How can anyone just make stuff up as they go!!??

By spklvr · Jun 20, 2011 · 549 · 6
  1. A little punctuation abuse there. I'm sorry exclamation and question mark.

    I need to rant a little here. I had a great premise for a story, but couldn’t really think of a plot of any kind. Around the forum here, I've seen a lot of people saying they prefer to just make stuff up as they go, not knowing the ending or what will happen next. I decided to give it a try. It does not work for me. At all!

    Actually, I don't understand how it can work for anyone. It just feels like nothing I write has any goal or greater purpose and everything that happens is the most predictable things you can imagine. I figured maybe the greater plot would come to me as I kept on going, but it hasn't. I just reached the 20K mark, which is when I reread what I have written for the first time. It kind of sucks. The story itself actually isn't too bad, but it seriously needs some direction, which I cannot give it before I know the destination. I think half of what I have needs to go, and the rest needs to be rewritten.

    At least the characters are well developed. No thanks to the story. They have all been used several times before in other stories which have been scrapped. It's normal for me to reuse a character or two, but in this case, absolutely every character is a reuse. It's kind of fun, and makes me more determined to keep going. I love these characters, and I want a complete story for them.

    So yeah, that's my rant.

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  1. LaGs
    I dunno, I guess it just depends on what kind of person you are. You're just a big control freak :p

    Sometimes you can be just feeling in a really creative mood and you surprise yourself what happens and the insights you come up with. Me personally, I think it's good to go with flow as you can always edit at the end and take out parts that just seem ridiculous or not up to standard.

    So it's a matter of being easy going or else just being a horrible victim of OCD, like you!

    I'm just kidding btw! :)
    LaGs, Jun 20, 2011
  2. Trish
    I always write on the fly. I actually can't imagine writing a story with everything planned out. I don't want to know where everything is going to go most of the time. I mean, sometimes the stories I write I know where they're going but not because I've drawn them out. That's just errrr... where they're going, heh. Others though, I just write. I don't imagine characters. Like I have this wolf story. I didn't think, Okay, there's this wolf and her name is Laiska and she's going to do this... I thought, if I was a wolf, in the woods, in the snow, what would that FEEL like? What would I see? Everything would look bigger of course, everything would smell stronger, etc. It just flowed from there....

    Planning it all out is too rigid for me.
    Trish, Jun 20, 2011
  3. Kontrast
    after a few practice runs you might see that the story writes itself- to an extent. Based on what you've already written, there are only so many logical next steps- and you can choose which ones you like the most. Just be open minded- if you only SEE one next step, then take a break and come back later. The first progression you see will be the most predictable, but if you let the story sink in for a little, other options will come to you. Don't force it, and be patient. If you can't do that, then planning ahead is better for you. Neither one is "better", it just depends on the writer as to what works best for them.
    Kontrast, Jun 20, 2011
  4. spklvr
    It's very possible that I am OCD :p
    I have some issues with public bathrooms.
    spklvr, Jun 20, 2011
  5. spklvr
    I think people who write on the fly thinks people who plan stories never stray from their original plan. My plans change over and over, and sometimes I can do a 180 and completely redo my whole story from scratch and start over. I just like to have a plan, because then everything I write has a purpose for the story. As of now, I don't even know what's gonna be usable... it bugs me. But I'm not giving this story up. If I just discover how it's gonna end at least, things will be easier.
    spklvr, Jun 20, 2011
  6. Kontrast
    I don't think I actually COULD write to a plan...Id start and then two paragraphs later it would be different lol!
    Kontrast, Jun 20, 2011
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