Ok, here I am again, pasting it from Word this time. ~a look towards Mad~ Thank you, Rhabbi.

How do I put a story together? Actually, it kind of puts itself together. I have an idea, a flash of a scene, a character that emerges in my mind and won't shut-up, and from there, the story just starts itself. From there, ideas come together and flow from me. Getting the story out of my mind and in type is a rush of doing. None of my stories, to date, have had an ending in mind at the start. It's as if the story "grows up" as I write, with the present being known but the future yet to be set.

After it's in it's rough form, I like to let the story just be for a while. During the "let it be" time, other ideas and ways of getting what I want from the story come to me. When I go back and read it after letting it alone for a few days, I am able to better see what works, what needs to go, who needs to have sex with who- that sort of thing.

Outlining is not an easy tool for me to utilize either. It tends to make things less organized for me. I like to make notes about characters, plot or settings, but that's about it. It's important to me to keep the details straight, not start off with a "Mark" and end up with a "Drake" (which I did once). It just helps the flow of writing if details are managed in some way, for me anyway. Because if I don't manage the story, it manages me. While the latter may be all right for certain things, it's not so great in my writing.

This Writer's Block has been a wonderful way to take risks in my writing, ones I might never have attempted otherwise. The use of dialogue or plot to weave my story for me have not only been encouraged, but supported, so I'm trying more of that as I develop ideas. Don't know if every idea will be worth its thought, but that's what we are here for, to find out, right?

~giggles a little cause I'm here~ Woohoo!

tessa