I had a chance to read Chris Compton's article Every Part of the Buffalo from the playimprov.com newsletter. It's a great discussion of not dumbing down to the audience, not getting caught up in your head, and using what you know in a piece. I particularly liked his suggestion of naming characters using the names of people you know. Using names (actually, the lack of using names) is one of the many challenges I face in a piece (okay, I suck at it).