asking questions in order to fortify writing, whoo!

Whenever I write anything, I make sure to keep a list of questions I ask while working on it. It has proved to be an invaluable resource for both developing and editing.

For example, let's look at a VERY abridged list of questions I asked while writing my terrible NaNoWriMo novel, Dreamcaught:

• Why are they staying with Aunt K? Do they have other relatives? And how long is this arrangement lasting for? Have things like this happened before?
• Foster's ex-girlfriend Tam is probably ACTUALLY STILL HIS GIRLFRIEND???
• How much does Adam know about his wifes's life and existence? How much does Aunt K know about her husband's?
• This could actually be a much better way to show Aunt K's personality. Her attempts to help but general failure, and how she's coming to believe she's totally insane.
• Where have the Pritchards lived previously?
• Why did Jonas eat the apples? What an idiot!
• Her Majesty wants them all dead, why doesn't she just chop their heads off?
• everybody (I mean, literally everybody) knows immediately that Foster is the heir. Why?
• people are befuddled when they first arrive in VA... why? It seems they cannot get near normal humans without triggering a response in them.
•  Brianna has a cold in only one scene?
• The hands are everywhere-- they are a sign of the House of Fera and are a constant reminder of Cat's many murders and the fact that she married into the throne. 
• how long ago did Cat's husband die? what about the royal family?
• what family does Jonas belong to?
• who wrote the original prophesies that run most of the plot?
• what is the monetary system in Fae? I mention it several times, but use different names and it is never explained.
• how do Connie and Brianna see down in the tunnel system?
• and what exactly are these enormous tunnels used for? (Perhaps they are not all actually sewer systems, but rather huge caverns underneath the city that were once lived in but now are abandoned. The sewer systems were built around the caverns and involving them. Huge underwater lakes and such)
• How did the dragon get named after the prophesy?
• mode of transportation? Victorian modes of transport? Trains? Horse carriages? 
• what instrument does Nico play?

You can't really tell (but I promise, it's true) that these questions cover every aspect of the novel. There are questions about plot, inconsistencies, characters, names, factual information, world building, scenes, writing, and of course: plot holes. 

This is perhaps only one fourth of the massive amount of questions I have saved in my "Dreamcaught questions" document, but every day before I write I first open the questions document and read through the entire thing. It gives my brain time to process the information, and I am pleased to say that I have come up with some really helpful answers to a lot of questions this way. By listing it and then reminding myself of it, my brain works through issues without me really having to focus on it. 

Most days, when I go through the list I find tons of questions I can cross out really easily, because even though I'd been frustrated with it before, my subconscious had been working on it. 

Another god thing about the list: I'm much more trained to notice when things don't add up, so it is easier for me to catch plot holes. 

So there you go. It works for me. Keep lists, kids.