A day or so ago I took a day off from writing. I didn't necessarily want to, but I knew there were some things I needed to figure out about where to take my characters in the story. I've been having problems with this on and off for awhile now. I'd be writing a scene and almost every time I got closer to the transition to the next, I would slow down or even stop. I'd sit mulling it over, wondering where my Main Character was supposed to go or do next.

Then on Tuesday, I can to a stuttering halt. My inner skeptic, if you recall from the last post, told me I was doing everything wrong and I should start over. Thankfully my lovely writing buddies stopped that in its tracks. I went to bed early, sat with my husband in the morning before he left for work, knowing that while I hadn't started over, I still couldn't keep going. Something was delaying me, a question I hadn't asked yet, a decision I still needed to make. It turned out there were at least two, if not three, ways the rest of the story could play out, I only needed to find the best way.

I'd been doing a touch of research on different ways to plot and outline, thinking it may help, but the ones I found felt... too structured. I needed an organic process that would still give me clear results, a way to see which was stronger. But as I attempted to type each one out, wrote them on a piece of paper, talked them out to my bewildered husband who couldn't keep up with my fast talking, I knew I wasn't getting anywhere. I was getting frustrated, depressed, and not a little disheartened.

So I went online to take my mind off the problem. I browsed the Apple.com productivity tools download page in boredom, sure there would be nothing to help me. Discouraged, I wasn't really paying too much attention - Apple really needs to make their searches more user friendly. But then a screenshot caught my eye. It was a very colorful tree, with boxes, and WORDS inside those boxes. Mind mapping. I downloaded a trial, tinkered with it, and before I knew it I'd mapped the two stronger ways I could go and found the third only took me a few scenes forward before getting lazy.

I'd found a part of my Writing Process. Every writer has one, and while some look similar from the outside its all very unique. Now I've found a way that works well for me. I couldn't be happier. I can finally write freer because I know where everyone is heading, I know the direction of the story and so I don't have to wonder what's next. I've been having problems with writing since then, but that's just because I forgot one of my medications. *oops*