Question to all you writers

[wordsarepoison]

Originally posted by JimmyThe Hand
does anyone just write and not think of the story, just write on a spur?

Often for me the characters are the driving force. I often just write little bits about their history, pieces of dialogue and think of them as character studies. From these studies I often get ideas for stories. The whole pirates story grew out of a game one of my characters was playing with his little brother.

I can't work to a strict outline. They made us do this in primary school but I abandoned that technique pretty quick for my own writing. I like loose, malleable outlines. The characters develop, and sometimes a planned out plot point may not suit them anymore. If it was only a loose idea, it doesn't cause massive headaches when the characters decide to derail the story.

 

[Thekherham]

I have written one monster of a novel (it's hiding in a drawer somewhere), and several short stories. I'm currently working on a novel, and have written a couple of others. (with pen and paper, that is, but not typed in the computer yet).
I have never done an outline. What I usually do is think of a subject, a character, a setting... whatever, and I let it ruminate in my mind. If it disappears, so be it. If it sticks, I'll think of something more related to that story/novel.
If I like it, I'll start making notes... you know, point form stuiff.
Then I start writing. I also look ahead to the ending. Like, in the novel I'm doing now I already know how it's going to end, and I know how to get there. It's just a matter of typing it.
And yes, I've written short stories 'on a spur' as Jimmy says.
I just take some sheets of paper, a pen and start writing. Most of the time it's crap... sometimes things work out.

 

[Gallowglass]

Originally posted by JimmyThe Hand
does anyone just write and not think of the story, just write on a spur?

Yes - its a bit like a running a 100-yard dash and sometimes with just minor tweaking I've got a great story out of it. But often a short story. Once or twice, I've heard complaints that the story's too short and readers want to know the full story....

Truth of the matter, the story was already there or just popped into my head - all I did was write it down. But then most short stories are like a quick walk across the street - you already know where you're going so its hard to get lost.

But for longer stories, its helpful for me to bring along a few tools.

An outline is like a map to me, getting me from A to Z.

My characters are my compass, leading me through the morass that plot and subplots may create.

My writer's bible is my guidebook, full of all the details about my setting, characters and research that help to add life, color and continuity to my stories.

Mind you, you have to experiment a bit to see what works and how it works. Some of us don't have to write down an outline, we can keep all that straight in our heads. Or just a sketchy one, just to refresh our memories. Or some do a very detailed one so that in the end it is its own exceptionally detailed condensed short story.

Add characters and stir

 

[speculative-one]

For fantasy, I usually start with a map. For sci-fi, I usually start with a rough outline of where I want the story to go. That's probably telling in some way I suppose...

-speculative

 

[alison]

I wrote the whole of The Gift with no idea what was going to happen next, just running on emotional energy. I ran out of gas in the last quarter, and all that had to be completely rewritten because the book just trailed off. The world (and the map) was filled in as I went. I have finished the second book, The Riddle, and I wrote a chapter by chapter synopsis for that one - like the middle act of a play, the middle of a long story is the hardest to do. I was terrified of making a wrong turning and ending up in a complete mess, and it's harder because I now have a world already to work in, and now there are rules and places and so on which I don't want to contradict. I still however had no idea what I was going to write each day, it was just a differnt kind of not knowing. I think that not knowing is very important (otherwise why bother to write?) But I really depended on the synopsis this time, it was like a guiderope.

alison

 

[znap_dragon]

I spend most of my time on my characters. They are what drives the story and makes it interesting, so I like to know them inside out. I think if you've planned a character well, you should be able to throw them into any situation, inside the story or out, and know exactly what they'd do. It's not about predictability, its about giving the character some sort of convention, a 'real' personality, which the reader can tune into.

Secondly, as I'm writing fantasy at the moment, I'm finding it difficult to create a fully developed 'new world', so I'm doing a lot of research. This is much the same as the idea of character; I'm trying to know it inside out. Though at the same time, because it's new, I'm also trying to make it original and exciting, which I'm finding a bit of a tall order!

And lastly, always know where your story is going. All the stories I failed to write, I never had a true ending in mind. I know that while you write you have new ideas, but without a plan, you may run out of steam before you find them!

Good luck (?!)

 

[JRMurdock]

I was intrigued by this question and had to post a response. I’ve read in this forum for sometime, and this question prompted me to sign up and post a reply.

Myself (being a computer geek) do nearly everything on the computer EXCEPT begin stories. I have written 4 novels and many short stories and only began this year attempting to get some published. The books are about characters created when I played Dungeons and Dragons back in the 80s with my friends. The story has nothing to do with our adventures, but the background of the characters helped the story.

Firstly I wrote a rough outline of what I wanted to happen in the story (in word so I wouldn’t lose anything). I would carry around the printed docs in case I had an idea and would update the doc later (and print it again). Once I had a rough outline of the story (roughly a paragraph for each chapter) I would sit down and start a very rough framework of the story. Quite basic, with little detail and very light on descriptions. This helps get the story out of my head and into the computer. If I run into a stumbling block or just plain writer’s block, I would go back to the start of the story and add some detail, re-read, re-word and clean up mistakes. If I got back into the flow of the story, I would jump back to where I left off and write again.

This formula works for me. As for where to get ideas, looks like everyone else has summed that up nicely. I’ve even gotten ideas for stories just playing fetch with my dog. Life is the best motivation and inspiration. Once you run out of ideas there, pick up a good book (or even a bad one) and just read. It’s amazing how many ideas and twist on ideas you can get from another writer.

Best of luck.

Maus99