Pre writing methods used successfully in the past

First, I decide a topic. Whether it be for a research paper, short story, or any other  essay, I think of the direction I want to go with the work. For a story, I think of a character, his appearance, ability, goals, and build a story around that character. For research papers, once the topic is decided, I think of what the thesis in the paper will be, what question I am going to prove by the research. Then I start finding sources, citing them, making lists to build the paper with. For our assigned narrative I did not really do any of these things. For a narrative, I think about the topic, think of the direction I intend to go with the story. That is, I think of the first paragraph an start to type, then just build on it until I think there is enough material to cover what I want to cover. My most successful prewriting strategy is to meditate on the topic, decide what type of flow I want the work to have, figure out what point I am going to prove and then I put words on paper, nothing special, just get something down and fix it later.