Can You Pat Your Head and Rub Your Stomach?

I can't. Been on deadline and can't seem to blog at the same time. Wrote the first draft of a cable movie - and they needed it in 3 1/2 weeks. And I did it. Pretty much didn't do anything else.

What did I learn?

On deadline the structure rules. And your outline is key. Without a defining blueprint, you'll go 100 miles an hour into every tree in the road. My own detailed outline saved my ass and kept me on track and on target.

Writing as always is a revelation, even to yourself, as you write. And I discovered those moments when the outline didn't work - because the reality of the world I created demanded a different scene, or different connecting tissue.

But because of the outline, that only happened twice in 110 pages, so that taught me a lesson about the outline.

I'm now writing a new piece, with a very ill defined outline. Smart, right? Particularly after what I just went through? I'll see if I prove my own theory.

Why not write a more detailed outline before I start this new piece?

Because it's a ton of work. It's essentially writing the entire movie, without writing it yet, but putting all of the creative juice, fire and work and etching it into a stone shorthand anyway.

Jeez, after reading this I think I better revisit my new outline...

I will answer the questions posted here on the last post in the next day or two, thanks!