Great tips, Ande. I think Scott Rose and I went through much the same process when we wrote "Born Again Barbie" (except we were usually tossing random lines at each other the whole time). We discussed Barbie's motivation, and history, and her problems with Ken (and the impact of Ken finally coming out of the closet), and why she'd turn to religion and how it fit in with her being a role model (if a somewhat airheady one) for girls. And then everything fell together almost instantaneously. It does work--and you get a good product out of it.

Joe