Write Away

I am terrible at outlining! I sometimes free-write when I'm stuck, or if I have too many ideas and don't know where to start, I jot them all down and keep them in a document to use as prompts later. When I'm having a "good day", an idea will grab me, and then rather than outline, I brainstorm. I walk around listening to music and I daydream about it. I picture it like it's happening on a screen, and I think about how I want to phrase things, so I'll work out an opening paragraph, and when I'm ready I sit down and WRITE LIKE THE WIND. Then when I get stuck I walk away and do the brainstorming thing again. It sounds great, but it's a very slow process and if it's interrupted I have trouble picking up where I left off. So it's inconvenient when you have other responsibilities. The worst is when a story "bites" me late at night when I have to be somewhere in 5 hours. Having someone to bounce ideas off of helps too but that's not always feasible either...sometimes people aren't as enthusiastic about a thing as I am and I don't want to be obnoxious or depend on others too much.