My cup of inspiration runneth over

After doing a bit of rewriting and tightening of the 11% of my first draft that I had completed by Friday, I found myself in a strange position: I was overly inspired. I know that sounds a little ridiculous, but I honestly felt so good about what I'd written and so full of creative energy that I was momentarily not sure where to go with it all.

At least one character that I'd intended to use and discard turned out to be too interesting and full of possibilities to toss out after a single use. On top of that, I suddenly had a number of ideas for the the climactic scenes of the story that were much more interesting and full of delicious conflict than I had previously imagined.

So, I took the weekend off from writing while I pondered all this. And I'm still not sure exactly what my outline will look like going forward, but yesterday, I did manage to get most of the way through my next scene and produced a tidy sum of 2,258 words, bringing my draft up to 13% completion!

My only area of concern right now is being able to marshal my thoughts sufficiently to adjust the outline. I'm feeling a bit chaotic and the temptation is strong to just start winging it from here, but I know that I would never have gotten as far as I have without a detailed (if flexible) outline, and I think that if I don't resume using it, this draft will fizzle.

One really gratifying note: a friend of mine started using the mind map method to plot a novel she'd previously started and quit on, and she reports that it has helped her as much as it helped me. I'm really glad I found that method and that I've passed it along to at least one other person.