lights on

i had some trouble getting to sleep last night because i was thinking about this. i'm going to start writing again tomorrow. my track record as far as writing goes has been quite poor over the last 14 years. i'm a quitter. it's my history. how do i know i will not quit again this time? of course i don't. at the moment i have a character, the beginning of a situation, a bit of his personal history. i have been advised regarding the merits of an outline, of outlining, even in broad strokes, the plot arc. but i rather like not knowing what's going to happen. my fiction-writing instructor in college said - and she (nee he) may well have been quoting someone else - when you're driving at night, all you can see of the road is what is illuminated by your headlights, maybe a 15-foot span in the blackness, but you can drive clear across the country that way. i like that. i like the idea of writing a draft of a novel before november. and maybe then i'll do nanowrimo for a 3rd time. that's 4 months away, 4 months to write a draft of something. i just hope i can stick to this project here, get a story down, commit. i might look into making a bit of an outline.