Look what I've been up to

As I've already told you, before I start writing properly I've decided to develop my plot lines, I loved doing this for Spanish Steps, it's a bit like scribbling down all your thoughts and then, rather like a jigsaw puzzle, organising them into a cohesive whole.  

At the moment I am surrounded by sheets of paper full of ideas, for example on one sheet I have written 'Max talks to Rosie' and from that thought the following ideas grow

• Rosie's dialogue to be in italics which will hopefully imply that it's not quite an ordinary conversation.
• when will it be obvious to the reader that Rosie is dead? i don't want to hit them with it on the first page.
• should I have all Max's conversations with the woman fro his past in italics or just those with Rosie?
• Will he have conversations with the other woman from his life in the same way e.g his Mother? No I think that before his stroke he will only speak to Rosie.  After the stroke he will be reliving the past so the italics will be unnecessary.
• without being mawkish the conversations with Rosie must show that their love is still alive
• should Rosie be a timid little thing or a feisty redhead? 
• probably go with feisty but must make sure that she doesn't become a harridan 

So do you get the idea?  Character development and plot lines are so much fun to write.  This is where I can try things out before committing them to paper, so to speak.  The characters can spout rubbish, the story can go off on a thousand tangents but when I gather all the notes together and get to work with the highlighter pen then I will hopefully be able to start writing without loosing my way too often.  Well that's the theory anyhow.