Hang on a sec...what's this book about?

My experiment seems to be back-firing on me.

Okay, that might be somewhat melodramatic, but I did recently realise / decide that the novel I was writing without any structure, plan, plot or character development wasn't working. Wow, big surprise, right?

As I said, it was an experiment, to see how far into a novel I could get without doing all those preparation steps. The answer, it would seem, (for me anyway) is five chapters.
Don't get me wrong, I did really enjoy writing those five and it was somewhat liberating to be writing without any real clue as to where the various journeys of my characters were going. It was the closest I had come to 'free-writing' for years.

But eventually, and unfortunately much sooner than I expected, all this unbridled 'creativity' had to come to a shuddering halt as I asked myself the question 'Okay, what is this thing actually going to be about?' (well someone else, an industry person, asked me and I was forced to pull a one-line pitch out of the air - luckily, it's still applies...kinda).

So yes, I've fallen back into my old ways. The synopsis is done. The characters are drawn. The plotlines are detailed. And pretty soon, the spreadsheet with the detailed chapter headings and descriptions will follow. And then, after much mulling, consideration and deliberation, will I starting writing chapters again.

So much for free-writing.