Here's my basic process:
Idea! Write, write, write-- brick wall! Outline, outline outline, don't outline, outline, don't outline-- shiny object!-- what was I doing? oh, outline... meh, good enough. Write, write, brick wall, write, pass out on my keyboard at 4am... then get back to it in a bazillion years.
I always start with notes or pieces of the story that I've been chewing on for a few days (ew, not literally... okay, only on my pen caps). I don't start writing anything until it's invaded my brain for at least a couple of days, and once I get some stuff down, then I consider outlining with ordered bullet points. Mostly, I outline once I've made some significant headway in my story (mentally or on paper). But I stray from it whenever something else strikes me as better, of course. As a matter of fact, it's pretty much just a formality that I do it at all. I just do it because that's how I learned. (Although I totally get what you're saying-- time travel stories you completely *must* have an outline or else risk confusing yourself or the readers...)
Gee, I seem to have rambled quite a bit there... does it look like I plan out my writing and keep to the outline strictly? :rolleyes:
