how do people write?

[karaline]

What I mean is what is the process?

Do you plan a story out before you start?

Do you just start writing and see where it takes you?

Do you write reams and reams and then cut it back or do you start with a skeleton and build on it?

Or do you do something else entirely?

I have this really annoying habit of drafting in present tense and then I have to go through my work later and change it all to past tense. I really must stop doing that.

 

[Beatnic_jazzman]

inspiration

What I mean is what is the process?

Do you just start writing and see where it takes you?

Yes I do

 

[lovecraft68]

Once an idea strikes me, I let it play out in a my head a little to see if its a "real idea" or a passing 'hey that could work'.

If its still in my head after a day or to and more is being added, then I start writing and I let it take me where it wants to go. I'm not one for doing any outlining or planning beyond knowing how it will start and end.

 

[Sammael Bard]

I do have the complete story in mind when I start one. They are modified and tailored to my needs as I progress, but the basic concept remains the same.

 

[oggbashan]

I had answered this question in the Poets' Hangout a few minutes ago. Quoting myself:

... the main medium for my composition is my brain. Stories and my few poems are held in my memory, adapted, amended, revised and rethought many times before I put pen to paper or fingers on a keyboard.

I re-read part-completed works on screen and then think about them, sometimes for days before I add a word.

Once I start physically writing, I am transcribing the matter that has already been worked on in my brain.

That doesn't mean that I don't have to edit. The transcription process is the flaw. I never manage to get the story or poem from my brain to text without losing something.

 

[ukstockinglvr]

For me, ideas flood in from many sources and I play them out in my head and if one really appeals to me I will jot (type) it down when I get a chance so I can come back to it later.

Some ideas I know how they will finish others are just fragments that I will need to flesh out.

I have almost 100 of these notes/plot ideas in various stages of completion

 

[Serafina1210]

I've tried various things:

- stealing story elements from older literature;

- carefully outlining a plot and following the outline (more or less);

- creating a character I like and throwing complications at her as they occur to me.

Oddly, my most successful efforts so far at Lit (in terms of views and/or ratings) have followed the last of these. The non-method method.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've tried various things:

- stealing story elements from older literature;

- carefully outlining a plot and following the outline (more or less);

- creating a character I like and throwing complications at her as they occur to me.

Oddly, my most successful efforts so far at Lit (in terms of views and/or ratings) have followed the last of these. The non-method method.

I like that non method, method. Through Nano a couple of years ago I met another local indy author who writes in the Horror genre.

He is a little older than I am and has an "educational background" in writing. Crosses the I's dots the T's outlines every damn chapter never mind the entire story which.....good for him.

But he is the type to tell "free stylers" like me we have no idea what we're doing and gets more than a little pompous about it. Tells me I'm a little clueless.

But in the two years I've known him, I have out produced him, out sold him in the market and am almost always very relaxed and happy when I write and he is cursing and sweating every damn sentence.

I suggested he take a shot at just winging it like I do. His response was.

"That will be the day I sink to your level." Never heard from him since.

Point is, for me anyway, if it works for you fine, but if it does not why the hell be so stubborn?

Guess they have to justify their own worth or at the least what they paid for a piece of paper on the wall that can teach everything except actual talent and creative ability.

 

[oggbashan]

...

But he is the type to tell "free stylers" like me we have no idea what we're doing and gets more than a little pompous about it. Tells me I'm a little clueless.

But in the two years I've known him, I have out produced him, out sold him in the market and am almost always very relaxed and happy when I write and he is cursing and sweating every damn sentence.

I suggested he take a shot at just winging it like I do. His response was.

"That will be the day I sink to your level." Never heard from him since.

Point is, for me anyway, if it works for you fine, but if it does not why the hell be so stubborn?

Guess they have to justify their own worth or at the least what they paid for a piece of paper on the wall that can teach everything except actual talent and creative ability.

Different strokes for different folks, but an inability to see and try another way is very limiting.

Some great writers could wing it easily. Others had to squeeze every word and sentence out of an unwilling muse.

I winged it for a NaNoWriMo. I had outlined 36 chapters around a common McGuffin - red silk panties - but ended up with only 12. I had set myself the additional challenge of getting the whole 50,000 words posted on Literotica before the end of the NaNo month, even including posting delays. I managed it. The result is my Flawed Red Silk series. They aren't perfect, and I should really edit them. But I've left them as originally posted to remind myself what I can do if I just let the words flow.

 

[lovecraft68]

Different strokes for different folks, but an inability to see and try another way is very limiting.

Some great writers could wing it easily. Others had to squeeze every word and sentence out of an unwilling muse.

I winged it for a NaNoWriMo. I had outlined 36 chapters around a common McGuffin - red silk panties - but ended up with only 12. I had set myself the additional challenge of getting the whole 50,000 words posted on Literotica before the end of the NaNo month, even including posting delays. I managed it. The result is my Flawed Red Silk series. They aren't perfect, and I should really edit them. But I've left them as originally posted to remind myself what I can do if I just let the words flow.

The different strokes is the key.

I grew up in chaos therefore I function best in it. Order causes issues for me.

In work when things are slow I tend to be antsy, annoyed, looking for things to do because I am bored out of my mind. I'm unhappy when everyone else is happy and on cruise control.

When we have are huge rollouts and we are balls to the wall, trucks everywhere, dozens of temps running around, working 14 hour days.....everyone is crazed, aggravated, tired, pissed, snappy and I'm running around making jokes, smiling having a good old time. I live for chaos.

Same with writing. 240k novels write in a month with no outline no anything except., "Yup, I want to write a story" and I write it.

If I tried to outline it would be a disaster. I think the story-in all of us- is already written and we have to find the best way to draw it out.

for some, like me, its free style binge writing, in others its a long tedious detailed process.

Whatever gets it done, but telling someone their way is wrong-especially if they show it works for them-is.....wrong.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

If an idea strikes me I run it in my mind like a movie...sometimes I don't watch the whole thing and I find myself stuck for an ending. Other times it plays out so fast that I miss it, even if it was a good idea.

Sometimes it's a feature length film, other times it's length is more a TV series.

Novel, Short Story, other times it might just be a germ of an idea with just the opening page and lays dormant for...ever.

 

[visioneer]

Usually an intriguing scene and character(s) pop into my imagination. It may be no more than a glimpse, or sometimes more detailed. I try to write to capture that image, and if the character develops his/her voice and 'speaks,' I can grow the scene into a beginning, middle, and end for a story. The character is key - has to be someone that I find intriguing on some level - otherwise the process such as it is dead ends.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My present effort spins around two political theories I have: EVERY GOVERNMENT IS A RE-ENACTMENT OF THE CAPONE/MALONE STRUGGLE FOR CHICAGO. And 2, NO REAL CHANGE HAPPENS TILL BLOOD IS SPILLED. TALK DONT CUT IT. IF POLS ARENT CUTTING AND SHOOTING EACH OTHER ASSUME THEYRE ON THE SAME TEAM AND THEIR RHETORIC IS TV WRESTLER BULL SHIT. These are my premises. Next I need a good conflict.

In this tale I add Clint Eastwood to the mix, to fuck with both sides. And he goes to work pissing in the common well. He wins in the end but the victory is fleeting as folks re-organize themselves for more shits and giggles. The more things change the more they stay the same.

The rest is all snares and bait and deceit and treachery. It opens with Reverend Al leaving a pow wow at the Princess Chelsea Hotel with his entourage and goons. He sees a dollar bill fluttering about on the sidewalk beneath a street lamp, runs to get it, and as he's kneeling to capture it, a hidden assassin shoots him thru the head.

 

[karaline]

mostly when i start writing inspiration has hit for how my couple first meet I often write that scene all the while with this tiny voice in the back of my head whispering

'but how does this finish? how does this thing end? what if you write 10,000 words and then you can't think of an ending? what a waste of time that will be'

I then come up with a vague outline for a plot and fill in the details as I write.

i think i worry about this things because, a 'happy ever after' always seems completely implausible to me at the start and I'm a romantic so i want the happy ever after. And also some of my favourite stories on here have been in hiatus for years and I CAN'T BEAR IT! so I'm always trying very herd not to be one of those writers

 

[karaline]

My present effort spins around two political theories I have: EVERY GOVERNMENT IS A RE-ENACTMENT OF THE CAPONE/MALONE STRUGGLE FOR CHICAGO. And 2, NO REAL CHANGE HAPPENS TILL BLOOD IS SPILLED. TALK DONT CUT IT. IF POLS ARENT CUTTING AND SHOOTING EACH OTHER ASSUME THEYRE ON THE SAME TEAM AND THEIR RHETORIC IS TV WRESTLER BULL SHIT. These are my premises. Next I need a good conflict.

That sounds very interesting, I don't know about this struggle for Chicago.

 

[patientlee]

Guess they have to justify their own worth or at the least what they paid for a piece of paper on the wall that can teach everything except actual talent and creative ability.

The piece of paper on the wall doesn't teach common sense, flexibility, courage, getting along with others and a whole lot of other things either.

 

[patientlee]

The different strokes is the key.

I grew up in chaos therefore I function best in it. Order causes issues for me.

In work when things are slow I tend to be antsy, annoyed, looking for things to do because I am bored out of my mind. I'm unhappy when everyone else is happy and on cruise control.

When we have are huge rollouts and we are balls to the wall, trucks everywhere, dozens of temps running around, working 14 hour days.....everyone is crazed, aggravated, tired, pissed, snappy and I'm running around making jokes, smiling having a good old time. I live for chaos.

Same with writing. 240k novels write in a month with no outline no anything except., "Yup, I want to write a story" and I write it.

If I tried to outline it would be a disaster. I think the story-in all of us- is already written and we have to find the best way to draw it out.

for some, like me, its free style binge writing, in others its a long tedious detailed process.

Whatever gets it done, but telling someone their way is wrong-especially if they show it works for them-is.....wrong.

No better illustration of different strokes for different folks than our tag team experience.

I'm not so much an outliner. I'm more of an eraser. I write. I erase. I write. I erase. It's a wonder I ever get to the end. I probably wrote as many words as you did. I just erased all but 10. And half of those were "the."

 

[PennLady]

The true and frustrating answer is that everyone has a different way of writing, and I'd bet sometimes it isn't even the same for one person. I've had stories where I start with a scene and end up with a story, and others where the whole thing is in my head to start with, and others where I write, then outline to get an idea of what I've got so I can figure out where I'm going.

 

[ukstockinglvr]

mostly when i start writing inspiration has hit for how my couple first meet I often write that scene all the while with this tiny voice in the back of my head whispering

'but how does this finish? how does this thing end? what if you write 10,000 words and then you can't think of an ending? what a waste of time that will be'

I then come up with a vague outline for a plot and fill in the details as I write.

i think i worry about this things because, a 'happy ever after' always seems completely implausible to me at the start and I'm a romantic so i want the happy ever after. And also some of my favourite stories on here have been in hiatus for years and I CAN'T BEAR IT! so I'm always trying very herd not to be one of those writers

If happy ever after does not feel right, don't write it. There can be romance along the way, and then it not end well, you have had your romantic quota filled and then the story can end how you would see it. With what quite often is a heavy dose of reality.

(Yeah, been there a couple of times )

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

That sounds very interesting, I don't know about this struggle for Chicago.

Its basic animal behavior. Animals push things as far as they can and THAT determines territories. Humans do the same.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The true and frustrating answer is that everyone has a different way of writing, and I'd bet sometimes it isn't even the same for one person. I've had stories where I start with a scene and end up with a story, and others where the whole thing is in my head to start with, and others where I write, then outline to get an idea of what I've got so I can figure out where I'm going.

Nonsense. 99% of its cookie cutter copycat same-o same-o mediocrity.

 

[lovecraft68]

No better illustration of different strokes for different folks than our tag team experience.

I'm not so much an outliner. I'm more of an eraser. I write. I erase. I write. I erase. It's a wonder I ever get to the end. I probably wrote as many words as you did. I just erased all but 10. And half of those were "the."

You're meticulous and most likely a perfectionist. You stalk a story, you circle it, you beat the shit out of it, then you get started.

I just lock, load and pull the trigger. I misfire along the way, but fix it on the fly.

 

[lovecraft68]

The true and frustrating answer is that everyone has a different way of writing, and I'd bet sometimes it isn't even the same for one person. I've had stories where I start with a scene and end up with a story, and others where the whole thing is in my head to start with, and others where I write, then outline to get an idea of what I've got so I can figure out where I'm going.

Hmm well my process is always the same....but like you say above the trigger is different. Sometimes its an idea from nowhere, sometimes a picture(my summer entry is based on a stock photo my wife sent me with a challenge to write a story around it) other times its from watching people and becoming curious about their story and writing my won about them.

 

[Serafina1210]

I've heard that Dickens was an obsessive outliner and diagrammer. But while his plots are good, readers respond most strongly to his compelling characters. It's as if fiddling with the plot was a thing he did to keep his hands busy while the real story was taking form below the level of consciousness.

 

[Hypoxia]

Different tales, different processes. My USUAL method is to define the setting, characters, and a few plot points, then set them loose and record their actions and thoughts, like transcribing a video playing in my head. But that 'definition' stage can work many ways. Examples: my two newest stories (linked below), entries in the Summer Lovin' contest.

PRICKLY PAIRS started six months ago as a collaboration for another contest. The players and setting were carefully delineated and the story 80% plotted back then. Then my collaborator had to withdraw and it sat neglected for half a year. I resurrected it a week or so ago and worked on it very carefully in scattered available times. I listed 12 possible endings before one won out. Those 12000 words were painfully crafted.

A TASTE OF INCEST - A TASTE OF LEMONADE, in contrast, was totally last-minute. I went from zero idea to finished story in about four interrupted hours, and submitted one hour before deadline. (I almost adapted some existing episodes into another contest story in that last hour.) LEMONADE is somewhat modeled on the universe of A SPOT OF MUSIC. Here, I put a mother and two offspring in a back yard on a hot afternoon and set them loose. My only plot point was that they would interact sexually. How they got there, and what happened, were entirely up to them. Those 2600 words just poured out.

Those are freestyle endings. In other stories, I know the ending ahead of time, and write to reach it - JENNY BE FAIR and UNDER HIS EYES and BIG BANANA are examples, as will the LEFT BEHIND and BLACK & WHITE mini-series when done (soon). JENNY BE FAIR and other 'song' stories have the advantage of being totally plotted; I need merely fill in the blanks.

My JOURNAL stories (the RON and ALAN and DEXTER series) are bits of longer narratives with no end. I essentially record (embellished) history -- and some pieces are straight reporting. THE BOOK OF RUTH lies in between; journal-style, but with a couple possible endings. And my A TASTE OF INCEST cycle is all over the place, a bunch of mostly standalone episodes written in many different ways.

There's more than one method to my madness.

EDIT: One of my 'challenging' stories was finally accepted after being rejected multiple times. LIKE A HOLE IN THE HEAD was written to end where it began, with the protagonist staring at a spinning drill-bit; I added a softer ending to gain acceptance here. So I can say that I knew the ending and wrote to it; I just had to substitute endings. Such is literature.