Detours

Returned a bit ago from taking my son to see his dad this weekend. Even though I'm missing our annual writer's retreat down at Osage Hills, since my son is out of town I'm going to go ahead and take advantage of the time to write.

Not sure what I'm going to work on. Usually I spend time each year before the retreat thinking and focusing on some ideas that I'd like to flesh out while there, so I'll have material for our nightly readings.

My mind has obviously been occupied by more important matters of late. :-)

So I'm thinking this evening of what I might be able to work on tomorrow in regard to stories I currently have going, or if I'll just start book number nine.

Now that I think about it, I'm going to go back to something I started several years ago. Once again it was a first chapter I wrote based upon a dream.

Guess you could say I live in a dream world half the time - ha!

The story was a pretty interesting concept for me. I pounded out that first chapter so quickly after the dream I'd had that it might behoove me to go back and fully flesh the puppy out a little bit. Perhaps I'll work on an outline or something to decide where I'd like to go with it.

Typically I've never worked with an outline - just write and write and let the story flow. I figure I can always go back and add or take out things that don't work or bog the story down too much.

So many writer's advice books talk about outlining stories to make them easier to write. I've always preferred letting it happen, but maybe it's time to see if it works easier and flows faster when I think the entire thing through at the beginning.

Once again, I can always change things if my characters decide to take a detour along the way.

They like to do that, you know.