Do you record or do you craft?

[MillieDynamite]

I can write between 5,000 and 7,000 words by the seat of my pants. Usually, I've been thinking about the story for a few hours to up to two days before I start. Sort of writing scenes in my head. More than that, I write an outline and the beats I need to hit. Then I write scenes of the beats, moving from one bullet point's completed beats formed into completed scenes to the next. Outlining is preparing for crafting; crafting is what is what I do after I've written the first draft.

 

[AG31]

I realized today that I haven't answered my own question.

I'm most definitely a recorder. I record fantasies. In the writing process I re-visit fantasies, and elaborate them (is that a transitive verb), but I must find each new bit physically arousing. I spend a lot of time looking for the right words to describe the fantasy. My least successful story has more craft in it. The result is a lot of wooden dialogue that I can't fix. I'm a stickler for a good ear for dialogue when I'm reading, just can't produce it when writing.

 

[Voboy]

Not for me. I'll record an observation (my grace notes), but my stories are stream of consciousness writing; pure pantser, me.

"Crafting" implies doing something very deliberately, so I'm not that either. What you read is pretty much (98% - 99%) the raw first draft. During edit I fiddle with words, phrases, the occasional sentence gets moved around, but I like to keep the rawness I get in that first rush of words to the page. It's very possibly, "You can't polish a turd," but it might also be, as a beloved beta reader once said, "Finding a gem in the mud."

This.

I'm the same.

 

[Izanami9]

The most apt description I’ve seen of what the writing process feels like to me is in Stephen King’s On Writing. He compared writers to archaeologists, stumbling across artifacts and then carefully excavating them. The story exists already, and I’m the lucky narrator.

The initial inspiration can be anything - my most recent submission here for Geek Pride started with a recurrent dream I’ve had every so often for more than a decade, but my On-the-Job story began with the title and a vague melodramatic dark vibe, and my April Fools entry was inspired by a photograph.

I have tried outlines and formulaic approaches a few times for story ideas I’m interested in exploring, but as soon as I start trying to control the narrative, inspiration dies and takes my motivation with it.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I haven't read On Writing, but I did read The Dance Macabra, and learned a great deal from it. But with reading King's works of fiction, I see that the rules aren't always followed, especially by him. Too many passive verbs, phrases, and sentences. Too many storylines and characters vanish without a trace of having existed. I'd go, but you get my point.

The most apt description I’ve seen of what the writing process feels like to me is in Stephen King’s On Writing. He compared writers to archaeologists, stumbling across artifacts and then carefully excavating them. The story exists already, and I’m the lucky narrator.

The initial inspiration can be anything - my most recent submission here for Geek Pride started with a recurrent dream I’ve had every so often for more than a decade, but my On-the-Job story began with the title and a vague melodramatic Noir-esque vibe, and my April Fools entry was inspired by a photograph.

I have tried outlines and formulaic approaches a few times for story ideas I’m interested in exploring, but as soon as I start trying to control the narrative, inspiration dies and takes my motivation with it.

 

[Izanami9]

I haven't read On Writing, but I did read The Dance Macabra, and learned a great deal from it. But with reading King's works of fiction, I see that the rules aren't always followed, especially by him. Too many passive verbs, phrases, and sentences. Too many storylines and characters vanish without a trace of having existed. I'd go, but you get my point.

It has been sooo long since I read Danse Macabre that my Swiss-cheese (ADHD) brain can't remember anything specific about it, or how it differed from On Writing in substance; I did really enjoy On Writing because it challenged me to 'murder my darlings' (especially if those darlings happened to end in 'ly') and to write an assigned short story that took me in a whole new direction as a writer.

As far as King's fiction, the only book of his I've never read is Misery, which I *still* refuse to read because of Kathy Bates, lol. I was WAY too young to watch the movie when my cousin rented it, and Bates was so convincing in the psychopath role I never got over it (she's amazing; LOVED her as Dolores Claiborne, one of my favorite adaptations of a King novel to a movie).

And yeah, he definitely breaks rules - his own as well as standard; sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. The thing I most respect about King's writing is his characterization - his characters are so realistic and true-to-life they can carry the plot through some of the most ridiculous twists imaginable, although when it flops, it flops hard enough to give me secondhand embarrassment.

I do subscribe to the idea that once you learn to do well as a writer within the boundaries the rules set, you're better able to venture outside them for greater impact. Rules are made to be broken and all that; I no longer murder *all* of my darlings, and especially here I let my adverbs run WILD, along with my specific verbs, probably too much. But I'm still really thankful for everything I learned from King, both in On Writing and in his fiction. ^_^

 

[jehoram]

For me, it's like this:

When I think of a story idea, I get this thing in my head were somebody is telling me the story over the radio, and the reception isn't very good. I'm sitting at my desk writing everything down as fast as I can, trying to capture the idea and, ideally, the words that were spoken to me. The first editing process, for me, is going over the story to see if anything there reminds me of what the original storyteller was telling me. I'll substitute one word for another, thinking "This is what my muse must have said, even though I must have misheard it the first time." Eventually, I get no reminders of what my muse must have said, so I call it done and start working on the nuts and bolts of grammar and spelling and such, which I'm doing by myself now that my editor is gone.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Have you seen her in her new Series? She's fantastic, and while it is respectful to the original, the similarities end with the name. Which wasn't her's until she had it legally changed to find out who did what. Won't give away what it's about to those who haven't seen it. She's always stellar in her roles.

It has been sooo long since I read Danse Macabre that my Swiss-cheese (ADHD) brain can't remember anything specific about it, or how it differed from On Writing in substance; I did really enjoy On Writing because it challenged me to 'murder my darlings' (especially if those darlings happened to end in 'ly') and to write an assigned short story that took me in a whole new direction as a writer.

As far as King's fiction, the only book of his I've never read is Misery, which I *still* refuse to read because of Kathy Bates, lol. I was WAY too young to watch the movie when my cousin rented it, and Bates was so convincing in the psychopath role I never got over it (she's amazing; LOVED her as Dolores Claiborne, one of my favorite adaptations of a King novel to a movie).

And yeah, he definitely breaks rules - his own as well as standard; sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. The thing I most respect about King's writing is his characterization - his characters are so realistic and true-to-life they can carry the plot through some of the most ridiculous twists imaginable, although when it flops, it flops hard enough to give me secondhand embarrassment.

I do subscribe to the idea that once you learn to do well as a writer within the boundaries the rules set, you're better able to venture outside them for greater impact. Rules are made to be broken and all that; I no longer murder *all* of my darlings, and especially here I let my adverbs run WILD, along with my specific verbs, probably too much. But I'm still really thankful for everything I learned from King, both in On Writing and in his fiction. ^_^

 

[calmlikeabomb]

Mix of both, honestly.

I get a few anchor scenes or a basic idea, and then I meander towards the end.

 

[Izanami9]

Have you seen her in her new Series? She's fantastic, and while it is respectful to the original, the similarities end with the name. Which wasn't her's until she had it legally changed to find out who did what. Won't give away what it's about to those who haven't seen it. She's always stellar in her roles.

YES!!! I can’t remember anything about the original series except the music and that my old Gran watched it religiously, but I absolutely *love* Mattie. The other characters are wonderful in that too, and the plot is fascinating - I don’t think I’m completely up-to-date though, I need to go check. Thanks for reminding me!