A different style of writing

[SeaCat]

I have decided to try writing a story in a different way. Instead of working off of an outline I wrote a storyline and now will fill it out. I have to add things like dialog and descriptions.

It should prove interesting, at least for me.

Any one else done it this way?

Cat

 

[sr71plt]

Not me. If there are historical setting notes I need, I'll have them on a notepad when I write. Otherwise, I let it organize itself in my mind and just write when I have an opening sentence ready--I don't have either written outline or storyline.

 

[starrkers]

Nor me. I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants writer. Get it nutted out in my head and then just go. No outline, no safety net.

 

[The_Fractal_King]

Any time I try writing with an outline or storyline for anything it falls through in the end.

 

[Liar]

Any one else done it this way?

Cat

Every time.

Which, considering the length of my story list, isn't all that often.

 

[SavannahMann]

I get an idea, and start running.

I'm a horrible person. I don't outline. I get a vague idea, I play with it for a while. Then I have a section or two and a feeling if the story is going to go or not. If I don't like it, I shelve it and go on to something else.

 

[patricia51]

I sometimes outline if its a story set in one of my series, especially my "Bridget" stories to make sure nothing clashes with the timeline I have set up. Other than that I tend to dash back and forth in a story when a good line or scene occurs to me. One of the projects I have in my "In Progress" file has four separate chapters that I have written bits and pices of as I thought of them. In fact, Chapter One probably has less of it written than any of the follow-up chapters.

 

[rgraham666]

I'm a pantster as well. I churn the story over in my mind until it's read to go and then start writing.

I might do a bit of an outline, more of a time line really, for the novel I'm planning.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

If youre THAT good you can write without a plan and expect success. Or if youre a natural genius at writing you can do it intuitively. But 98% of writers cant do it and expect a popular reception.

I'm studying screenplays. Screenplays are nuthin but plan and formula. One-hundred and twenty-eight pages of script is 128 minutes of film. One page per minute. All the good shit better be in the first 8 pages or your audience is off to the snack bar. The set-up better not run beyond 30 pages.

Psychologists have examined zillions of films and scripts and what makes a film a blockbuster. Most of the success is in the organization of the material.

 

[Emerald_Dragon]

Most of the time I have a general idea of where the story is going. Usually I have a few 'scenes' that are very detailed and I just kinda go from there.

 

[sr71plt]

I'm a pantster as well. I churn the story over in my mind until it's read to go and then start writing.

I might do a bit of an outline, more of a time line really, for the novel I'm planning.

On novels, I will have an "events included" list for maybe the first seven chapters before I start writing so that I can get into the novel with the basic threads planned out. But these seven sorta outlines usually become ten or more chapters as I'm writing them and the whole structure/storyline can change. The notes just help me get into the writing.

 

[gauchecritic]

I don't plan, except in my head and I think it's probably more time consuming, although more exciting, to write without a plan. but it's handy to have a some kind of plan even just for small details that prevent you from changing a character name or hair colour halfway through.

On the other hand, the stories I wrote based on fairy tales I felt gave me much more freedom because I knew that wherever the story meandered off to there was always the plot to come back to.