Say Whatever You Say

I'm currently doing something I haven't done in quite some time...I'm writing without a plan. I started a story and I'm just letting the character talk and tell me whatever is on his mind. It's funny because I used to always write that way and it was easy. I'm sort of out of practice though and find myself always asking where I'm intending to go with this. The answer is that I don't know and I like it that way.

I typically have a summary of a story before I start working and skeleton outlines once I start. I've always worked with rough outlines, more of a plan of events than an outline really. I'd be lying if I said that I don't have some for this story too, or at least tons of notes. But I don't have the summary. I only started summaries when I started selling books to publishers before they were written. Naturally, they wanted to know what the story was about before forking over an advance. I kind of got into the habit of it, even though the story always changes and it's a bit of a process breaking free once again.

With this one, I want to wander. The character is a fifth grade boy based heavily on myself as a fifth grade boy. I felt the nature of such a creature would best be captured by letting him loose. I hope he takes me somewhere great. So far, I've worked on the first chapter for a few days and yesterday I think I finally got his voice and style down. Later today, it's off to the races.