I decided to draw concept art as part of outlining. I started with anatomical drawings of the primary alien species in my WIP novel, first with dorsal views, and later lateral and anterior.
I'm finding this to be a useful process, as it forces you to consider the alien's evolution, adaptations and environment. I also think it just helps to bolster the image in the mind's eye.
I already plan to do this with the next short story I have in mind as well. How about you folks, do you do this, and do you find it useful for your writing?
I've tried minimally to do what you are mentioning, but would like to get better at it.
Personally, my approach is neither seat of the pants nor outlining. I start with an idea for a story and some of the characters, and a rough idea of the changes I want the characters to go through. Then I do a number of pilot test scenes along those paths to see if they're as promising as I think they'll be. Generally I work from the ending backward. This keeps me from writing myself into a corner (as might happen in the beginning-to-end seat of the pants mode), but it allows me some give and take with the story at the outset that often leads to radical revisions in concept.
This method is not without its drawbacks, of course. It gives me wonderfully textured scenes and good control over foreshadowing character developments, but it makes it tough to keep a consistent plot pace. As the story tightens up, scenes I've lavished attention on get the ax because they come at a point where they don't move the story forward. And there's that inevitable stage where I've finished all the stuff that attracted me to the story and still have 20% to go to finish.
In general I can outline my stories at any stage, but the outline changes dramatically as I build scenes and discover things I want to do. So for me manuscript editing software has little value.
What I find indispensable is software to help me manage drafts, so I can get back scenes I deleted, try alternatives and set them aside, or go back to earlier versions of certain scenes. Since there is no writer's software to do this, I used source control software. I've settled on bzr (Bazaar) because it is cross platform, free, and relatively simple to use. I recommend every author use it.
Have you tried Scrivener? It has versioning built in, though they call it 'snapshot'. This video tutorial demonstrates the feature:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/videos/Snapshots2YouTube.mov
[This message has been edited by Osiris (edited July 22, 2011).]
In fact, I prefer to write in a plain text editor using reStructuredText, which generates nice HTML, PDF and DOC files but is perfectly readable as plain text. "reStructuredText" is a kind of simple text format markup that kind of works like the UBB code we use here, but generates outline numbers, chapter headings and other goodies in whatever output format you want.
Bazaar version control plus text editor plus reStructuredText met just about all my needs, except one. I now use Bazaar and Open Office, because at a certain point it becomes convenient to work with ".doc" files for exchanging edits and comments with reviewers.
I confess I would at times like to have a good outliner; I haven't found one I liked since the old days of "In Control". If might consider Scrivener if it keeps all of its files in an open, standard format, but I don't like the idea of entrusting my work to a format that might disappear if the company goes belly up.
Before I start writing, I will have a basic outline, but that's it. I think too much planning can ruin a story, giving it a synthetic feel. That's why I tend to simply go with the flow and allow ideas to come to me when they wish it. It's a very rewarding way to write, plus it becomes an exploration adventure. I never know when something will pop up.
I have a friend who plots things out in advance, but in the first draft her characters don't seem to change much. Then she goes back and fleshes in her characterizations. To me that's kind of an amazing thing, because it's the exact opposite of the way I work.