@Magus: The mind is a terrible thing to taste, to quote the band Ministry.
How interesting and confusing it can be. I find if I begin a story with a solid concept in mind and a certain outline, I struggle and feel stifled. Something about them
rules...I normally fly by the seat of my pants, and wing everything. That is where I flourish.
Kyrilon Z54 is a good example of winging it. It's the first "sci-fi" story I have worked on to date. I'm finding it somewhat difficult to avoid cliches as I move the protagonist out into the thickening plot. The spectre of the cliche looms over my shoulder as I envision the world outside of his antiseptic womb of machine-honed efficiency. Thinking about it, I rather enjoyed the Stasis Area, and fooling around with the Central Consciousness - Hal 9000 with a heart.