where do we start?

How do you prepare to write? Are you an out liner, who carefully writes out the flow of the storyline? Does this inhibit the characters running freely, limiting your choices of conclusions? Are you a scene collector with a story / plot board? How many pushpins hold the scenes in place? How often do you shuffle the cards or excise and trash a scene? Or do you just wing it? Letting the characters run around to whatever end your mind allows? What part of the spectrum do you live in from laissez to anal-retentive? What works for you and why does it work? My first book is finished without an outline and I'll be damned if it isn't harder to write one after the fact than prior.

the writing on the web

Using a WYSIWYG to post information to the web makes writing easy to do. Has it become to simple to be heard and does this cause a overwhelming volume that obsecures the best in a horizon of mediocrity.