Yo-yo- daddyo!

Now then me ol' muckers. How the devil are you? Devil. Halloween. See what I did there?

No? Trust me. I'm hilarious. You'll get used to it.

So. What do I want to talk about this month? No idea. I usually start waffling on and see where it goes. No really. You wouldn't believe it, would you? That Shaun Allan guy who constantly gets in my head writes like that. He wishes he could plan a story (I wish he'd plan my story and get on with it) but the words take him where they want to go which isn't always where he wants them to go.

I know a good few people, including one or two here in the asylum, who definitely do plan. Their outline is almost as comprehensive as the story they're writing! Character list? Check. Character physical attributes? Check. Individual chapter outline? Double check. Character inside leg measurement? Oh, suits you sir! I mean, check.

Either way is good. Either way works well. Whether you're writing by the seat of your pants or letting your plan be your Google Maps whilst filling in the blanks of the journey, there's no real right way to write a story. Try saying that five times fast! Real-right- way-to- write-real- right-way- to-write- real- right... Well, you get the picture.

For many of my diary entries, Shaun was given the first line. Just that. Anything went, as random as you like, and he would run with it. Then I'd find out who I was going to meet or what sort of mood I was going to be in as we went along. For my book, he had no idea what sort of story it was going to be. He didn't know what was going to happen to me or whether I'd be a comedy, science fiction of kid's book. The fact I ended up in an asylum and people died... Well, thanks, Mr. Allan. I owe you for that... Hmmm...

He has had to write overviews for some of his stories, for example, when he's worked on campaigns with Universal and Wattpad, and jotting down what he expects to happen is creeping in, but mainly it's a case of he finds out as he goes along.

It does make it interesting, but sometimes I get a headache trying to keep up!

So that do you do? Do you outline? Do you make it up as you go along? It would be good for me to have an idea of my story before it's written. Maybe I could then argue it out with him and try to change his mind. It'd be nice to have unicorns and rainbows for once instead of dark clouds and death.

Told you I was a laugh a minute.

If you do outline, could I move into your imagination for a while? Just for a break?