In the midst of the busy that has been this week so far, I’ve started outlining my next project. By “started” I mean rewriting all of the data I’d already compiled that was lost when the netbook imploded and by “outlining” I mean writing some sort of half-narrative synopsis type thing full of ideas and possibilities that I’ll later hack into something more clearly resembling an outline. When the walking-around-brainstorming-for-the-new-novel stage gets to the point where my brain feels like it’s going to explode if I don’t offload some of these ideas, that’s when I know I need to get down into the hard work of the outline/brainstorm mish-mosh. Which is where I find myself now.

Every project I’ve written I’ve prepared for differently. I haven’t found one right method to follow for every project, but neither do I think that I ought to have that “one” method for every project, because every project is so different. The one constant has always been that at some point — maybe before the first page is written, maybe after the first draft’s first chapter has been written — I always sit down and hack out the general ideas and the ending (in varying degrees of detail, initially). I never write without knowing the post-book resolution, as it were, though the ending, detail-by-detail, is amorphous until I get there. It’s one thing to say Prince Philip and Princess Aurora will dance together at the end, but it’s quite another to figure out all the little details (Prince Philip’s flight to the castle, the fairies’ intervention, the battle with Maleficent, climbing the tower, the kiss) that eventually get them to that dance floor to complete that image.

The weird fact is, though, that I’m tired of brainstorming and outlining and I’ve only just begun the process. It’s because I really, really want to write this project. So why don’t you just write it already? I… well. I had a long explanation prepared for that question. But I think the better answer is I’m going to go work on it right now, start getting into the first draft (oh, first drafts…!) then go back and hack into the outline. Once I see the shape of the start of the story more clearly (and the best way to do that is to write, to begin the process of getting the images in my head to take shape in the form of scenes) I’ll be able to really outline it.

So I’m going to go write now. *Grins* Get it? Write now… right now… okay, I’ll stop with the lame puns and go work.