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Just realized I'd been outlining every draft like a term paper, and that's why none of them ever got past page 2
I write short stories as a hobby and for the past year or so every single draft died around page 2. I kept blaming my ideas. Then two weeks ago I sat down with a story I actually liked, and before I typed a single word I made a 14 point outline with Roman numerals and everything. That's when it hit me. I was building a cage before I had anything to put in it. Every draft started as a plan instead of a scene, so by the time I got to the actual writing I was bored and just filling in blanks. I tried it the other way for once and wrote 900 words of pure mess with no outline at all, and it was the most fun I've had writing in ages. The thing needs a ton of work but it has a pulse, which is more than I can say for the other ones. Now I'm stuck figuring out how to fix the middle of it without sliding back into list making mode. How do you all keep yourselves from over planning a draft before the story even shows up?
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