Hmm, that's interesting. I'm the other way - periods of blind research first, then percolation, then splurge out writing, then go back and clean up. There's probably a lot more freedom in doing it the other way around! I'll have to try it. At least, if you come up against something you've written not fitting the research, you have the challenge of *making* it fit. Anything that makes me think more widely is, I find, good. ;)