Fixing my problem

I think I've pinpointed a solution to the problem I feel like I have in writing a novel. I may have talked about it before, but this is my blog, so I'm going to talk about it again. As I look through things I've written before, I realized that I usually have a fun idea or an interesting scene I want to fill out a little more, but as I get into it, I realize that I don't have a point. It doesn't usually go anywhere, so I get bored or burned out. And then the work gets filed away in some electronic repository for months. Maybe even years. Every now and then, I'll pull it out and think about where that story could go, and then I get annoyed that I didn't leave myself a clear destination, and I put it away again.

I've thought about outlining a story, but I so rarely outline anything on paper that I fight against that idea. I don't want to stifle my spontaneity, feeling like I've doomed myself to follow a map I've already laid out. On the other hand, Kurt Vonnegut mapped out Slaughterhouse Five so many times and for so long that when he actually sat down to put the words on paper, he just had to fill out the story that he'd already streamlined in his head.

I'm already working on just writing things and leaving them less-than-polished while I press on to write more things, and that's a challenge for me. I tend to edit and polish things while I write, so this is a difficult move for me.

But I think that the solution to my problem is to come up with the climax and the falling action first. Rather than writing the story in order, I need to start with that section and then build out the story from that point. Kind of like a Toni Morrison novel. She always starts with a peek at the climax and then backs up and shows how the characters got there. I think I should probably start taking that kind of approach, but possibly not giving the climax as the opening of the story.

I'm sure that the two of you who read this blog don't care, but this is about me exploring my own process. And who knows? Maybe this'll be highly informative for future generations when I've published something.