Writing process and complexity

Following up on some things I noted on the Commonwords Yahoo list:

--but i'm curious as to everyone's writing process insofar as it equates
to what you consider you need, before you'll call a story complete? do
you consider the emotion you wish to inspire, before you start writing
the story? while you're writing it? at all?--

Character. I have to have a person or persons whose emotional balance matters to me, and I have to follow that character down to the bottom of his soul and then back up (at least a little ways; I did say I enjoy pathos). I have to see him batter at walls that topple over on him before he can find the tool within himself to get beyond them. I have to have character before I can write even a word. To call a story complete, though, I have to have a fleshed-out setting that supports the issues that batter the character, as well as some reason for those events to have occurred (plot).

At the moment, while continuing to struggle with Plot Mountain, I'm beginning to think that there's a balance to be struck between far too simple plots and ones so complicated I need to write all the pieces down to make sure I don't forget any. Somewhere in there has to be the point where things are complicated enough to be interesting, but not so complex that the reader turns pages with a frown on their face.

I like complexity – sometimes too much so. What's worse, though, is that my characters tend to make leaps of comprehension. When the reader lacks the basis for that comprehension, they're left behind in the dust, which leads to lost interest in the story.

So I have two problems to tackle at the moment: coherent plot, and coherent reaction to the plot.