How do you start your projects? I need a pen and paper.
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Often on paper, which I then scan and bring into my graphics program - or sometimes cut out and use as my first iteration! 
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Free Laser Designs is a forum section for sharing design files with other owners. I’ve moved this to an appropriate section.
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your right, was a typo mistake. 
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love it.
I use my design program! I don’t think I’ve ever designed on paper, even for 3D projects.
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however the mood strikes me. and depending on what i’m doing. could be paper, could be illustrator, could be PS, could be in the box maker (boxes.py for me).
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I’m an outlier, when making or building something I work from the mental image of my goal. Of course, there have been those times when a detailed written plan would have saved me backing up a step.
Working with design for the laser requires me to document the plan, but there is still an occasional oversight. 
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I run through design ideas and iterations in my mind first. I like to think on it and roll it around for about a week, especially if I’m trying to come up with something that fits a set of ideas or solves a problem or 3. For example, I’m currently thinking on a way for shops to display my puzzle tins – can’t take up a lot of room, maybe holds extra product inside it, somehow displays examples neatly, and is easy to keep nice and tidy. Oh yeah, and looks professional! I’m on the fourth design so far, and am still working out the little details!
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This sort of thing really shows where our brains work in different ways.
I’ll mostly have things fleshed out in my head before I start formality designing. Then most of the time it is Fusion 360 and I’ll do as much in the sketch as possible before doing the first extrude.
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I have always agreed this was so.
Wife and I are an example.
I can imagine something and draw it. Then if I draw it again, it comes out even better because I am looking at two sources now.
The wife also draws very well, but she has to have something to look at. A picture, person, painting, landscape, object, etc. She cannot just close her eyes and see something then draw it to save her life. We have worked with this many times and she is just not wired that way.
So we can have comparable results, but obviously are taking totally different paths there…
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I was in my…late 30s/early 40s before I found out there were people who cannot imagine things in their head - not that they’re not good at it, their brain is literally not wired that way.
Aphantasia. No impact on intelligence, or creativity, or anything - just a completely different way of going about life 
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Really depends on when I get inspired. If I’m out and about and something hits me, then I’ve been my Samsung Note phones for years. If I’m home and feel like drawing, I go with the iPad with the Apple pencil. If If it’s a fairly straightforward design without needing anything added then I go straight into Illustrator. I guess I use whatever is the most convenient option at the time 
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Add to that people who have no narrator and there are people who experience the world very different than I do.
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Definitely, the design process starts in my head. If something simple, I go straight to Inkscape. If something more complex, I can mull it around for days. If I run into a mental design obstacle I can usually find the answer to my dilemma while taking a shower of all things. This began as something purely accidental, but it has proven to be working so many times now, that it is no longer a coincidence.
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I recently heard someone describe reading as listening with your eyes as most people hear the words they say in their heads as they read. I certainly do. Those sections of the brain overlap.
Like smells and memories(or at least the emotions associated with memories even if you don’t pull a specific memory to mind). Ie campfire smells, may not recall a specific fire but it’ll conjure an aggregate image based on how you felt around the campfires you’ve been around.
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Definitely all in my head. I see the piece, take it apart and move the pieces around and think about the function of each piece, then I stare at the blank Illustrator screen for about an hour, then I start drawing. I tend to start with what it will look like finished then work backward to break it apart.
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