State of the Pony Words VIII: When Outlines Attack · 12:01pm Jul 25th, 2014
First I'll say this: I know I've been slower and slower to update recently. I've mentioned before (I think?) that I found some work. At the time it was "yay work that won't intefere with my writing!" sort of stuff. Now it's... work. Work work work work work. I forgot how easily hours creep when you're a software developer. A builder can work 7:30 to 4 and have hours of the day left. This software stuff, especially when you're working from home, can creep and spread and fill the entire day with little bites of work. Unfortunately it's just the way my brain works.
So... that's why updates have slowed.
Not stopped though! I'm trying to organise my writing a little better and get some of my many, many half-finished fics completed. Right now I'm re-writing the outlines for two of them - specifically And The Stars Shine Forth and Morning Glory.
I want to try and get Stars Shine Forth finished before the end of summer if possible - it's been sitting there half-finished for ages, and I know how frustrating that can be for a reader. I'll probably be dropping chapters on other fics while I work on that (particularly on To See The Light, which I'm also tweaking in outline), but Stars is my priority for now. After that, well, there's an idea I have for a companion story to Succession. Not quite a sequel, but more an exploration of other parts of the world with a little historical baggage thrown in for good measure.
And yes, I know that having a story that shares the name of a character in another story is confusing. It confuses me and I wrote the damn things. 
So there we have it. That's me for now. Expect a chapter of Stars by the end of next week if all goes well.
Outlines . . .
School has made me despise them, editing has made me loathe them, and writing has made me appreciate them. Of course, I still don't do them. For some reason, it is easier to keep everything in my head instead of written down. The main reason being that if I write it down, I follow it to the letter, which makes things rather rigid and unenjoyable to write.
I don't know, I enjoy the freedom of being able to change things on a whim if I think of something better. With an outline, I lose all will and want to change things.
But anyway, I haven't read any of the stories you plan on updating, so make more blog posts about software developing. I actually plan on going into that, so knowing what steps I need to take to get myself there would be valuable. XP
I kid. You can continue making your blog posts.
2314686 I like to write my outlines as sparsely as possible just to be sure I can change things. They often consist of just a series of questions and one or two key scenes written down so I don't forget them.