’ve been working on a science fiction novel called The Crying Planet.   It’s set in the near future, where space travel is possible, and earth has created a command for its fleet of space cruisers.

I also did not outline it.  I don’t have any idea how it will end either.

I got the idea form an anthology call, and it kept wanting to be a novel, so I went for it and followed the characters and story down into a rabbit hole.  Had a few wrong turns, too, and dropped 7K.

Also had a character I thought was going to be important.  Nada.  She’s gone now.

Was losing the 7K painful?  At the time yes.  But it’s part of the process of writing without an outline.  There’s always going to be something that ends up coming up because it doesn’t fit as the story takes shape.

So last night, I was working on a scene between two of the characters.  I knew one thing I wanted to do, and the creative part had another thing entirely.  It popped in as the writing was flowing out, which was the term “The Crying Planet.”  I didn’t know really what I was going to do with it.

Today, I was walking to the library and trying not melt, being as it was 93 degrees out and so humid my living room windows fogged out.  Then it hits me: They have to go to the Crying Planet.

And just like that, the story changed.  Now I’m discovering what’s going to happen there.

That is just so cool.