Forgetting

My special needs daughter turned 14 yesterday. She'd been talking about her upcoming birthday for months. Sunday night I told her we were going to skip Monday and go straight to Tuesday. Her expression was priceless, almost as if she were trying to decide whether that was possible and was adamant that we not bypass her birthday.

In that conversation, my brain flew right over Monday and went straight to Tuesday, hence my forgetting to post here. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

How does that apply to writing? I knew you would ask... I'm a pantser (which means I don't generally outline), I let the story take shape as I go while having a general idea of where it will end up. The problem with not having an outline is that sometimes I forget where I was going with my story (and that comes from not writing every day, too). But thank goodness for creativity. My brain just comes up with something (and since I forgot, who knows, maybe it was what I intended in the first place). But seriously, I have found that even if I don't have a detailed outline, if I just have a page of what I imagine, it's very helpful.

The cool thing about that page or sometimes two is that it's a quick write, just the skeletal details flowing as fast as you can get them out. No need to worry about how things will happen or sensory things.

Are you a pantser or an outliner? Share a quick tip in the comments for how you outline (or don't).