Where do you begin?

[sarillia]

When you first have an idea is it usually based on plot, character, setting, theme, something else?

I'm very much plot-oriented in the beginning. I usually start with a scenario and only later do I think about the person who will be put in the scenario and the surrounding culture.

I do have a list of bits of characterization and setting details that I come up with, but those aren't often the start of my story. I tend to mix and match those with the plot idea that's the real kernel of the story to see what looks good rather than having the story come naturally from that character or world.

How does this work for all of you?

Comments

[agilebrit]

It really depends on the story, for me; I don't have anything hard and fast. The one I'm working on now started with "werewolf imprisoned in a sleep lab," but I didn't know who the werewolf was. One of my recent ones was "small town sheriff who is also a wizard," but I didn't have plot for her. The one I entered in the Baen fantasy contest started with characters, but my Hell's Process Server started with "serving papers to Satan in Hell," and I had no idea who my guy was.

Sometimes I'll want to write something about my werewolf PI, or my mad scientist, or my spaceship crew, so those characters provide a jumping-off point when I decide what crazy situation I'm going to toss them into.

And then there was the cyborg werewolf story that started with both plot and character.

The one I'm picking up after the werewolf-in-a-sleep-lab story started with plot, character, and setting, because it's for the "I Am the Abyss" antho wherein your protagonist dies and goes to their version of the Underworld.

Basically, it's whatever hops out of the Plot Bunny Hutch that nibbles the carrot first.