Good Flow, Bad Flow

So, as I begin to put this whole thing together, I have come to the realization that I need to spend more time developing my characters. It isn't so much that the readers need to know more about my characters, I do. Typically, I am one of those writers that likes to just sit down and let the story flow out of the end of his fingertips. That can be both good and bad. When things are flowing well, I often end up with some of my most compelling work. Of course if things aren't flowing well, not a lot gets done. That's not really a good recipe for writing as a career. As much as I don't like to admit it, Terry Brooks was probably right when he said that every author should outline. I hate to outline.

Looking back on my original comment, the fact that I need to spend more time developing my characters, I can see another effect of the "good flow, bad flow" style of writing. The first part of this new Friday Flash book flowed REALLY well. I have to say I liked the way it came out a lot. However, a couple surprising things happened along the way. First, the character I intended to be the lead ended up being less compelling than another character that was originally intended to be nothing more than a minor supporting character. Second, I've discovered that I'm a little stuck with how to portray another character because the ones I've created have evolved in ways I hadn't necessarily intended. Saying it that way is a little weird since I'm a grand total of about six pages into this thing. Pretty funny...