if i draw several line segments, snap them together at their ends and then close it with a final drawn segment, how do i add a color fill that doesnt look as bad as the default bucket fill? The bucket tool is way too inaccurate. If I draw a shape using the pen tool in one go, or the other shape tools, it gives me the option to fill it accurately without using the bucket. I tried a number of things that didnt work already.

I will get severe tendonitis if I sit there and try to figure it out for hours in Inkscape or guess what the right keywords are for a google search.

If someone can even tell me the terms I need to google I'll appreciate that.

You can add a fill to closed paths -or opened by no more than one segment paths- through the fill and stroke panel (Shift+Ctrl+F).
If you only snap each segment's start and end nodes together, that won't turn the path to be closed.
You will have to connect each unconnected nodes that is next to eachother with the node editor tool's options.

-Which with the method you use by the way will produce double nodes on the path.-