Share Your Draft Notes

[FromManyOne]

(The anthropomorphic Clydesdale enters a bar.)
(Clydesdale orders a beer from a keg.)
(Clydesdale looks over at a poorly-sealed window, remarking about how cold the breeze is.)

Wait, that's what you wanted, right?

Shouldn't the horse be singing? Doesn't it have to generate ... notes?

 

[Areala-chan]

I don't use in-line notes. I might have an external text file where I plop down ideas for potential scenes, or lines I want to use later (I had about two dozen haiku I wrote for one story, for instance, that I then picked from at the appropriate times), but I'm fortunate in that I've never felt like I needed something there in the story document itself.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I don't use in-line notes. I might have an external text file where I plop down ideas for potential scenes, or lines I want to use later (I had about two dozen haiku I wrote for one story, for instance, that I then picked from at the appropriate times), but I'm fortunate in that I've never felt like I needed something there in the story document itself.

It's mostly laziness on my part, not wanting to bother highlighting the text, or going to a different document, and then just ranting at myself about how nobody needs a twelve-page dissertation on hammerhead shark claspers in the middle of a gay sex romp.

It's only five pages now!

 

[FromManyOne]

I don't use in-line notes. I might have an external text file where I plop down ideas for potential scenes, or lines I want to use later (I had about two dozen haiku I wrote for one story, for instance, that I then picked from at the appropriate times), but I'm fortunate in that I've never felt like I needed something there in the story document itself.

I'm curious why you consider it "fortunate" that your particular workflow keeps notes outside the actual document being edited?

 

[Areala-chan]

I'm curious why you consider it "fortunate" that your particular workflow keeps notes outside the actual document being edited?

I meant I felt lucky in that I can keep the entire story in my head. I don't need physical outlines, character biographies, story beat worksheets. I don't sketch out plot points or plan how many pages/words to devote to rising action, climax, falling action, and so forth. My brain's just a big-ass filing cabinet that can compartmentalize all of that, even if I'm working on multiple different projects.

I can sit in front of a work I haven't touched for years, and immediately be back in the flow, remembering what I was going for, what the theme is, who all the characters are, and so forth. Obviously if I let something go that long, there's time spent bringing old text up to my current standards, but I always remember where I was going with it. Any notes I make are along the lines of, "Ah, that's a good line I could use somewhere!" or "Potential sex scene while they're in the sauna?".

In school, I could never understand why teachers insisted on students handing in outlines and drafts along with their completed paper because I just...wrote the paper. Who needed a draft or an outline? Wasn't that just extra busy-work? Doesn't everybody have the whole thing outlined in their head before they start writing?

I was surprised to learn not everybody's brain worked like mine, and it genuinely felt like I had some cheat code others didn't have access to. I'm just fortunate in that regard, that's all I meant.

 

[StillStunned]

I already had to rewrite part of the description. The inn's door doesn't open onto the road, it opens onto the courtyard between the two wings.

I have Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-Earth in the bookcase. I should probably check whether there's a map of the Pony.

And of course there is! I bet KWF would be thrilled that the Atlas has been sitting in my bookcase all these years just so I can use it for a sex story.

 

[sirhugs]

I meant I felt lucky in that I can keep the entire story in my head. I don't need physical outlines, character biographies, story beat worksheets. I don't sketch out plot points or plan how many pages/words to devote to rising action, climax, falling action, and so forth. My brain's just a big-ass filing cabinet that can compartmentalize all of that, even if I'm working on multiple different projects.

I can sit in front of a work I haven't touched for years, and immediately be back in the flow, remembering what I was going for, what the theme is, who all the characters are, and so forth. Obviously if I let something go that long, there's time spent bringing old text up to my current standards, but I always remember where I was going with it. Any notes I make are along the lines of, "Ah, that's a good line I could use somewhere!" or "Potential sex scene while they're in the sauna?".

In school, I could never understand why teachers insisted on students handing in outlines and drafts along with their completed paper because I just...wrote the paper. Who needed a draft or an outline? Wasn't that just extra busy-work? Doesn't everybody have the whole thing outlined in their head before they start writing?

I was surprised to learn not everybody's brain worked like mine, and it genuinely felt like I had some cheat code others didn't have access to. I'm just fortunate in that regard, that's all I meant.

The teachers requesting the outlines and drafts was a plagiarism detection tool.

 

[deathlynx]

Out walking and the same PB from yesterday's walk came back to me with more ideas. This time quite a few so I made sure to note in short form so as not to lose latter thoughts while writing out the first ones.


Dungeon?
Gamer


Guys think about sex
Not fat!
Rubinesque
Data dump
Law?
Reasons
Nice to have to wait

Incidentally, when I went to Google about how often guys think about sex this was the number 1 answer through the highlighted portion.
How often do Guys think about the roman empire

 

[Stanfield2025]

I wrote alternate chapter 7s in my outline cause I'm no longer sure which direction I want the story to go.

 

[StillStunned]

How often do Guys think about the roman empire

And what they did for us.

 

[deathlynx]

And what they did for us.

*assumes bad British accent*The aquaduct?

 

[anthrodisiac]

*assumes bad British accent*The aquaduct?

Nothing sexier than an aqueduct. They make me so wet.

I regret nothing.

 

[sirhugs]

*assumes bad British accent*The aquaduct?

Nothing sexier than an aqueduct. They make me so wet.

I regret nothing.

aren't all ducks aqua ducks?

 

[anthrodisiac]

aren't all ducks aqua ducks?

They're kinda jerks, though, so more like aqua dicks.

 

[deathlynx]

aren't all ducks aqua ducks?

What about Howard? Though he still qualifies as @anthrodisiac "dick". Still missing the aqua part.

 

[anthrodisiac]

What about Howard? Though he still qualifies as @anthrodisiac "dick". Still missing the aqua part.

The phrasing on that is unfortunate

 

[deathlynx]

The phrasing on that is unfortunate

Unfortunately, you can't use punctuation right next to a name tag.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Unfortunately, you can't use punctuation right next to a name tag.

@deathlynx's dick

I have now broken all known laws of physics. Worship me.

 

[deathlynx]

@deathlynx's dick

I have now broken all known laws of physics. Worship me.

It always ends up deleting it when I try that. *grumbles*

 

[TheLobster]

Not to reveal all of @anthrodisiac’s secrets, but if it doesn’t work the first time, you can just put the name tag by itself first and then try to edit the post. It will then have the square-bracket markup code instead of the at-sign text, so it’s easy to insert the punctuation after the closing bracket.

 

[TheLobster]

Also, you can apparently use the above trick to mention someone while putting in the name of someone else.

I’m sure @anthrodisiac is happy I revealed that secret of his as well.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Also, you can apparently use the above trick to mention someone while putting in the name of someone else.

I’m sure @anthrodisiac is happy I revealed that secret of his as well.

The secrets of the gods have been revealed, and thus begins the new era of man.

...I'm not very impressed yet.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

☲☶ #56 Lü / The Wanderer

I only mentioned "Shelter" twice
Stick to 8 syllables, iambic or die
Maybe for the best to do 8 + 8 verses instead of 16 in a row
Next time ask M******* out just so you can admire her body closer
Shift places between these two verses
Why are we writing this poem in English instead of Spanish though?

This is just for a writing exercise that I think went too far.

 

[FromManyOne]

I can cut out that entire driving to the parking lot piece here and shorten the interminable minutia I keep inflicting on the reader.

As I pantsed it, my lovers get in a car, make out for a couple of minutes, decide to drive to a parking spot for more privacy, kiss once more, have an important conversation then ... decide to go home. All the discussing the parking spot, driving, etc. is just a distraction. Luckily my editing brain caught the entire wasted 276 words and I'll remove it.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

My typical notes found in the rough draft of most of my stories:

INSERT SEX SCENE HERE

INSERT SEX SCENE HERE?

INSERT SEX SCENE HERE