Jusenkyo Guide wrote:

That's always the hardest part, how to open a story and grab your readers (short) attention. I've found that sometimes the best thing to do is to write the middle andthen go back to the begining, then you'll know word for word what happens and will be able to write a better opening.

That's an interesting idea.  That's almost like how I write some of the symphonic works I compose...

Quick question, what does everyone thing of outlines? I mean really sitting down and outlining your fic before applying pen to paper (Or fingers to keyboard) I know I generly don't as my fic change drasticly from the mental outline I keep so I was wondering if anyone does and how well it works? After all, as someone pointed out, we are here to impove our skills.

Well, let's see... if I posted the entirity of my notes for the Tenchi fic or my NGE fic, I would have about 500k posted.  These notes are my outline of what I want to do with the plot and the characters of the fic.

The NGE has more notes than that of my TM! No Need for the Throne.  This is because of the analysis of the Eva series' plot that is so central to the Dreamer fic.  Other authors probably wouldn't need the amount of notes that I use because of the types of projects that they are doing.

Rei-chan