It's like driving with a map in the fog

I'm discovering outlines are like maps. They show you where to go, but they don't tell you how to get there. I have this super-duper, four page, color coded outline with one sentence tags. Stuff like "Richard and Lissa on the road to his sister's." Uh-huh. Okay, what are they doing on the way? What do they talk about, sense, think?

That, my friends, is the challenge. Every day I sit down and think "Now what?" Every time I change a scene, it's "What do I do now?" Yesterday, my husband asked how many pages I'd written since our last conversation. When I told him, he said "Two pages in two hours?" Hey, I'd changed scenes. Two new characters stood there for awhile, like blinking cursors, until they decided what to say. After I get going, though, it's golden. Some really good stuff rolls off onto the screen.

I guess it must be working. I'm at thirty-eight pages and determined to hit forty before the night is through.

A map in the fog. Huh.