In Progress...

One of the most valuable things you can do as a writer is to write down scenes that come to mind. Even if they don't seem to connect to anything else you're working on.

For instance: I wrote a quick horror-esque scene about... maybe a year ago. Nothing huge, but a boy cowering in an alley as a horrible creature bore down on him. Here, take a look.

The boy ran.

He stumbled over a trash can and looked behind him, breathing heavily, eyes wide with terror.

The thing chasing him looked vaugely like a dog, but instead of fur, it was covered in scaley chiton. Its tail was long and whip-like, ending in a serrated boney spike.

The boy choked on a scream and started running again.

The creature paused briefly to savagely swat the garbage can out of the alley before picking up speed after the boy.

The boy took a corner and was horrified to be face to face with a dead end. As he spun around looking for another way out, the creature padded around the corner. Barely able to draw breath, the boy backed up against the wall.

Stopping at the entrance to the alley, the creature reared up onto its hind legs. As it straightened, its joints realigned themselves with a sickeningly wet grind and pop. It walked a few steps closer to the boy and let out a hideous hissing shriek.

The boy finally screamed.

It's short and I never thought I'd really do anything with it. Yet, a week or so I found a use for it. Sure, it bears little resemblance to what you see above, but it helped me get through an opening scene I had no idea what to do with.

Think about that. It took me a while to take the "write everything down" advice that you always hear. Now, I know what they meant. You never know when something you wrote off the cuff is going to come in handy.

So, remember that. Take a "wannabe" writer's advice :) Do write down any odd scene that comes to mind. Even if it seems like it's just an aside, you never know when you can use it!