Creative Personalities, or How We Write
I am rather blue and blah at the moment; it is pouring rain outside (at least it's not snow?*) and the wind is howling something fierce. I'm wrapping up my contribution to the B2MeM review award grand prize banners, trying to think of how to represent mithril seasonally, and feeling like wasting some time but not on something completely fruitless.
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Ah, a fellow swallowtail! (I remember seeing you mention that on, I think, Oshun's post that inspired my post and being grateful that it wasn't just me. It's funny how even when a creative method works for me, the perception that it's somehow still not the "right way" to do things sticks with me. My failure to understand the hoopla surrounding the B2MeM format each year often makes me feel very much the outlier.)
I could never write out a plot outline.
The most I do is jot down a few words on what I want to happen and in what order for long stories. (Kind of like your signposts ... I like that term. :) I am so bad at plot that I will forget otherwise. I sometimes reread old stories of mine and am surprised at what happens in them.
Other times, I let the characters decide entirely. Of my longer stories, By the Light of Roses and The Work of Small Hands had a mini-outline; Another Man's Cage, The Tapestries, and The Sovereign and the Priest did not.
But sometimes I will also jot notes to myself at the top of a story about what I'm trying to show about a particular character, if it is rather nuanced and I am afraid of losing focus. It helps me to read that before I resume working on a piece to remind myself of where I'm going and why I'm there. :)
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