Things I thought I knew about writing...

Writing is for some, an organic process.  You sit down, inspiration flows through you and pours out through your finger tips, echoing through the room in the tapping of keys.  That works for some people.  In the writing world, those people are called pantsters.  Meaning, they write in a fly by the seat of their pants kind of way where the assumption is that the story will all come together on its own in the end.  Other people are called plotters.  They have grids and spreadsheets and index cards and outlines and timelines and character profiles... and etc. ect. 

Not everyone falls neatly into those two categories.  As usual, I walk the middle of the road with pleasant indifference.  I tend to start writing in the pantster fashion.  I'll do about fifty or sixty pages of good solid writing, something that lets me know who my characters are and how they interact with one another.  Then I become a plotter... bwha ha ha ha.  Not really, but whatever.  I do like to take those established characters at that point and see what I can do with them.  Where do I want them to wind up, what obstacles will they encounter along the way, what sort of internal and external conflict will they face, what is ultimately keeping them apart and how can it be defeated?  There are a dozen other such questions, hundreds honestly. 

The thing is, whether you are a pantster or a plotter, you can't be published until you start writing.  So, write.  Plan, plot.  Do whatever it takes, short of illegal methods, to be inspired.  If you do use illegal methods, don't get caught.  I imagine prison could greatly hamper the creative process, unless you are Sir Walter Raliegh.  It worked for him. 

Check him out.  What a guy!!!
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tohisson.htm