. And they dont. Go. Away. I have to wait until they're done or come up with a compromise. Kind of a hassle. And a major headache. I, on the other hand, can't stand to not read good books, because I'm too much of a grammar Nazi and a plot-hound. (I looove convoluted plots and long stories, and a touch - or more - of the dark is just wonderful as seasoning. ) And of course you're welcome. It's always fun to discuss writing with other writers; we bounce around the most interesting tips and commentary, and often make strange remarks that no one but another author would understand. Seconded! I love my readers, too, but sometimes a bittersweet ending is best - or even just a depressing or resolved one. It really depends on the story. It's fine and good to make the readers happy, but if the author isn't proud of or at least satisfied with his/her work, something needs to be scrapped and redone. Readers who demand happy endings all the time aren't the kind that will buy another copy when the first one is worn out. Nor are they the kind who will think, "Hey, this story was so good, maybe there are other awesome stories by this person!" and check out an author's page or profile. A reader worth keeping will keep coming back. (And usually forgive the author for taking time to update, and really care if life suddenly has puppies all over your lap.)

I very rarely plan out anything; plans go awry so easily. About the most I ever have of a plan is, "I want to include this as a scene," or "I want it to end like this" - it makes for a very chaotic story, but personally I think that just makes the entire thing more entertaining. Especially when the characters in my head start having conversations of their own and insisting things be included. *facepalm* They've done that to me a lot recently; made for a bet and flirting in one story and had everyone looking askance and thinking, "Did they really just...?" And of course the answer was yes, they did really just. I'm still not sure why, precisely, but it's going to make for a wonderfully hilarious ending. And one of a whole three things in that story that are planned, period. On the other hand, too much free reign to a story can make things evolve out of proportion. I started a Final Fantasy VII fic as a gift for a friend on another site, and all she asked of me was to start out with "It was a rainy night in Midgar" and to use a specific pairing. Well, in relatively short order it turned into a series (or should I say three?) and the pairing turned into a threesome. Granted, she gave her permission or I wouldn't have let it get that far, but this is the kind of thing that happens to me. *shakes head* The third in the series was inspired by a Christmas parody that came into my head and was mentioned in the first, right at the beginning.

It depends on what I am writing. I like to do both. Free association writing feels really good, cathartic (my favorite word). Planning writing can be just as satisfying, but for me at least the free association writing tends to lead to the planning. A lot of my stuff originals and fanfictions started off as my imagination bleeding all over whatever I could get my hands on to write with, then as I wanted to develop them into more serious works they started getting more planned. My fanfiction Spiel Mir Mir (Inuyasha) is a planned fic, whereas the first chapter of my fanfic Training (Inuyasha) was free association writing. My creative switch is always pressed to overdrive, so I feel satisfied with writing no matter which route I take.