I start by thinking about the themes, and how each character can be tied to the theme, and then I try to give each of them a question to answer, so the character arc of the story can be them answering or not answering it, and then I try to tie all this into a wider story, where their question drives them to drive the plot and vice versa, and then, with that outline complete, I try to divide it into acts and acts into scenes and scenes into moments that we get in to as late as possible and out of as fast as possible, to keep the pacing up, and then, about two days before the deadline, I panic like fuck, throw this all away, and hack out 3K words by the seat of my pants, which I then edit over and over between the deadline and the collection going live.