How big is your thinking?

Dear Stephen King,

I have been assembling a series of over 300 books that I want to write. It is a giant outline comprised of seven ages throughout our planet's history. Each age has seven moving points that change the course of that age's history. Then each of those moving points has seven novels most likely chronicling the lives of the same characters.

I'm wondering if you write in this way. From what I understand you are a "write by the seat of your pants" author. I can see you taking notes about where you want to go with a sequel or second sequel but I believe you only have an idea of what you want to write when you sit down. You don't have a full outline. You will have to let me know a little more about how you do that.

I personally, have discovered that I need an outline to sit down and write. I have to know how story is going to end before I can start writing that story. I like to have beats to write about. I guess it's because of my short attention span. I write about 100 or 200 words at a time. Then I have to get up and do something around the house and then I come back and write another hundred or 200 words. This means I sit down and write eight or nine times before I can quit for the day.

I am trying to study ways to be a little more focused, to have a more specific place and time to write. The process is something that is ever evolving, and I will continue to make changes to my routine until I find a way to be more consistent about putting words down on paper.

I look forward to hearing more about your writing process. 

Sincerely,
Robert Gasperson

So Close to the Finish Line I Can Taste It

I am about a thousand words from the end of the short story I am writing, yet I don't want to sit down and finish writing it. I don't know what it is. It might be the fear of writing a bad ending. It might be the fear of having to send off the finished piece to see if I can get it published. It might be I don't want the story to end. Whatever the case, I still need to sit down and write the ending of this story.

Here is another problem that I come across when I am trying to finish a story. I find myself thinking about several other different projects I want to start instead of doing what I should be doing. I should be writing the end of my short story. Right now I am finding myself thinking about the month of November and what I want to write for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

I need to think about what must be written. I need tho think about how I am going to force myself to sit and write till it is done. I think I am going to have to carve out 2 hours of time with an egg timer set and the will to sit there till the two hours are up or I finish my short story.

Hmmm....

I think I am going to go make a sandwich.