Ginger, your novel deadline is October 2, 2005. Get cracking.

On assignments where we had to turn in an outline, I wrote the paper first, then made an outline of it.

I always make an outline first. I rarely stick to it completely, but it really helps me get my thoughts in place. I wasn't always that way. It used to be easier for me to just sit down and write the paper. But since the ECT and seizures this summer my brain works quite a bit differently.

My parents got me Inspiration [link] as an early Christmas present this year. It helps me A LOT. I do my outlines there, map my planning, map thoughts and ideas, etc. It's really wonderful software. I also do therapy homework in it. My therapist is always impressed when I come in with these detailed, typed and pretty chain analyses.

I have a really hard time making an outline for anything, but fiction in particular. I have an even worse time keeping to my outlines. I was firmly in the write first/outline after camp, when I was in school.

PC, last night I sent you an e-mail with my cell phone number. Will you just let me know that you got it?

I got it, vw, thanks!

t /not here

Actually, that doesn't make any sense. I need to open that tag, not close it.

t not here

I got it, vw, thanks!

Great! Thanks for letting me know!

I have an even worse time keeping to my outlines.

I don't always stick to my outlines, but they give me a place to start. If I don't make them these days, I tend to stare at a blank screen forever, which doesn't really work when you've got deadlines...especially multiple deadlines in the same time period.

I think it is important to teach the process of doing outlines in school. But, after a certain point, I think *requiring* them is ridiculous. People have different writing styles, and they should use what works for them. Requiring something like an outline may actually make the process much worse for some people. Anyway, that's my two cents.

I think it is important to teach the process of doing outlines in school. But, after a certain point, I think *requiring* them is ridiculous.

I had a teacher that not only required them, but didn't allow you to veer from them. That might be what got my hackles up about them. It is natural, during the course of writing, to be inspired by a better idea. With fiction, it is almost guaranteed to happen. With non-fiction, if the outline is required really early on in the process (before the full research is complete) it's almost as certain.

Oh, Cindy. I can totally see how that would get your hackles up! How frustrating to work under those constraints. I would have been pretty willfull about that.

It felt like an exercise in futility, and so I think I then never developed the discipline necessary to order my thoughts before beginning. Also, you may not have noticed *cough* but I tend to be wordy, and a lot of times, my outlines devolve into full text, all by themselves. *g*

On assignments where we had to turn in an outline, I wrote the paper first, then made an outline of it.

Yup. I've always found the writing stage to be especially fruitful in working out and refining my arguments - the writing is part of the thinking process, not a summation. So before I sit down to the writing I don't necessarily know what I'm going to say. In broad strokes, perhaps. But the thrust, the key ideas - those develop as I go.

Owen pulled himself to the standing position in his crib. At 3:00 a.m. And then couldn't figure out how to get out of it. I had to get up and rescue him.

HA! OMG, next time I come to Columbus, I am totally STEALING OWEN. OK, no. I'm not, won't even joke. But he is so great and you make me laugh with stories of his adventures.

Sorry about my sports-related gloating last night. Hard to believe, but I even did restrain myself.

Bathtubs, sigh. The house in Salem I love (which is still up for sale, and the realtor just emailed me to tell me the price has been reduced) has a double bathtub jacuzzi on the first floor. A regular tub/shower on the second floor. Tom takes many baths in our tub, but it's a little on the small side for me. It's small for him, but he likes baths more so will put up with more obstacles to have one. Me, NSM.

I have today off and I just shoveled the snow outside and I'm drinking coffee in my underwear AIFG!