When you write an adventure...

[Destil]

I generaly have a flowchart / outline, a checklist or remember this sheet (often a timeline for your classic module revolving around things that happened in the past) and a bunch of stat blocks (tactictal notes I generaly don't need to much, since I often keep that sort of thing rather clear in my mind). Mabye a map or two on paper and a few ideas for what to draw on the combat grid during battle.

So somthing between the last two options.

 

[LostSoul]

I generally write about a half-page to a full page of notes. This is usually my brainstorming for the next adventure. I refer to this for specific DCs that I've set, or personality traits and the like.

Then I take those notes and condense them into a point form "quick-ref" chart in chronological order. I put the most important things and the things easy to forget in there.

I also write up the stats for NPCs that I can't use the MM or the DMG for.

 

[Capellan]

I write as much as I have time to ... ideally that's something close to a full, published style. More usually, it's somewhere between "not very much", and "nothing at all"

 

[arwink]

I tend to write up encounters and characters rather than fully fleshed out adventures. I learned long ago that my players tend towards chaos in action, and improvising things around their actions keeps the world reacting to them as well as them reacting to the world.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Personally, I belong to the minimalist camp - about the only thing I write down are some very rough map scetches and abbreviated monster and NPC stat blocks (and I shamelessly recycle them with minor alterations, too).

That doesn't mean I don't think about the plot, however - I just try to get a clear idea of the main villain, his personality, motivation, resources, and plans. I only write up stats for him when the PCs are actually shortly before meeting him in combat.

I'm a busy guy. Given a choice, I'd rather spend my time coming up with new plot twists than doing all the (to me) tedious work of writing down stat blocks and maps...

So far, it works for me.

 

[blackshirt5]

I write it out as completely as possible, at least for the important NPCs and the monsters. I prep everything I need before game time, as well, so that I'm not caught off guard looking for some book I need. I also keep an entire binder that I'm slowly but surely filling up with just my variant creatures(made using Monster's Handbook with Tome of Horrors, MM 1 & 2, CC 1 & 2, and Monsters of Faerun). The one area I'm usually lacking in is maps. I suck at drawing, so I don't usually have maps, or if I do have them, then they're generally not very well detailed. I fill in the details very well though with descriptions.

 

[nopantsyet]

I have extensive notes on important aspects of my world itself, but for each session, I generally put some sparse notes--some are specific encounters, some are information the players can learn, but beyond that it's all in my head--or at least is in my head for a split second before I say it. I improvise a tremendous amount. Or since alot of people see that as profane, I "interact" with the PCs based on the framework that I've created beforehand; that's why my setting notes are extensive.

One thing I put down in great detail is the monster ecosystem for each region of the world. That way, while I may preselect some encounters, most I choose during the session based on how the session is going. So I can just refer to my list for that region and decide that--to draw an example from my last session--the magma paraelemental was cake for them as a result of the character with unstoppable grapple getting resist fire cast on him and pinning the elemental while everyone else beat on it. So for the next encounter (as they crossed into another region) I pitted them against a Phthisic (PsiH). Since none are psions, it simply stunned them. So as soon as it was grappled, it stunned the grappler, and each round stunned the person who dealt the most damage until there was one char standing and he dealt the final blow before he could be stunned.

So I like having a framework I can work within so I can interact with the players rather than following a script. But certainly no disrespect to those who work differently than I do; this is just what works for me and I have no intention of evangelising it.