Writing Flow Style

[CrissySnow]

Who here actually starts from the beginning and writes straight to the end? I doubt this ever works for me... I stopped doing this a long time ago. It's a pain in the ass it's like some movie played out in your head all wrong. Or some novel in your head that went wrong.

Anyone start at the end and work your way up to the beginning or start right in the middle then piece everything together later? Is this a little sloppy? Would you rather start somewhere then later put the pieces together? There is no right or wrong way to start a story or is it? Let me know! I wanna know how others write it gives me good ideas and good ways to improve on my writing style. So tired of rules that these ebooks on Amazon put out. It's so full of shit you know if you can relate? Hope so...

 

[sr71plt]

Depends on what you mean by start. The story germinates in several ways for me, but when I sit down at the computer, I write from the start to the end, and I rarely go back and do anything to change what I've written until I get to the end. And most of my short stories are written in one session.

 

[CrissySnow]

Depends on what you mean by start. The story germinates in several ways for me, but when I sit down at the computer, I write from the start to the end, and I rarely go back and do anything to change what I've written until I get to the end. And most of my short stories are written in one session.

By one session you mean staying glued to your desk chair until you finish? How long does that typically take?

 

[MSTarot]

My job allows me to work with my hands while my mind can wander a bit. So a lot of my stories have been playing pinball in my brain all day when I get home. I do some research if I have to then I write down a few notes, then go do something else.

When I get to write it out those notes are almost like a key to unlock all that information I worked on that day. SO yes It all gets wrote down at one time.

Then spelling edited and redone and re-edited then proof read and re-done.

If it is over 3000 word most of my stories got this treatment.

 

[SamScribble]

Different strokes for different folks.

I usually start at the beginning and see where the characters take me. Sometimes, occasionally, they lead me down a dead end street. And then I have to retrace my steps. But it normally works out.

Once I have a story - with or without an ending that I am happy with - I usually go back to the start and begin adding layers. (By then, I know a bit more about the characters.)

I have read a couple of 'How to' books. But given that, by the time I read the first one, I had already been earning my living from my keyboard for about ten years, it was more out of curiosity that anything. And now, almost 50 years down the track, I tend to find their step-one, step-two, step-three approach rather annoying. But, hey, what do I know? Except of course that people still pay me to write.

Good luck.

 

[sr71plt]

By one session you mean staying glued to your desk chair until you finish? How long does that typically take?

I've worked in an international news agency. I can fire off 1,500 words or more in an hour--words that don't get changed much in review. So, four hours and I have a pretty full story (mainstream competition stories are usually no longer than 3,500 words. Lit. stories typically go to the flabby). Three days and I have an e-book novella for the market.

I'm up and down from the chair (wine and bathroom breaks) when I compose, but when I'm down, I'm zoned in, and everything else is zoned out--and my fingers are just trying to keep up with what my muse is dumping, apparently having already composed most of the story in my subconcious.

(If you check my story list and the Lit. author's thread, you'll be able to see that I flip them out pretty quickly and regularly.)

 

[A_Little_Show]

[deleted]

 

[LadyCypris]

I usually start with a particular moment or scene that I find intriguing, figure out a very rough outline for the story, then go from there. I write in fits and starts, and in bits and pieces that I then slowly add to and eventually link together like a jigsaw.

I was helping with a real thousand-piece jigsaw the other day and was struck by how familiar the rush of having connected one big piece to another big piece was, even though I can count on my hand the number of jigsaws I've done in the past.

The good thing about this approach is that I rarely have spelling or grammatical errors by the time I'm ready to submit, because they all get caught in the process of reading and rereading that this entails. The bad thing is that they sometimes feel disjointed even to me as I take so damn long to write them that my writing style has evolved in the meantime.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

By the time I sit down to 'write'/type, I already have the story almost completely worked out in my head. At least the basics and most important parts. Character dialog is usually done on the fly but is a complement to the story and part of the character development.

So, yes, when I write, I start at the beginning and type until I get to the end. This process could take hours, days, months. My first novel took over a year, but I started a the beginning and didn't stop until I got to the end.

In most cases, what I typed is never changed. Grammar is corrected, spelling, and word choice may change, but the basic story is there, the way I thought it through.

 

[StrangeLife]

I watched an interview with Stephenie Meyer (not that I count her as a "writer", but it's hard to argue against success).

When writing Twilight, she first wrote the long scene where Edward takes Bella into the deep woods and tells her that he's a glittering vampire, and she says that she doesn't care and they commence to make out.

She then wrote the rest of the book around that scene...

 

[MrFoxwood]

It depends on what I'm writing.

The style I currently write in pretty much demands that I sit down and write from beginning to end, preferably in as few sittings as possible.

The stories I used to submit here started with a scene I liked and worked backwards and forwards from there.

The novel I'm working on is almost entirely composed of handwritten notes, with the first two chapters typed and countless other bits and pieces outlined or shaded to varying degrees.

When I'm not spending free time writing I paint, for which I nabbed the attic in our new house. There are half-done paintings everywhere, knives, tubes, bottles, sponges, rags, white spirit, varnish, chalk, charcoal, pencils, paper, lights, and a vast array of random crap that has been (or will be) useful for painting at some point. My novel notes are dangerously close to becoming part of this mess. I fear I will be found by archeologists.

 

[Blind_Justice]

I work start-to-finish. Usually, I come prepared with a rough mental "map" where I want the story to go. That's not to say that the story doesn't evolve, my lady love and I keep tossing ideas for my current story back and forth, and more often than not I squeeze in a few sentences here, an added paragraph there. For my last story, I actually wrote a detailed outline, but half of it got mutated and warped halfway through the draft. The outcome was more or less the same as planned, but the way to get there had changed, in some instances quite dramatically.

Writing out of sequence doesn't work for me. My mind just doesn't "tick" that way. But then, I keep most larger pieces snipped from my stories, just in case I might draw a plot bunny from one of those. Happened with "Ghost In The Machine: Saphire". Originally, it was intended as chapter 5, but my beta reader told me that I could get in all kinds of trouble if I used it as planned, so I shelved it. With a little rewriting, it made a great companion piece to my main story line and Lit posted it no problem. Vindication, yay!

I can manage a steady 3 to 5k words on a good day, barring any drastic revisions (read: nuking of paragraphs/pages) or spontaneous writing spurts. But for every "good" day, there's enough times when I struggle to get a scene transition just right or struggle to nail the right emotional moment. I hate those moments when you wrangle several hours for two paragraphs and still nothing wants to go together like you want it to. Curse of the second language, I guess. Most of the time it helps to just pick up another story and try that instead.

Which brings me to another question to toss into the ring: Anyone else writing multiple stories at once? And so, how many and why? I have around three to five unfinished stories lurking in my working directory, several genres from mystery to thriller to fantasy or cyberpunk. If I get stumped on one story, a change of scenery usually helps to unstick my brain.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Who here actually starts from the beginning and writes straight to the end? I doubt this ever works for me... I stopped doing this a long time ago. It's a pain in the ass it's like some movie played out in your head all wrong. Or some novel in your head that went wrong.

Anyone start at the end and work your way up to the beginning or start right in the middle then piece everything together later? Is this a little sloppy? Would you rather start somewhere then later put the pieces together? There is no right or wrong way to start a story or is it? Let me know! I wanna know how others write it gives me good ideas and good ways to improve on my writing style. So tired of rules that these ebooks on Amazon put out. It's so full of shit you know if you can relate? Hope so...

Depends what you mean by "beginning" and "end". I usually write in the same order that people are going to read it, but that doesn't have to be in chronological order. Last story I posted here was written in two layers of flashbacks.

Sometimes if I have a very strong idea for a scene I might skip ahead and write it, but that can end up as one of those "kill your darlings" things where I end up with a piece that feels great on its own, but doesn't fit well with the rest of the story. Writing from page 1 to page n makes it easier to handle things like pacing that aren't easy to gauge in outlining.

I did make one exception to that with my last long story: I have one event that's described from two different perspectives in two different chapters, and I skipped ahead so I could write both of those at the same time and keep them consistent. But usually, once I've sketched out a plot, I like to write in narrative sequence. Give or take a lot of editing passes.

 

[MrFoxwood]

Which brings me to another question to toss into the ring: Anyone else writing multiple stories at once? And so, how many and why? I have around three to five unfinished stories lurking in my working directory, several genres from mystery to thriller to fantasy or cyberpunk. If I get stumped on one story, a change of scenery usually helps to unstick my brain.

I'm working on two simultaneously right now, both in their early stages. Inevitably I'll drop the one I'm enjoying less and focus on the other. I have a heap of started stories which I occasionally go back to if I'm stumped on whatever it is I'm currently trying to write. Some of those started stories got fairly lengthy before something caught my imagination, there's one in particular that runs to about 14 chapters (30ish Lit pages I'd guess).

Ultimately in writing, just as in reading, I cannot maintain focus on more than one story at a time.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I watched an interview with Stephenie Meyer (not that I count her as a "writer", but it's hard to argue against success).

When writing Twilight, she first wrote the long scene where Edward takes Bella into the deep woods and tells her that he's a glittering vampire, and she says that she doesn't care and they commence to make out.

She then wrote the rest of the book around that scene...

Actually, I have one story that I wrote differently than I did all my others. Aftermath was written as a bunch of short stories I did as an exercise to unblock my writers block. I had so many of them, all based on the same theme that I put them together into a novel. Changing the beginning and ending of each chapter to tie it to the next and previous one.

I basically started with one short story. In fact the one I started with I eventually deleted from the book as it no long fit the theme. I did eventually include that short story in another work. The anthology The Darkness Before Night contains that story.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

Who here actually starts from the beginning and writes straight to the end? I doubt this ever works for me... I stopped doing this a long time ago. It's a pain in the ass it's like some movie played out in your head all wrong. Or some novel in your head that went wrong.

Anyone start at the end and work your way up to the beginning or start right in the middle then piece everything together later? Is this a little sloppy? Would you rather start somewhere then later put the pieces together? There is no right or wrong way to start a story or is it? Let me know! I wanna know how others write it gives me good ideas and good ways to improve on my writing style. So tired of rules that these ebooks on Amazon put out. It's so full of shit you know if you can relate? Hope so...

I start at the beginning and work my way to the end. I don't start writing until I have the entire story worked out from beginning to end, although sometimes I find that the original outline needs tweaking. I generally write in 1-3 hour blocks during my lunchtime. I usually manage anywhere from 500 to 2500 words per session. I try to stop at the end of a scene, but sometimes I'm forced to cut away in the middle.

If I get stuck on a section I have no problem skipping ahead. Problems tend to work themselves out when I'm not consciously thinking about them. Once a resolution is found, I then go back and fill in the missing text.

Which brings me to another question to toss into the ring: Anyone else writing multiple stories at once? And so, how many and why? I have around three to five unfinished stories lurking in my working directory, several genres from mystery to thriller to fantasy or cyberpunk. If I get stumped on one story, a change of scenery usually helps to unstick my brain.

I don't jump around from one story to another. I do have some unfinished stories on my drive, but when I do go back to one of them it will be with the intention of completing it, rather than adding to it and then working on something else. I don't like working on more than one story at a time. I prefer to narrow my focus on one thing until it is finished.

 

[sr71plt]

Which brings me to another question to toss into the ring: Anyone else writing multiple stories at once? And so, how many and why? I have around three to five unfinished stories lurking in my working directory, several genres from mystery to thriller to fantasy or cyberpunk. If I get stumped on one story, a change of scenery usually helps to unstick my brain.

I don't usually write multiple stories at once--I do build multiple novellas and novels at the same time. On occasion, though, I have a flash of a story in mind while I'm still writing another one. If I have the one I'm writing mapped out in my mind to the end, I might break to capture the one my muse just dropped. Sometimes, if I don't do that, the new story evaporates before I can get to it.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Which brings me to another question to toss into the ring: Anyone else writing multiple stories at once? And so, how many and why? I have around three to five unfinished stories lurking in my working directory, several genres from mystery to thriller to fantasy or cyberpunk. If I get stumped on one story, a change of scenery usually helps to unstick my brain.

Currently, I have twelve active stories I am working on. I say active because I have added to them in one form or another within the last five or so months. I have about thirty unfinished stories in my working directory.

Some I have lost interest in. Others where just exercises to clear my mind, yet they have the potential of becoming something more. With work.

Of the twelve, half are non-erotic in nature.

 

[Saxon_Hart]

To the OP;
I start with an idea in my head. Sometimes the idea is a single event in a story, sometimes it is the story. If it's a single even, I build around it until I see the beginning then I start to write. I di write from star to finish, but many times another idea hits and I may or may not go back and change things to make it fit.

To Blind_Justice:

I am currently working on 3 things at once, 2 for lit, and one novel. My desktop is full of ideas, and about a dozen ideas have made it into word docs to be developed.

 

[TxRad]

I always start at the first and work my way through. On one or two stories, I have rearranged things so characters are more developed. Otherwise, what you see is what I wrote for the most part.

I have about 250 partial stories and five novels in my writing directory. I won't live to finish just what I have now and my Muse is always yammering about something new.

I'd tie the little bitch down but she would like it too much.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

I constantly delete things I started out to say here, for fear of offending the hardcore 'realists.'

I cannot tell you how I write things because you simply would not believe it.

But I am rather entertained to have discovered there are gay muses! Which is not something I ever thought about before. I know there are having read a few of the gay theme writers here.

Muses are... highly sacred.

 

[RoyceConnors]

I think once I have the beginning down right, the flow of the story is easy to get from there. I'll find things to add in as I go long and sometimes backtrack and add in and alter before I go further.
I've had comments noting my style of narration is great to read along to and easy to follow. I do my dialogue tricks and keep it moving during that part as well.

My biggest mistake is being a commacunt and over using them. Some are left in by mistake when changing sentence structure, but some are for emphasis I needed, but only I know to put that emphasis on it and no punctuation works, lmao.

I know the stories I don't like, are ones that jump back and forth and ruin continuity and flow.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I rarely get excited about writing or anything. I put on some good performances, to stir the pot, but 99 times outta 100 things come in their own time, dependent on my fund of knowledge & experience, and whatever intelligence/creativity I possess. But I don't fret or force results. Its like the weather, you get what you get when you get it.

 

[lovecraft68]

Start to finish and one story at a time. I get tunnel vision when I write.

If I get an itch for a different story I'll jot a quick sentence or two down in a notebook then go back to what I was doing.

I don't worry about length when I write. IMO only people who cannot keep a reader engaged fear going over 3,500k

 

[RoyceConnors]

Start to finish and one story at a time. I get tunnel vision when I write.

If I get an itch for a different story I'll jot a quick sentence or two down in a notebook then go back to what I was doing.

I don't worry about length when I write. IMO only people who cannot keep a reader engaged fear going over 3,500k

Going over 3.5k is a worry? My chapter avg is 10k and some even longer, some shorter. 3500 words is just a decent day of writing for me. When I'm cooking on a chapter, I'll hammer out 7500 words in a day, going from 9-9. Retired does have some benefits to do that, lol

I just put in the words that count and let the reader take it from there. 10k is a good chapter size for a series. As noted, most want no more than 3 Lit pages of reading, unless it's a riveting story and can carry it.

I started Blood long before R9 and I'm jumping back and forth, as ideas for both come to me. R9 is easy to keep going, the end was already written for me and I just have to get there, whereas Blood requires me to conceive the whole thing and I'm hurting bad right now to end it. It's gotten out of hand and won't stop writing itself. I started with a 50 ch limit and I'm past that with 15 more to go before it even comes close to an ending.
Getting to be more like Blood of the Hands, lmao