(no subject)

[turps]

I have a writing question o friends list.

How do you approach writing a story? Do you start at the beginning and keep going to the end? Hop around filling in scenes where needed? Something else?

See, I'm writing something that's pretty long, but have a scene that's buzzing inside my head. Thing is, that scene won't happen until much further into the story and I just don't work that way. I start at the beginning and write until the end. I can't imagine having a scene just sitting there waiting to be joined to the main story, but, it wants to get out so badly. I can feel the words on the tips of my fingers and it's annoying me. Plus, there's the real fear I'll forget what I wanted to write if I push them back.

So, I ask others how they write while I wrestle with what to do.

Comments

[bayouskye.livejournal.com]

I write from begining to end. But, if something pops into my head that will work for later on, I make little notes about it. That way, I don't forget about it. ;)

[turps33.livejournal.com]

I suppose that would be the practical solution, but I want to write this now!

But I know I write much better sticking to what I know, so notes it'll be I guess :)

[hammerhead22.livejournal.com]

I am a very linear person and tend to go from beginning to end. That being said, sometimes a scene is just screaming to be written and I'll write a bit or two out of sequence but it is rare.

[turps33.livejournal.com]

I've always written beginning to end, it just seems to make more sense that way. But I think I'm going to have to write some of the scene, just to get it out of my system.

It's cool when the words won't shut up, but also annoying at times.

[nopseud]

I usually write random scenes all over the place, and then join them up. Actually, the joining up is really satisfying -- when you type the last word, and suddenly there's no gap of extra blank lines between two sections any more. Mmm. And then eventually you hit a key and there are no extra blank lines anywhere in the story and it reads the whole way through from beginning to end. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Ahhhhhhhh.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Sometimes I write from the beginning to the end, but really only by chance. If I get an idea for a later scene and I'm really in the swing of something, then I just make a few notes in the appropriate place in the file, so I can remember what I thought of later. Of course, I sometimes end up writing the scene anyway once I start making the notes.

[bayouskye.livejournal.com]

You could always write as a side piece and then go back to it once you've gotten as far as you can on the main piece...

[topaz119.livejournal.com]

I usually have a mostly linear path but when that scene just HAS to be written, I do, and then tell it sternly that it might need to be edited to fit the flow of things later on.

When I'm writing for work, however, I almost never write linearly. The intro is always the last thing I write.

[ceci2176.livejournal.com]

I hop around here and there, and usually start with dialogue. Unless I'm doing NaNo, which is the only time when I always start at the start....

[turps33.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm tempted to try your way just to get that reaction you describe *g*

Don't you get all mixed up with the story in your head though? Which okay, is probably a silly question as I know you and you're like, the plot queen and can visualise a story really well. It's just, I worry if I wrote in sections I'd end with a tangled mess that made no sense.

I can see the appeal of writing in sections though. I suppose it's like a journey. Key points you pass and the travel between each one. Hmmm, that made sense in my head at least.

Thanks for your imput :)

[raynedanser.livejournal.com]

It really, really depends on the story. I've written some from start to finish and I've written some where I wrote specific scenes and tied them together. If you have one scene burning a whole in your brain, write it up and hang on to it.

*snugs*

[starwatcher]

.
Usually it's start to finish. But, when I was about half way through "Moving Forward", the scene of Blair in his 'purification' ceremony just DEMANDED to be written.

So I did, then just went back up and wrote till I got there. When I DID get there, I added to the scene and fleshed it out quite a bit.

But, yeah, I'd get it out of your system. If you don't, you might find it harder to write the other stuff, anyway. Writing it out of sequence won't damage anything, after all. You may need to do a bit more editing, but that's no matter.

So I say, go for it. And good luck.
.

[pensnest]

I mostly have to write in order, because otherwise I'll write the 'lollipops' and won't want to do the boring bits connecting narrative. I've found that I can add intervening scenes later if I didn't know until nopseud somebody told me, that I needed them. But if I know the scenes are part of the story, I have to write them before I can get to the 'good bits'. It can be a bit frustrating, as I get stuck on 'how does this happen', but it also means that the story actually gets written. If I just did the makes-me-salivate bits, the story might not actually be completed at all.

There can be times when I really want to do a particular scene, and I've thought it out so often and in such detail that when I come to write it down it doesn't seem to live up to the way I thought I'd envisaged it. But those are the scenes that usually need severe attention from the beta reader. Hmm.

The only exception - and it's an unusual one - is where the story is intended to be told in non-linear style. And I don't very often do that.

[yami-tai.livejournal.com]

I'd write it now if I were you because you can always edit it later to work it into the main story. Like you I'm scared of forgetting a bunny if it bounces around my head too long ^^;! So really you should do what you feel is best for you *hugs*!

[silveryscrape.livejournal.com]

I rarely have a set outline, but rather a sense, a shape that I want the story to try to fill. Tend to write the beginning, and then get those buzzing scenes and go for it and write them when they come, on the theory that my subconscious is working on the story too and may see a better overall shape than I'm realizing consciously as I write. Those buzzing scenes, they usually come along and throw everything off track, I find. For me, it usually works for the good.

Then, about halfway through, I write the end... so 9 times out of 10 I'll find myself at some point with a beginning, an end, and random other stuff.

Awesome question. It's interesting to see how different everyone's writing system is.

[silveryscrape.livejournal.com]

That sternness is the hardest thing. I had to tell a whole scene to go away last week, after I'd put hours and hours into it, and it cried. :P

[castalie.livejournal.com]

Mostly, I start with the beginning and keep going to the end. But if a scene that I know happens later in the story suddenly haunts me? I'll write it down - particularly because I'm be worried I'll forget what I wanted to write when the 'right' time arrives. And sometimes, a scene just wants to be written down. Maybe you should go for it?

[msktrnanny.livejournal.com]

WRITE THE SCENE!!!

Normally, I start at the start and go through until 3 minutes before the deadline the end. But. It's a creative process and sometimes that changes. If it's itching to get out, let it out. NOW. I've written things in one sit down [long stuff, too] and had an end to a story I had no begining to before. Just go with whatever is happening now.


BOXES!

[stellamira]

I write my stories from beginning to end too, and I only insert more scenes when I absolutely have to (usually I don't). When I had a future scene in my head I used to just wait until it fit in and hope I hadn't forgotten it until then. Lately, though, I've taken to writing those scenes (or sentences) down somewhere else. For me that's a seperate notebook. It works quite well, since I don't have to see the scene anywhere where it might distract me -- like at the end of a story file -- but I know where it is when I need it.

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

I'm generally pretty start-to-finish-to-see-where-it-goes-then-go-back-and-tidy-up these days - I used to be more scatter shot, and sometimes I do start in the middle, and the story grows in both directions [how did they get here and where do they go?]

[nopseud]

I had to tell a whole scene to go away last week, after I'd put hours and hours into it, and it cried. :P

I always cut and paste unwanted scenes into a big edits file, and tell them that they'll get recycled into another story later. Usually it's a lie, but I guess it's a good lie, like telling kids the goldfish has gone to Heaven when you really flushed its sad little corpse down the toilet.

[silveryscrape.livejournal.com]

Oh, I keep them, too. Can't bear to part with them. Then once a year I drag them out and read them, along with the 390475098 wips I never manage to get to.

[nopseud]

You know, I'm tempted to try your way just to get that reaction you describe *g*

It's good!

Don't you get all mixed up with the story in your head though?

Not usually in a big way. Although fairly often little inconsistencies appear, like leaving in a mention of Joey being with the others in the post-Apocalypse when he'd already left to look for Kelly, because I'd moved that scene around. I usually catch them when I'm reading through, but sometimes they slip by.

Stories have an overall shape in my head, which is really hard to describe without sounding completely insane. It's sort of a floating, glowing ball I can 'feel', like I'm holding it. When a story is working, it's round and smooth. When something's wrong with the plot, it doesn't feel right -- it's out of shape, or a weird texture. I get the strongest sense of it when I come up with a fix for something that was wrong, and the stry suddenly feels a much better shape. (I get the same thing when I'm betaing, where the shape builds up as I read, and it feels either wrong or right.)

I can do it all logically too, by thinking about whether the end's tying up to the beginning, and whether the characters are developing over the story, and whether I'm carrying through any themes or plots I've kicked off, and whether X or Y needs more foreshdowing, etc. But I do rely somewhat on whether the shape of the story just feels smooth and complete.

I worry if I wrote in sections I'd end with a tangled mess that made no sense.

For long stories, I sometimes write a timeline (which is really just a list of scenes, but timeline sounds more professional :-) I need them more for action-adventure or detective plots where I have to keep track of events, but less so for relationship-focused stories because it's easier to hold the shape of those in my head even when they're quite large. So I had quite a lot of timelines for some of my original stuff, which was very plotty and exactly what happened when mattered a lot. And I have one for the post-Apocalypse.

I suppose it's like a journey. Key points you pass and the travel between each one.

The problem though, as Pen said, is that with writing like that you can get to all the lovely scenic bits right away, and then in the end you have all the boring motorway driving inbetween left and no motivation to do it :-)

[ninjetti75.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.

I can relate; my stories write themselves, so once I have a genreal idea of the plot I just have to come up with a starting point (if the gist of the plot didn't include one already) and from there it's just a matter of seeing where it goes, so I write linearly. When I have random ideas for scenes that happen "later" in the story than I am, I usually just write them down as a note to keep in mind as I go, then work it in when it fits. These days, I'm sitting at work with nothing to do when the phone isn't ringing and no internet connection, so I bring a notebook and just jot all sorts of ideas down. If I'm writing something at the time (i.e.: S!s for the past 10 months...) I'll scribble down various ideas of scenes, this leads to this leads to that. Those notes are just single sentences "J's bomb gets buried, he has to reach it, calls for Joey's help", so they can be fleshed out or flushed altogether when the story gets there.

That's just the way I work, thinking in "ideas", generalities, and filling in the details as I go (you know me and details.) If you've got a whole actual SCENE in your head, as opposed to an idea for a scene, you might want to write it out and save it for later, when your normal writing style catches up. Once in a while I'll have an actual turn of phrase in my head, the literal wording I want to use for part of a scene that's still just an idea for later in the story, and I'll write those out longhand in the notebook (or on nearest piece of writable material) because I know I won't necessarily remember the specifc wording when the time comes. But, thinking in ideas, that's pretty rare.

I could go on and on about this (obviously!) for pretty much EVER, so maybe I'll save the rest for a chat sometime, hm? *g*

[patchworkdragon.livejournal.com]

I do all kinds of things, especiall with long fics. Usually for somehtign big I have a folder, not jsut a file. And I have several little word docs with fragmented scenes, whcih even if I never open the file again I feel more secure knownign it's there. Sometimes I do that on paper instead, write out little bits of dialogue or a one page summary of a scene that would end up being three pages when fleshed out, that sort of thing.

You don't have to think of it as sitting there waiting to be joined. think of it as a shadow f what you will write, get it out in a seperate file or in a notebokk, and then don't look at it again until you reach that part of the story. You may even find you don't want or need to look at it again.

[turps33.livejournal.com]

That's a very good idea. I've been thinking of it in terms of a scene stuck on the end of the actual file, but really it doesn't have to be that way at all.

I think I'll do as you suggest and get it written down, then make a folder to keep stuff together.

Thank you!

[turps33.livejournal.com]

I've adopted the idea you presented here. I can't write any way but linear. I tried but it felt wrong. However, what I can do is write out notes for scenes that can be slotted in later. Heck, those scenes can be fleshed out and almost complete but I just can't add them to the main file. Seeing that chunk of text and knowing it needs to be joined feels wrong and makes me anxious.

I agree, we must bring this up in chat, along with many other things :)

[turps33.livejournal.com]

I did write the scene in the end, well, form of it anyway. It seems I just can't write in scenes and tie them together, it just feels wrong. But scenes planned well and kept in a different file in the same folder. A very different thing :)

[turps33.livejournal.com]

See, there's no way I could do that. But I'm glad it works for you :)

[turps33.livejournal.com]

You know, I think your explanation ties in nicely with the way I write. I'm so much more comfortable writing linearly, but if a scene needs to be written I've learned to write it but keep it aside for later, while knowing it could be changed.

Thank you :)

[raynedanser.livejournal.com]

Mmmhmm....

Been there, done that too...

[ceci2176.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wish I could write from beginning to end, but as I said, my creativity refrlects my persona in the sense that I have a hard time doing things that way....