What's your process for starting a story?

Being fairly new to Chyoo I'm still getting the hang of starting new stories. I have a fairly substantial outline for the story I'm currently working on, but I'm not sure the best strategy for writing it live while also making it interesting for people who start it while it's a work in progress.

Is it a better practice to focus on one branch first? For example, trying to flesh out what comes off of 2.1 before focusing on what comes off of 2.2.

Or is it better to work on multiple branches at the same time?

I had started with the latter strategy, but have found that the nature of Chyoo ended up giving me more ideas as I was going along, so instead of going deeper on threads I instead started adding more options that aren't in my outline (this is actually typical with my writing process. The characters tend to come alive and dictate the storyline regardless of what I originally planned).

Now I've switched to the former strategy and with the goal of getting one of the possible potential story lines finished before going on to the others. It's more natural, but I feel like I'm neglecting my other children.

One branch

One branch at a time is usually how I do it. If I have a good idea for an option I will note it at the right spot in my word doc and then come back to it later. I find I do a better jog if I just finish one tree before trying to fill in other branches.

There are so many options after you get three or four deep that it would be hard to write more than a couple.

jakelyon said:

There are so many options after you get three or four deep that it would be hard to write more than a couple.

Click to expand...

That's definitely what I've been finding. My word document is actually a mess, because I kept writing out the various branches instead of just making a note. So it goes.

I tend to stick to one linear path, but I've never been voted or commented on, so I'm probably not the one to follow.

I try to get ideas from readers of where they want to see the story go. Love input as much as possible.

Different for different stories

I've started different stories with different amounts of direction and structure.

"In From The Snow" is intended to be a set of sexual encounters connected by a main couple (an interracial married couple who work emergency road rescue on a snowy highway pass, rescue stuck travelers and keep them overnight). I think the design was successful for what was intended, though I never managed to get the characters to the hot springs resort I kept hinting at having a secret sexy season during winter.

"Office Morale" is closer to the notion of a madcap comedy or satire -- a visiting company executive discovers one division's secret to performance is safe sex orgy breaks at work, and his old flame, the division head, walks him through it. I put together some longer connected threads, but didn't have a specific place it was going.

"Get Me To The Church On Time" is intended to be a set of converging arcs following bride-to-be, hippie mother, and yuppie mother-in-law through their own, very different, sets of sexual complications and rivalries leading up to the wedding. I didn't manage the convergence, but could get fired up again, perhaps.

"When The Cat's Away" was deliberately set up in the two introductory threads to be a pair of arcs which converged (young adults at home; parents on a cruise, returning unexpectedly early), and the plan was realized more successfully, with some interesting wandering around amongst the various characters' stories. This one ended up with the most development.

There were also a couple of period pieces where I set up the characters and setting, hoping to be inspired to take things one direction or another, but haven't taken the plot very far -- Victorian, vaguely steampunk-esque "Lucy's Portion" and Pirates-of-the-Caribbean style "Port Call".

"Lucy's Portion" has a bit more development based on the suddenly revealed identity of Lucy as an unacknowledged child of the noble family she'd been serving (sometimes with her skirts up!) all her life, and how her relationships with the family and other servants shift drastically.

HottieMorgan said:

I try to get ideas from readers of where they want to see the story go. Love input as much as possible.

Click to expand...

Glad to see I'm not the only one who does this.

HottieMorgan said:

I try to get ideas from readers of where they want to see the story go. Love input as much as possible.

Click to expand...

Input is a lovely thing. I'd stalled on a direction, but a random comment from a reader lit a spark that led to the addition of half a dozen threads.