I find I can't really get any writing done unless I sit down with a tool and write. I might have a random thought while cycling or eating dinner, sitting water a river flow or doing a chore in the garden, but to actually create a scene or dialogue, I can't pre-visualize it. It seems like my brain and fingers are connected that way. I have heard of writers that have whole novel concocted in their heads ahead of time, but that just doesn't work for me. I have to at least have a pen and paper in front of me. You?
I have a plan before I begin to write, usually jotted down in a spiral notebook, and eventually transferred to a computer file for reference as I write.
I used to write contemporary romance and cozy mystery, both of which need to be plotted to within an inch of their lives. Contemporary romance because unfortunately it is quite formulaic. Cozy mysteries because you need to know who the murderer is so that you can put in all the clues and red herrings as you go along. I used to write these out on the computer, the outlines could come to thousands of words in an of themselves. Doing my own writing, I outline a lot less and try to let there be more mystery. It's more fun apart from anything else. Otherwise it just feels like writing-by-numbers.
I tend to have a vague idea, and refine it through iteration. In engineering we call this agile vs waterfall, and I imagine it applies to any creative task.
Same. I give props to those writers who can, though. It's difficult to plot out a story, let alone have a whole story already plotted. In my case, structure is integral to my writing so I pre-plan everything. Beginning, middle, end - I plan it all. Otherwise, I would find myself in a maze of frustration because I hadn't thought why Detail A would effect Detail B.
Do you draw scenes? I mean, do you freehand the physical layout, the characters, the action? Like a movie storyboard? I've never tried that, but your post may have inspired me.
No, I just meant I have to have tools to write before I can start composing anything. It doesn't come to me easily otherwise.
I look at my stories as a book first. A book inherently has a beginning, a middle and an end. My goal isn't to just produce a story, it's to produce a book.
I’d probably be a mix of both. I usually have a few key moments in mind, but a lot of the finer details won’t come to me until I actually start writing.
Since I consider myself a hobbyist writer, I tend to look at my story as a story to tell, not so much as a book to publish. But it's fair to say many writers have different ways of looking at their works.
most of my stories initially just pop into my head and I start writing them down. I rarely plan anything out in the first book so I am a seat of the pants kind of writer.
I used to have these sprawling massive outlines... that never found their way to a novel. But I exist in thi awkward middle ground where I can't bring myself to write a scene if I don't know what that scene's purpose is, yet simultaneously if I have the whole story already outlined some of the mystery and intrigue of telling the story has died for me. It is as if planning the story is more fun for me than actually writing it. So now I do this awkward middle thing where I plan the next three or so scenes before writing and, as if as a reward for writing, I allow myself to plot out the next few scenes. I have to keep myself on a leash of sorts to keep a manageable pace.
There is more agreement between liberals and conservatives than there is between planners and pantsers. When I have a novel to write, like @Cephus, I know the beginning, middle and end. And that is about the outline I have for the one now in work. But each chapter, the twists and turns, they are often as big a surprise to me the writer as to the reader. My wife @K McIntyre and I call this "taking dictation from our characters." I often, during my long commute to and from work (45 mins each way, but easy fast autopilot driving) the next chapter will emerge in my head, and all I have to do is capture it. That 1.5 hours gives me an idea for the scene, the opportunity to examine everyone's motivations, fears, goals, etc, turn it around and look it from several perspectives, then quickly write it down when I get home. I do lot of technical writing, and have done that for decades, and outline that meticulously. If I wrote fiction that way, I think it would sound like a technical manual. So maybe a bit of rebellion. I have a friend, David Poyer, who is enormously successful as a writer, with 40 books to his credit. He is a meticulous planner, with complete character sketches, outline, and a flowchart for getting everyone from where they are to where they have to be... before he writes a word of story. He obviously dictates to his characters, rather than take dictation from them. But it works for him... his books are good reads, as apparently my first one is. That said, in the current sequel, I have my characters from The Eagle and the Dragon, ten years on scattered from Kazakhstan to China, the Middle East, the city of Rome and Aquileia in northern Italy. My challenge is to put them on the move toward the Middle East, where they will get sucked into the Roman invasion of Mesopotamia. They all have to have good reasons, especially the ones in Kazakhstan and China, for making a long, very arduous and expensive trip, that has nothing to do with why the others are on the move. So a bit more planning.
I do both. When it comes to writing a story, I generally outline some characters and plot high points, like the beginning, middle, and end, then I just write. While doing this I generally find out a lot about the characters, motivations, their histories, and many other things. It also helps me fill the space between the plot point, which can sometimes change. So I plot, then write by the seat of my pants to see what happens.
This is my first novel, so I can't necessarily say what I habitually do, but for this one I had no semblance of a clue, and each scene, after it was written, gave me more of a clue. I'd guess that in the end, about forty percent of my scenes will make it into the novel, and the rest will have been exercises in trying out ideas and getting to know my characters. I have an ending in mind now, and that fact is slowing down my progress to a dismaying degree. I know what got me this far--writing high-emotion scenes without worrying about whether they're useful for the plot. But as the blank spots in the plot map get smaller, my brain presses me harder to make the scenes relevant or useful, and that just doesn't work for me. I'm confident that it will be solved. I found a way to make one group of scenes both relevant and exciting to me, and I can happily write about these characters forever, so I can keep on writing scenes of dubious relevance and keeping the ones that surprise me by being relevant. So it's going to get done, I'd guess first draft within two months (which will be about three months later than I anticipated), but it is interesting to see that knowing where I'm going does definitely slow me down.
No, you don't. Well, maybe you have to write that way, because every writer has their own method of writing, but mystery writers in general don't have to. Quite the opposite in fact: I've seen several successful mystery writers say that they make everyone look guilty and don't decide whodidit until they get to the end of the book. Because, if they don't know, the reader won't guess. Here's the big secret of mystery writing by the seat of your pants: once you've figured out whodunnit, you go back and put in the one special clue that finally proves it's them.
Wow, Edward, that's interesting! I hadn't ever thought of that. I think I'd be too scared to write a mystery without knowing all of that in advance, but maybe I'm just a wuss
There are two quotes, from two famous writers: "I don't think the writer has to know the end before starting a story. If he knows his people, as Poe and Hemingway knew theirs, he can start with some notion of the end, or none at all, and turn his people loose to find it on their own." --Robert Twohy On the other hand: "I always know the ending; that's where I start." -- Toni Morrison So take your pick.
I generally like to write down the scene which gave me the idea, but then go through and plan out the major points. I feel like its a good balance of both of the different styles.
Whether you write it down or just spend a long time thinking things through, I have found that both life and writing rarely go as planned.
