I think I mentioned to you that I write in a flood. I always know where I'm going, but I don't always know how I'll get there. I hear characters, see characters, dream characters. In the middle of a project they can seem as real to me as my friends. I even sometimes get crushes on them (a fact I have the tact not to tell my husband). Sometimes things come slowly enough for pre-research, but mostly I have to do it as I go. I'm usually ready to write when a character tells me his or her name. On that point, I have a weird talent -- names seem to come to me. Another writer can be working on a project and say, "I can't find a name." If I suggest one, it's always perfect because I hear it from the ether. Ava_Leigh has a character like that. Once I had suggested the name "Emily" no other would suit, because that was the name she wanted.

Another member of my writers group, Sylvia_rachel, said while writing her first novel, "It took a while for me to find out what [a certain character] was doing each time she went out. When I found out I was surprised." The quote might not be exact, but you get the idea. She had a character who kept slipping away to "call on others", but she actually didn't know where the woman was going until it came to her one evening and she put it to paper. The strangest part -- it worked magnificently. I can't say I'm ever quite that removed from the plot, but obviously it can be done. You'd think she plotted it all, it was that perfect.

Another friend, Sarramaks, plots everything, does the written outline, and gets no surprises. She knows every minute detail before it happens.

We all have our own process I suppose. It's interesting to hear yours. And I like knowing that my version isn't that weird.