I’ve said it before that for me writing is more of a discovery process than anything else. Today, as I was thinking through a chapter I’m working on, I asked myself what I was committing to complete at this point. I realized that I am committed one hundred percent on the current chapter only, but I make no promises about what comes next.

(By the way, I love that no one is telling me where my book should go. Fiercely independent!)

My approach makes outlining for me a supercilious occupation. How dare I think that I know where my story is going!

I’m writing a chapter now, a rather poignant one, with an American in Vietnam during the summer of 1945, starring down an angry mob for reasons I don’t feel comfortable sharing at this point. It’s a difficult and important scene because it’s building towards a climax for this part of the novel.

But what’s next after this ‘climax’? I don’t really like thinking about it. I do have some ideas, and I do write down these ideas lest I lose them through the many memory holes of my cranium, but that’s really all they are. They are idea points which might or might not work depending on how things that I am presently writing turn out.

So here is my writing philosophy: be committed to what you are currently writing. Once complete, place your commitment in the next step and so on. Novels can be intimidating if you think ‘oh my goodness, I have 30,000 more words to write.’  I actually used to think that way. How am I ever going to be able to write enough words to qualify for novel length.

But that’s silly thinking. Just take it step by step. Commitment in the here and now will be reward in the future.