Before you get pissed at me for calling you a dummy, know this. I'm the first dummy here, and this post is largely me shouting at myself. LOUDLY. It turns out that for the last four years of writing full-time I had no idea how to plot and did it by my gut, which sometimes led me out the other end (Rosehead, Irkadura, Janna), and sometimes not quite (Siren Suicides, The Badlings, TUBE). It was random. If I wrote for too long (Siren Suicides), I got lost in the details. If I got rerouted in the middle of writing (The Badlings), I lost interest in finishing the book and made myself finish it (not fun). If I took a too-long break between drafts (TUBE), I hated the manuscript when returning to it and wanted to trash the whole thing (and I did). Plotting my books ahead of time would've spared me this pain, only I didn't know it.

No more of this shit.