Writing Process

[sdsioux]

How do you go about writing a story? I typically start with an outline of what I want to do in the story writing the information in a notebook. I then type it into the computer in a word format, edit it and then submit it as a story.

 

[shutterpsb]

I usually have an idea of the story I want to tell and pretty much write from my head using Word. Then I print a hard copy and have my wife read/mark it up. I follow by reading and marking it up as well. I produce a 2nd or 3rd draft depending on problems. Once satisfied I change it to plain text and submit.

 

[lovecraft68]

Usually I get a bunch of ideas. Let's face it, if you look around you can see plot bunnies everywhere.

I usually lay there at night and let them flash through my mind. Some I say "Yeah, maybe" but I keep going until I really get fixated on one, then I sit and write.

I don't outline, I can't work in any type of organized fashion I'm a free wheeling binge writer.

 

[Handley_Page]

You start from a Plot Bunny [an idea]

 

[Ardent1]

I've always thought of it as a process of discovery. I just kind of dump it all onto the page and see what the characters do. How they interact is often due to circumstance.

The writing itself often suggests a direction. Once I'm done, I cut out anything that, as S King would put it, is not the story. Then the edit begins.

 

[PennLady]

It's different for everyone. Some just go with an idea and see what develops, and some write detailed outlines and fill in any gaps later. Or some do something in between (I do that). There's no right or wrong way, just the way that works for you.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've always thought of it as a process of discovery. I just kind of dump it all onto the page and see what the characters do. How they interact is often due to circumstance.

The writing itself often suggests a direction. Once I'm done, I cut out anything that, as S King would put it, is not the story. Then the edit begins.

"S King" cuts stuff out? That's a good one, he's had diarrhea of the key board since he got so big people were afraid to edit him

Cuts stuff out...go check out "Insomnia"

 

[PennLady]

"S King" cuts stuff out? That's a good one, he's had diarrhea of the key board since he got so big people were afraid to edit him

Cuts stuff out...go check out "Insomnia"

I don't think I minded insomnia. My least favorite was "Gerald's Game," which was boring and not all that long.

 

[sr71plt]

I start with being hit with some sort of hook. I turn it over to my subconscious. When my subconscious tells me to start working on it on the computer, I type it out as quickly as possible. I review it once or twice, almost always adding to it. I send it to the editor. I clean it up when it returns and review it again, invariably adding to it again. A last spellcheck and then a last check that all of the quote marks are there, and submit.

Although my Muse often delivers a story full blown, I don't wait for it all to form in my mind. Much of the fun in writing them is in new discoveries of what they are as they spin out in the computer. Same with review. I'll rarely review more than twice. When it's lost its freshness, I lose interest in it.

 

[lovecraft68]

I don't think I minded insomnia. My least favorite was "Gerald's Game," which was boring and not all that long.

Insomnia could have been better(and I liked the references to a couple of his other books, like gage's shoe from Pet Sematary being amongst the belongings of...whatever the hell the sleep people were) if he cut a lot out of it.

I think that's why I think Pet Sematary is my favorite he didn't seem to go into too many tangents on that one.

I couldn't finish Gerald's Game so I'm with you. The one that killed him for me was Desperation which was tied to regulators. I fought through Desperation hoping to find something that made sense then quit Regulators, and KIng, after two chapters

Dark Half is one of the best as well, hardly ever mentioned, but damn good.

 

[Hypoxia]

It depends. I find it best to know (A) the players, (B) the setting, (C) the ending, and let (A) and (B) work up to (C). But that doesn't always happen. Sometimes I define (A) and (B) and a few plot points, and let the players work it out amongst themselves. Outlines? I tried that and got stuck for a decade. It's easiest just to transcribe the players' words and deeds.

EDIT: I recall a successful outline story, Prickly Pairs. It was success because I followed the outline about halfway, then went off in a different direction.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I get story ideas from all over the place. They sit in my brain fermenting for years, and when one of them feels like it might have matured enough, I try to write it.

Usually I'll sketch out an outline, but I'll improvise considerably around that outline as I go, and sometimes change it entirely. Sometimes this is because filling out the early part of the story has suggested an interesting direction (wait, how DOES Phoebe relate to her mother?) Other times, it's because of mood or pacing issues that are hard to anticipate in an outline.

The outline doesn't have to be just about events; it can also be about the emotional direction of the story. ("At the start, Josephine is a rich girl who takes poor Ruth on as a charity case, and Ruth has a secret crush on her; by the end, in seeking to impress Josephine, Ruth has become a self-destructive star, and it's now Josephine who's obsessed with Ruth.")

For a large piece, I will keep a small concordance of the characters involved (basically, important details and dates) to help avoid contradicting myself.

I don't follow the "rough draft, second draft, final draft" mode of writing. I edit as I go; every time I sit down to write, I'll look over the last page or so that I've written, and tweak it as it needs before continuing on to write the next section. By the time I get to "the end", the story is 99% done; I'll usually read through the whole thing one last time to look for errors, then hand it over to my beta reader. For years I thought everybody else used the "draft and redraft" method and I was the only person on earth who wrote this way, but recently I discovered that some pro authors do the same thing.

 

[DreamCloud]

I start with an interesting premise and then write. I usually don't have an end until I am 10k+ into it. It's alot of fun that way. Stuff you throw in as flavor ends up having meaning later. A phase returns, a small item becomes huge. I don't think it would be fun with a plan. When it ceases to be fun, bye bye Lit.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I see stories in my mind as mini-series tv shows. Dialog, narration, scenery, everything. I watch the beginning, the middle and the end. I may go over the thing many times in my mind before I even touch the keyboard to write it. Then I sit down and write.

I also edit as I go. I think I have only twice rewrote a large chunk (multiple word pages) of a story. Most of the time I'm just tweaking what is there until I have all the I's dotted and T's crossed.

There was one story I practically rewrote...I delete all the smut to publish as a non-erotic sci-fi story.

 

[HeyAll]

I start writing when I have a premise I like, a vague idea of the characters, and a simple story arc (how the story gets from A to Z, from no sex, to sex.)

Then I write it in scenes. I think, "What would this character say?" Then it's, "Okay, what would the other character say in response."

Usually there's an end goal in mind for each scene, in other words, what's the point of the scene? Where's it going?

I just think generally and let it flow. I've found that having too many specific pre-determined plot points can work against you, because when you write, sometimes the characters start saying things and the story flows in a different direction.

I prefer submitting the story by copy & pasting the text. All of my stories are written in either AOL or Google Docs. Both are underrated writing tools. I don't want anything saved on my computer.

 

[sr71plt]

I prefer submitting the story by copy & pasting the text. All of my stories are written in either AOL or Google Docs. Both are underrated writing tools. I don't want anything saved on my computer.

There's a point. I started off posting stories at Lit. to have a repository for them that took them off my computers.

 

[SamScribble]

I tend to start with a sentence - usually a sentence about or uttered by a central character - and I see where it leads. What happens next is what happens next. My job is to supply the craft. Who supplies the thoughts is something about which I am still not sure.

 

[GoldenCojones]

Different ways

I sometimes start with characters in mind, sometimes with a plot, and sometimes with just a beginning and an ending. The beginning and ending stories are sometimes quirky or forced. The plot stories sometimes have characters that seem shallow and the character stories often roam around until I'm not ever sure there is a plot.

Every now and then the characters, plot, and endings all line up and that is when I know I need to stop drinking so damned much.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

...

I prefer submitting the story by copy & pasting the text. All of my stories are written in either AOL or Google Docs. Both are underrated writing tools. I don't want anything saved on my computer.

I'm just the opposite...I want all my work on my computer and backup copies...well multiples of those.

I mostly use Word, but on occasion use yWrite for bigger/longer stories.

I then copy and paste here at Lit. Other venues accept .doc files and convert them to .epub or .mobi for publication.

 

[robertreams]

oh yeah, what about tommyknockers, tommyknockers,tommyknockers,tommyknockers,tommyknockers,et.

 

[oggbashan]

I start with being hit with some sort of hook. I turn it over to my subconscious. When my subconscious tells me to start working on it on the computer, I type it out as quickly as possible. I review it once or twice, almost always adding to it. I send it to the editor. I clean it up when it returns and review it again, invariably adding to it again. A last spellcheck and then a last check that all of the quote marks are there, and submit.

Although my Muse often delivers a story full blown, I don't wait for it all to form in my mind. Much of the fun in writing them is in new discoveries of what they are as they spin out in the computer. Same with review. I'll rarely review more than twice. When it's lost its freshness, I lose interest in it.

My process is similar, but without the editor.

I'm writing one now. I had the opening and the denoument in my head. I jotted a few lines of notes in a reporter's notebook and let the story gradually build in my head over a couple of days.

I started it this morning and I'm at 1500 words.

 

[robertreams]

I have never used an outline for fiction, but I work it through in my mind, usually having to have an ending before writing, but not always. i have experienced writing eery one of the ways listed so far. So it varies not only from person to person, but from story to story. Most powerful and successful for me is to create one or two strong characters and let them live. Recently I created a beautiful, beautiful person, and the damn fool went and tried to kill himself, right off the bat.
Another time I was standing at a urinal, with my sweats pulled down. I thought, Jesus, here I am with my butt hanging out. When i wear sweats, I guess I should use a stall. The next time I felt the breeze on my butt, I had a story. (what could have happened.

 

[Carnevil9]

I always work out an outline in my head first. Not a very detailed one, just a half-page worth of basic waypoints the plot must traverse for everything to make sense. I usually do this while walking my dog. Once the outline is well-structured, I type it into Google Docs, and then write the prose linearly, from beginning to end. If I stop and put it aside for a day or two, when I come back to it, I start reading from the beginning. This is both to edit on the fly, and to get back "in the groove" of the story, to ensure when I start slinging prose again, it will fit the tone of the previous parts. When I get to the end, I read it through one more time to polish it, then submit.

I'm not claiming this process results in good stories, but it's fun and they make me happy.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Outlines?!?! Phooey!

Now having said that, I might jot down some ideas when I'm not in the mood to write, so I don't forget them when another idea pops into my head. But working from an outline...not really.

 

[robertreams]

If you are a good listener you can hang out in bars or wherever lots of people congregate. Get them talking and listen. Or sit quietly and listen to them talk. Go home and use them as a character:
1.) Every person's life is a series of stories.
2.) Every person is a potential character, write him down as you observe him and then wonder (in writing) how he/she would react in certain situations, bingo, you have a story.