Literally.
I mentally explore a story for several days or even a couple of weeks before I ever sit down to write anything. I am in that phase with a script right now (the fact that I haven’t found my sister’s Word CD yet, has also delayed my writing anything down).
Anyway. Last night I was mentally working on the script…while I was asleep. Really. It wasn’t just me dreaming the plot, it was: “What if this happened? No, that wouldn’t really work because…. Well, what if the main character did this. Yeah, that would be cool.” I was visualizing scenes, blocking, framing, the whole nine yards. I actually got some good ideas out of it.
No wonder I woke up tired.