Planning

Mood: Happy :D
I'm finally writing again. I haven't really been writing lately since I've been so busy, but I decided just to type and type. I'm working on an old story idea that I've finally decided to write. I started off with first 395 words. now I'm kinda sorta planning. Before I start planning I decided to tell y'all how I plan a story. I plan a story four different ways. Some stories I only do one of the four others I do all four.
One of the ways is a character chart. I only make these for my MAIN characters. And a few of my secondary characters. I do NOT do this for ALL of my characters. I found this chart online, and I loved it. Here it is:

• Name:
• Date & Place of Birth:
• Physical Description:
• Parents' Names & Occupations:
• Other Family Members:
• Lover:
• Friends' Names & Occupations:
• Hobbies/Recreations:
• Ambitions:
• Fears/Anxieties/Hangups:
• Most Painful Setback/Disappointment:
• Most Instructive/Meaningful Experience:
• Health/Physical Condition/Distinguishing Marks/Disabilities:
• Sexual Orientation/Experience/Values:
• Tastes in food, drink, art, music, literature, decor, clothing:
• Attitude toward Life:
• Attitude toward Death:
• Philosophy of Life (in a phrase):
• Extras:
  

I don't always answer all of them. Only the ones that effect the story.
Another thing I do is make a different type of character chart. But this one is for all of my characters. I can't really post it since I do it on excel, but basically I have four columns. One column says name. One says relation. This i where I put down how they know my MC. The next says personality, so I can remember how they are as a character. The final column says physical description. Where I say hair color eye color, etc. I like this method because say I'm in chapter 30 I don't want to go all the way back to the beginning to remember what I named the grandma. I record every character in order of when they are first mentioned.
My third method is pretty basic. I just type the main idea and a few key points I need to remember.
Fourth is probably the easiest (and the most fun). THis is the step I google images for scene ideas and characters. Remember my "Picture's worth a Thousand Words Challenge"? Well it's basically the same thing. I find a picture and write about it then add it to the story. Easy right?
So how do you plan for your stories? BTW if you decided to try one of those methods tell me how they work for you.