A Bit About My Creative Process...

I'm working on Operation Rogue Lion (the first Classified mission) and thought some may be interested in my creative process.

I first start with a rough idea and then that idea is thrown away because another idea occurred during the "flesh the idea out" phase that was superior. Rarely do I use my first idea. My first ideas tend to suck, but they get me going creatively and that path inevitably contains a side-path that is much more scenic.

During the writing phase my Word document is littered with green, yellow, and red highlights. Green is for good ideas that need to be incorporated, yellow is for things I should decide whether or not to include after the manuscript has progressed a bit more, and red is for things that either *MUST* be done or *MUST* be excised from the manuscript in its finished form. I have a lot of these latter reds as I cut-n-paste from internet resources- real life provides a great resource for ideas, technical things (where is OPEC headquartered? etc...), and all other sorts of interesting things for making a manuscript "more realistic."

Well, there you go. For what it's worth, my creative process.