I ended up at Barnes and Noble today. I didn't mean too, but I gues the writing gods had something in store for me. I purchased a soda, found a comfortable chair and then searched through the archives of books . When I returned to my oversized stuffed chair I held Sometimes the magic works by Terry Brooks in my grubby little hands. I had another book about writing from Joyce Oats and the "Official" Photoshop teaching manual. I flipped open the Brooks book and found it easy to read. I read the words off the page like butter dripping from hot corn. They were sweet and delicious and the only thing he said that made sense I hadn't heard from many other writers was to outline before you begin to write.

Years ago when I wrote my first and only sorry assed book, I tried to outline it, but I made so many changes o the outline that I became frustrated. I ended rewriting the book many times over as well and I threw away the notion that outlines would save me anytime. Now I'm much older and *cough* wiser my writing has developed to a different stage. Yes I will always have to rewrite (99.99% of writers do so), but his logic that the rewriting will be minimized if you use such an outline and expect the outline to change as you discover more of your story as you delve deeper into it. One remark he mentioned rang true to me. The writers who don't use outlines (Steven King to name one) feel that they are writing the story twice.

Something that has plagued me over the years is letting the fireflies go too soon. What the hell do you mean? Passion for a particular story is like catching a multitude of fireflies in your hands. When you have a few dozen buzzing between your clasped palms you can't contain the glow of their natural light even though you have them captured. With each telling, even a short synopsis a few flies are let go and he glow you once held begins to fade until you've opened your hands too many times and there is nothing left to illuminate your ideas with. So now I'm in a quandry. I see both sides of the story, but I need to know which will work for me. I'm going to try to do an outline of the one I began, because I see the possiblities to enhance the story not dimish it.

In the meantime...
me