After my last (and first, and only, as of yet) novel, I came to the conclusion that careful planning before you begin writing is probably a good idea. Of course, I'll cut myself some slack, since that novel was written only for the sake of writing a novel, because no matter how many donkey dicks it can suck on at the same time, it's still a novel. Words and words and words on pages and pages and pages.
Still, I really gained an appreciation for how much thought really goes into any given work. So many characters and ideas and stories are made up and discarded until you find the ones that fit together just right, to create such a beautiful pu