Red Room Where the Writers Are

I'm working on a new story. Its based mostly on personal experience, but its completely fictional.

I started writing it the way I always do. I typed what ever entered my mind.

But I approached it from a different perspective. Instead of trying to put down the plot as fast as I could to see where the story goes, I put on a mental governor and forced myself to examine the scene and describe it. I forced myself to paint certain parts of the scene with the intention of showing traits of characters.

Basically, I'm trying to convey more scene depth.

It's really hard to write this way: but it's very fulfilling. Instead of feeling frenzied it gives me time to contemplate the scene, what's important, and how best to represent it to the reader. I still perceive that my writing is not very good. I think gifted writers have a knack of choosing the right details to paint in, giving their work a tangible tone and hue. Perhaps that's what distinguishes writers from each other: their style of drawing in the details.

I did something else new too. While writing the second chapter, I realized that to paint the scene I need to know where the story is going. The action must follow the plot, absolutely, but the action can also predict the plot in subtle ways. Most of my stories feel like a roller coaster ride into the unknown. I like that quality, but I recently realized that the whole story should not be told that way. Some plot elements can be like that, but others need to be foreseeable. 

For the first time ever, I'm working on an outline for the story. Instead of being totally linear as my stories usually are: this one dances through memory. The main story is linear but the main character flashes back to other related times in his life.

The outline somewhat limits my creativity, but its worth the trade off because it makes the story more cohesive and hopefully will enable me to give it more depth.

I don't think I'll be able to post the first chapter until I'm done with the outline, so no promises of a delivery date.