We suck. That's something Laura and I say to each other a lot. (When we're not telling each other how much we like our writing--see post above.) That's because the We Who Are Outlining A Book often screw over the We Who Will Be Writing The Book.
We're big into outlining. We do a chapter-by-chapter outline together for everything we write, before we head off to write our separate sections. (We then edit each other until we no longer remember who wrote what.) The problem is, when we're outlining and hit a snag, we sometimes tell ourselves "we'll figure it out when we write it." Or we don't notice the snag--which can be an almost book-destroying plot hole--at all.
Then when we're writing, the cries of "we suck" begin. What were we thinking? How could we have thought we could write a book out of this mess?
I am in this situation today, but on a book I'm writing solo, so I can't even push some of the blame onto Laura. I wrote an outline where some kids come up with a creative fix for an air scrubber on a (simulated) space station. I didn't say what the creative fix was. I decided I'd figure it out in the writing.
Now the book is almost due. I have no creative fix. What pea-brain thought an outline that didn't spell out what the kids would do was acceptable? Why did I do that? Why? WHY?
Because I suck. Somewhere the Me Who Wrote The Outline is sitting on a beach somewhere laughing.
P.S. This has been a procrastination session to avoid thinking about the air scrubber.