I just realized I didn’t check in Sunday. The two check-in days, Wednesday and Sunday, are the two hardest days for me because they are church days, and I don’t write on those days. Anyway, I did make some progress on Saturday. I got in 1500+ words on my WIP. I tried to use my Dragon Speech recognition software, but I was about to throw the mic against the wall because it couldn’t recognize the word “cap”. And it seems to do just as well using the computer mic as the headphone/mic (which I discovered by accident when I was using it one day and realized I didn’t have the headphone/mic hooked up to the computer!). So I typed the old-fashioned way. 🙂
Even though I’m working from a real outline for the first time, my story still keeps going in different directions, and I keep having to add points that I hadn’t even thought of when I did the outline. Someone totally different from my original idea did a bad thing, and using a different person for this made it easier for the hero and shero to get together later. So if you fear outlines because you think it stifles your creativity, just remember, it isn’t written in stone. You can just add or take out stuff as you go. Outlines just give you a direction to start going.
lauralynnelliott.com 
I’ve had the same discovery when it comes to outlines. I used to never use them, but my first drafts were such a mess I decided it was time. My stories still surprise me and they still change even if there’s an outline. So I’m not too worried about my creativity being stifled the way I was a few years ago.
Happy writing, Lauralynn!
Kait and Susan tried to tell me this, and I still resisted. LOL. But now I believe. An outline is not written in stone!
I need to look into that speech recognition software you mentioned. It would be great not to have to type so much.
It’s always worked well, but I got so aggravated about that one word. I might have to reconfigure it. You do that by reading out loud certain passages so it can recognize how you say certain words.
I wondered how the software was working out for you. Sorry you had trouble with the word “cap”. It doesn’t seem like that should be a hard one.
I know outlines can change, and I might venture back into trying them. At the moment, I’m free winging it. 🙂
Sometimes outlines help when there are twists. They help me not to forget stuff. And Scrivener has character sheets you can fill out, and they are right there where you can click on a character if you’ve forgotten something about them. Then there are pages you can add pictures to, so I have a picture of what my female character looks like, and then I have a drawing I scanned in that shows a little diagram of the street and the businesses. Scrivener helps me use the outlines. I have the outline as little notecards on a corkboard, and I can move them around and add stuff in between. It’s pretty cool.
That’s probably a lot more than you needed to know. LOL