When I write I will have usually one specific thing, a line of dialogue, a picture of a scene in my head, etc, that kind of generates the whole story. But, the actual story that it gets into is sometimes as much of a surprise to me as it is everyone else, lol. I'll have a line, think of a general story around it and start writing, and more ofen than not I have nothing plotted or planned other than that very vague idea. Most of the time the characters will then say or do things which generally steer the story itself, and I am able to write something out, reread it and say, "No, this isnt really what I was looking for you to do," and then erase it and start over.

I *wish* I had like, a fimr plot or motivations sometimes, because I think it might be harder for me to then pull myself away from what I've written and see if the characters are all acting the way they *should* be from the wtory I've written, but I usually find that if I plot too hard then I *try* too hard, and wind up frustrating myself and writing nothing *g*

Thanks for doing this poll! I always love to see how people write the way they do!