Brainstorming

Stephen King's On Writing compares writing a story to unearthing a skeleton (like a dinosaur). The first step would be knowing where the skeleton is, then carefully taking away enough of the dirt to know what kind of skeleton you've got. As you work, more detail emerges until at last, you're flicking away the last pieces of dirt with a toothbrush. (I paraphrase)

Of course, not everyone writes the same way, but the method described by Stephen King really fit the way I like to write. I don't have to have the entire outline or the entire idea to get started. If I have one thing - an idea, an image, a character - I can build around it, picking up more detail as I go.

With the current story I'm working on, I have a lot of holes to fill (we'll say I still don't know where some of the dinosaur bones are). So I've written down everything I know about the story (characters, situations, basic plot points), and a list of questions of things I want to know about the story (why a character did such and such, what the consequences of blank are, etc.). It's a lot of fun when I'm doing something boring (like dishes or laundry) to think about my story and ask a lot of "why" and "what if" questions, because those questions lead to new pieces.

A sort of update on my previous project, The Morning After: I've written a query letter for it and submitted it to one (1) literary agent. So far, I haven't heard anything back, but in all likelihood I won't hear anything on my very first try. We'll see.