Training for the marathon

I am currently in the process of holding myself back from writing. It is really hard. I was in class today listening to my professor lecture about humanitarian intervention (human rights class, woo!), but all I wanted to do was write. I popped onto Twitter during class--I'm a really attentive student, can you tell? Well. I mean. I actually am. I multitask. BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT--and saw that Susan Dennard was running those wonderful #BAMFWordBattles.

Oh, man, did I want to join.

But I'm still outlining. I've been so tempted to just start writing this story; I know my characters, I know the underlying plot, I know what happens in the first third... but I can't. I can't start writing because I know I'll burn through what I know and the rest that I don't know well will not be what I want them to be.

I want to write what I want to write. I want to feel it in my bones.

At this point, like I said earlier, I have the underlying plot: the river, if you will. I have all the characters of the story. The one thing I need is the raft to keep them all afloat, and my MC directing the raft where it needs to go.

So, first order of business: Figure out what the heck happens in the latter part of my story from the MC's point of view. Figure out what situations the MC puts herself in, why she does it, how she gets out, and how it lines up with the underlying plot. That is, figure out the raft according to what my MC wants.

Second: Write like the wind, bulls eye.