(no subject)

[serria]

So, I've done a lot of plotting and organization for a story I'm working on, and it's to the point where almost all the scenes are charted and I know everything that is supposed to happen. But when I sit down to write, for some reason, it's a lot harder. I don't even know where to start. I think I honestly write a lot more naturally when I don't have any idea where the story is going to go, and I start at the beginning and see where it goes as I write. Unfortunately, that's a lot harder to do with long novels.

Do you guys tend to have everything plotted out before you write? Do you write from beginning to end, if so, or do you just write whatever scene you feel like writing and put it all together after?

Comments

[ayumidah]

I have a malleable summary of what I want to happen that I can change if a better plot idea comes along. It's more a guideline of big plot points that I want to hit than something I need to follow or bad things will happen. I write better with just a loose plan than having everything mapped out myself.

And I do write beginning to end unless something is just stuck in my head and won't go away, or I fear I'll forget it completely if I don't type it out right away.

[serria]

I think that's probably the best way to go in order to keep the creativity fresh - malleable basic idea. With complex stories it can be tough, especially when you want to plan for plot twists, mysteries, etc. But it's just so much harder for me to be creative when I have a strict plot guide already written.

[ayumidah]

Yeah, I'm the same way. Good luck!

[siofrabunnies]

That's pretty much how I write, too. Usually, once I get one scene done, it sets the stage pretty nicely to get the next scene going. I think it also makes scene transitions more natural to read.

[agilebrit]

I used to be a pantser. I would start something with no earthly idea where it was going.

And I'd hit the Great Swampy Middle and start loathing the damn thing. Invariably. The only reason I ever finished anything was sheer bloody-minded stubbornness. And, you know, I did finish, most times. But the process sucked.

Then I decided to do a short-story NaNo project--and I knew that if I didn't have a plan going in that it would fail miserably. So I used the seven-point outline and figured out my plots. It front-loaded the process, but it made the writing so much easier--and I didn't have time to start hating the thing in the middle because I blew right past it. I have now written seventeen or eighteen stories via this process and wish to God I'd started doing it sooner.

The one time I tried to write a novel by scene-stitching, it was horrible. I have 144,000 words of total hot mess that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to salvage. I don't do that anymore. That project (along with the soul-sucking agent hunt for my first novel) has convinced me that I am not a novelist.

All that being said, there is no One Writing Method To Rule Them All. Poke twenty writers and ask them their process, and you'll get twenty answers. Hell, sometimes the answer changes project by project.

If outlining isn't working for you (whether it's because it steals the magic of the creative process or some other reason), then stop doing it. It took me years to figure out a process that actually worked and there's no shame in trying different methods to figure out your own.

[splinteredstar]

Dude, seriously. If there is one thing I've learned in writing and reading about writing, it's that everyone does it differently. I've known people who outline, people who sketch it all out in their heads before writing, people who swear by note cards.

So yeah, basically, agreeing with everything you said.

[agilebrit]

I saw people at the Writing Excuses retreat who used spreadsheets. And I have no earthly idea how that even worked.

I've also heard about a "snowflake method," but I don't know exactly what that is. The first "outline" I ever did was more of a "these are my plot threads with lines and points" thing. I'm pretty sure no one could make sense of that thing but me. LOL

[serria]

Haha, my aunt, who is a published author, recommended the "Snowflake" method to me. She even sent me a link to the software, which I bought. Assuming that's what you're referring to. I tried to use it, but... I don't know, with my story idea there were too many things I didn't know and it ended up being pretty useless to me.

Basically, you start a file and progress through different levels. The first level is, like, establish the genre and your target audience. Then, write a one sentence summary of your story. Then, expand that into a paragraph. Then, expand each sentence from that paragraph into a paragraph. Now, start naming your main characters. Then... and so on. It would "branch out" into more complex stuff, to the point of "what does your character keep in his/her pockets" type stuff. And I just didn't know, because I hadn't written anything yet.

[splinteredstar]

It...varies, depending on the story. I think it's a factor of how much I know going in, but sometimes having a preconceived notion of how it turns out just messes everything up.

My first NANO draft turned out almost utterly unusable, because the story I was trying to write and the story I ended up writing were two different things, and trying to shove them together resulted in some sort of unnatural FrankenDraft.

(I think I might be able to do something with the concept and setting, but I'll have to split the main character in two... I think the two stories are compatible but not being led by the same character.)

If I do any planning ahead of time, it'll be rough outlines. Usually only a scene or two in advance. Mostly because I don't /know/ what'll happen until I write it. I've tried to figure things out in advance but it doesn't really work out. I know where I'm at now, and where I might, eventually, end up. In between? No clue.

I think I've started writing beginning to end, if for no other reason than it's easier to keep the character development in my head that way.

[serria]

Gah, I get that feeling, too - the "free creativity" stuff doesn't always fit together with the "carefully selected" stuff. I'm worried that's what's happening with the story I'm working on. I want to write it and at this point, it's not possible to just magically forget all the plotting I've done - I do want to write it, after all! But my best stuff is the stuff where I have the least direction. I've also decided I need to stop just writing "the good scenes" - sometimes I'll get inspired and write a scene that's in my head, but then not want to go back and write all the stuff building up to that scene.

(I loved your story idea, by the way!! I hadn't had the chance to comment - with my new job, any free time I've had has been spent lying on the couch feeling totally drained, blah. Yay weekends. Anyway, we should definitely be writing buddies! :D do you use skype?)

[splinteredstar]

(Thank you! I'm quite fond of Eira but she is a pain. I am very bad at replying to comments sometimes. I do not use skype. I am here, lj, and tumblr. And YIM. All under variations of this username.)

[sarillia]

For me it depends on the story. More character-driven ones tend to be less planned out because I never feel like I really know my characters until I start writing. Ones that feel more plot-driven can be more rigidly outlined, but that usually just entails a list of scenes that I want to write at some point. I don't usually plan it out to the end. I like to figure that out as a write.

One thing I always, always do is write from beginning to end. I never write out of order.

It took me some time and a lot of experimenting to figure out what worked for me. I think you should play around with different levels and kinds of planning and see what feels comfortable for you.

[lady_phenyx]

I find I do best when I have an outline of at least my major points, one I can add to as I go if something new comes up. Without one...I get exactly what's happening to my Goddess story, where I have a vague idea where I want it to go but no idea how it's going to get there.
Mind, sometimes the outline is very, very vague, but when I don't have one, things don't get finished. It's what works for me.
Sometimes I'll stitch something in - like if something from the prompt jar inspired a scene that really helped - but otherwise I prefer to go start to finish, if only to keep my own canon straight. Skipping about means I forget who can do what and what limits things have, or where they are. Confusing - and embarrassing later.

[inkdust]

I usually start by writing the scene that called me to the story, at least part of it, to get something on paper. It gets me excited and grounds the idea. Then I outline until I have my head wrapped around the story enough to know what I want to write next. My outlines are done on notebook paper with a word or phrase to refer to a scene and then an arrow and then the next scene and so on. Usually not much detail beyond that - I put any details on a different sheet, like a zoomed in outline. My first novel length draft I wrote from beginning to end, because I felt like I had to, to know where everything was going. For my second one I've had Scrivener, and that let me lay out placeholders for all the scenes in order, and for this one I astounded my order-loving brain and wrote whatever scene was most interesting to me on a given day. It actually worked really well. Then as I'm working on a draft I'm periodically re-outlining because the plot always changes when I get into it, and I have to work through it on paper where I can see everything.

That's how I work.

[perfectworry]

I appreciate the idea of outlining, but somehow I never actually do it. I usually just make things up as I go, but I also don't usually write very long stories. I prefer to just play in my sandbox, writing scenes out of order here and there and then just posting them online. This has resulted in some weird retcons (characters who were supposed to be dead turning out to have faked their deaths, etc) but it doesn't bother me because of the sandbox format. It's not a great system for anything that I'd want to publish traditionally or even to gain an audience online, but it's fun and that's where I'm at with my writing right now.

The only longer pieces I've finished have been NaNoWriMo projects and all of those were just thrown together, usually based on an idea I had at 11:59PM on Halloween.

[caecilia]

I am terrible at outlining! I sometimes free-write when I'm stuck, or if I have too many ideas and don't know where to start, I jot them all down and keep them in a document to use as prompts later. When I'm having a "good day", an idea will grab me, and then rather than outline, I brainstorm. I walk around listening to music and I daydream about it. I picture it like it's happening on a screen, and I think about how I want to phrase things, so I'll work out an opening paragraph, and when I'm ready I sit down and WRITE LIKE THE WIND. Then when I get stuck I walk away and do the brainstorming thing again. It sounds great, but it's a very slow process and if it's interrupted I have trouble picking up where I left off. So it's inconvenient when you have other responsibilities. The worst is when a story "bites" me late at night when I have to be somewhere in 5 hours. Having someone to bounce ideas off of helps too but that's not always feasible either...sometimes people aren't as enthusiastic about a thing as I am and I don't want to be obnoxious or depend on others too much.

[splinteredstar]

this is ages late but i totally understand the "oh well i should be asleep right now but WRITING" feeling

[jesseszen]

It used to be that I would lay out a chapter scheme with major actions to be accomplished within each but I found it an actual hindrance to creativity and most importantly, the fun of writing.

When I just sit down with a couple of strong characters in my head and just hit the gas then the writing seemed more fresh and as the story moved along on its own different ideas and situations presented themselves - things I wouldn't have foreseen to put into any framework. And it was definitely a lot more fun than trying to fit my writing into a pre-formed skeleton of a story.

Ki