Um, I did look up a bunch of online tutorials. As well, I sort of taught myself with gain and failure. You just need to play around a lot until you get somewhere. At least, that was how it was for me. ^^
Normally I do draft out a rough outline of the whole story. You know, where I want it to start and end. Then I just kind of make things up as I go - which kind of gets me in trouble sometimes. S:
Usually though I've been making more detailed outlines and following them to the T, so that there aren't any loopholes or anything. Again, I'm so glad you like my writing. That's a serious compliment to me right there, haha.