I was thinking of comparing some notes here - I would like to see some of the processes that other people go through in the hopes that I might pick up something to help my process. When you are writing a story - especially something in a longer form - how much (and what) do you do at the very start of your writing process? What occurs before you start writing your first draft? How much do you already understand about your story? Do you just have ideas? If so, what kind of ideas? How formed are they? How do you know if this is going to be a story you want to spend any time on? Do you write an outline? Do you write samples, or pre-first-drafts? How much do you have created before you start writing what could be called a first draft? At what point do you have a fairly solid idea on what your story is going to be about, or what it will encompass, or what the plot will be like? What is your first "spark"? Do you just know you want to write a story? Do you have some inkling of what you want to write? Do you just have a spark for some kind of setting, or a single event, or what? And how does it grow from there?
I usually think about the story I wanted to make, but it depends how I'm feeling. Like when I'm happy, I would make a fantasy story, when I'm sad, I'd make a horror or sad story. Then, I'll plan about it and ask questions to myself: What's the story about? or Why did the characters do this or that? The story is from us writer's imagination after all.
Usually a song inspires the development of an idea. Characters, a scene, or a premise come to my mind--it changes. If it sticks around a few days, I then write down what's in my head. Then I set it aside for a long while and work on other things. If the idea calls to me when I revisit it then I start fleshing it out. I think about main characters first. Create them as much as I can (appearance, personality, what their life is currently, their goals, flaws, and what they are missing in life). Then I develop their relationships to each other and how I want those relationships to develop. Next comes the plot and setting. I find those things hinge on characters which why I do it in this order. I come up with a big intro scene after that. The splashy, firework that drops the reader right into the story. Then I consider the other BIG scenes. I like to think of a story in four acts, with each act moving towards a big scene that alters the plot in some way. And so I need to know what happens at the end of act one before I start writing act one, or else I'd just be writing aimlessly. I make character goals to accomplish within each act and aim to achieve those while riding towards the final scene of the act. Usually I only work on one act at a time because things change so much while writing that I'm bad at planning beyond that.
Well, the answer to most of those questions is: it depends. I think I answered those questions above.
I write those books I want to read which don't already exist, so my ideas tend to be sparked by a desire to read a particular kind of story and not being able to find it. It's really more of an emotion or a mental collage than anything else at that point. I'll have a sense of the tone (dark, whimsical, techicoloured), the broad setting (time period, principle location), and maybe the very broad strokes of one or two characters, often only visuals at that point. After that, my brain will start throwing up random ideas associated with it without me having to deliberately do it. Like, I'll be doing something unrelated and suddenly out of the blue my brain will pipe up with 'hey, MC is a plumber!'. I write all such thoughts down immediately on whatever is available, usually on my phone, and collate them into a single file (right now I am using a private Discord server with a separate channel for each project, it's by far my favourite note taking system so far). I don't think about such thoughts at all beyond writing them down, and some of them may end up contradictory. Most will not make it into the final product in their entirety, if at all. That doesn't matter at this stage, it's basically just subconscious brainstorming. The first test of whether something is going to stick is whether my brain keeps sparking those sorts of random thoughts beyond the first couple of weeks, basically generate enough material that I can start refining. During that same period, the emotional journey of my MC will start to solidify. I'll get a sense of where they've been and where they're going, in a purely emotional sense. I have no plot yet, or very little. Once the emotional journey is more or less fixed, I figure out the broad strokes of the plot. I tend to think of plot and character as intersecting like a game of pinball, with the character being the ball and the major plot points being the obstacles they bounce off of to finally reach the end of their journey. Thus plot and character need to be looked at together, so this this is also the point where the MC will be refined into a (hopefully) readable character. For example, the MC for my current new project started out VERY self-pitying, so much so that it would be annoying to read the book (and to write it!), so in this phase I lightened him up some while still keeping his baseline emotional framework intact. This 'calibration' won't be perfect, though. Beyond this point I'm very much a pantser, and I'll keep adjusting both plot and character as I learn more about them during the first draft. I also won't know the detailed plot or most/all of the supporting characters until I actually start writing. By this point, I'm usually starting to get at least a few lines or snatches of paragraphs in my head, usually out of order. This is when I create a Scrivener document and start writing them down, which turns into the first draft. At this point I'll have many thousands of words of notes, starting with the early random idea stuff (most of which will by this point be obsolete, or else have become such an integral part of the story that the early notes I made are now redundant). I don't have a lot of ideas, and only about 50% of those get past the first 'random thought' test. In 2020, I had two such ideas and only one of them 'survived'. I think my creativity really needs something to chew on in order to thrive, so ideas for new books are rare, but once I have one up and running, it generally all comes very naturally.
The genesis for Past Grief was at a writer's conference where I was making a last ditch effort to pitch a historical novel that hadn't gotten much interest after more than a year and nearly 100 queries. After a morning pitch session, I noticed there were two sessions on the program dealing with mystery writing, a genre for which I had already developed an interest. I decided that a great protag would be a woman detective confronted with a heinous crime with a reluctant eyewitness who could not rely on pressure techniques such as those seen in TV police dramas like "Law and Order". She'd have to rely on empathy, while remaining tough in other areas. And thus my brain begat Kim Brady, whose father and grandfathers were both NYPD detectives. What could keep a decent, law-abiding citizen from testifying? It had to be something that police could not do something about, but that was wholly within the realm of the witness. Aha! A transgender woman who had not decided to "come out", was still living as his "birth gender". Timid and terrified of being "outed". And thus my brain begat Leanne (nee Andy) Mallory. As for the crime, that was easy. What grabs headlines faster than anything these days? Well, THESE days it's street violence and hate crimes. But back when I started, it was mass shootings. Okay, where? Before I even considered why I might want a particular locale, I decided on the Meatpacking District on Manhattan's lower west side. I couldn't have come up with a better name if I'd wanted to make one up. At one time, the little area with Belgian block streets had been home to slaughterhouses and meat wholesalers, and those streets had run slick with meat sludge. When the meatpackers upped sticks for the Bronx in the 1970s, the area became home to bath houses, sex clubs and crack houses. But gentrification brought a wave of rebuilding, with tony restaurants, upscale clubs and cafes, and pricey boutiques. In the middle of all this, I placed the Cove, a bar where young business people liked to hang out after work. In it, I placed Leanne, out trying to pass and succeeding, until she thinks someone has clocked her and runs out moments before the shooting starts. I didn't write any of this down. But I wanted to be as authentic as possible, so I did a lot of reading: police memoirs, male-to-female transition memoirs, articles on the history of the Meatpacking District. I also reached out to the NYPD's public information department and peppered a lieutenant there with lots of questions about the work rules and career paths for detectives and uniforms. I even downloaded the department's Patrol Guide for officers. THEN, I started writing. I only had a vague idea of who the killer was, and I hadn't yet invented the mastermind behind the crime. At that point, I was approaching it as a pure police procedural, where one does not know who the criminal is. Having gone through a long and rigorous revision process later on, I would not do that again. I now start out knowing my antagonist at least as well as my heroine. Past Grief has a number of side conflicts (and a few more killings) that I never thought about when I first started. I approached current WIP (well, one of them; the other is sitting with my publisher waiting for approval to move forward to publication) in a very different manner. I know who he is and why he's a killer; I already know the other major conflicts that will impede Kim's investigation, including her political problems within the department. I know what the outcome of her efforts will be and the obstacles she will face, and I know who many of the characters will be (although some will still need to be created on the fly). I have all of it on a two-page concept outline--bare bones, of course, and always subject to change.
I just scribble ideas in a notebook. I am never out of ideas as I cannot produce quality prose as quickly as my mind can come up with new ideas. This is the norm for most writers. It is why neophytes chase the "shiny new idea" without taking the time to produce solid writing.
I use Evernote or Google Docs (where I write my stories these days) to write about my ideas, examining them and developing them until I feel ready to launch on the first draft. I put characters together in settings and just go to work, with no need to get a story rolling or anything, I'm just playing around, getting to know the characters, seeing how they interact etc. They start to develop more personality, or sometimes I can see I need to change some things. Meanwhile I also work up a sort of outline, but not with Roman numerals and all that. It needs to be written in a warm human approach, paragraphs and sentences, and go into some detail where I can. But I also freely skip over parts I haven't figured out yet and come back later to fill them in. I'll keep making changes to this as I go, and begin on a very rough first draft, done largely though telling, knowing it doesn't have to be anything like an actual story at this point. It's ideas and test segments etc, and some of it might end up in the second draft, but I'm not attached to any of it. You can't get precious with things at this early stage or you won't be able to rip it apart and nail it back together in a different order, and all the other things you need to do to make it work better. When my ideas are starting to come clear I'll start on a second draft, maybe by first outlining it. By this point there's a lot of dead wood that needs to be pruned away, it's time to abandon the 1st draft. But of course the 2nd is made largely of parts torn from the living heart of the 1st. It's creativity via cannibalism.
Ways To Help or improve You Write Better What Consume Your Mind, Controls Your Life... 1. Imagine yourself writing: Imagine Yourself Writing. if you can imagine it, you can achieve it. if you can dream it, you can become it 2. Remind yourself the REASON why you're writing: Don't write, because other people said so. Don't write, because you heard it's a useful skill. Don't write, just because you want to say something. Write, because you genuinely enjoy it. 3. Commit to a daily goal: 100 words. 1 paragraph. 20 minutes. 1 draft. Whatever daily goal you set, COMMIT to it. No whining. No postponing. NO excuses. If you're going to make excuses, lower the numbers until you can. 4. Listen to music that fits your writing: Music kicks our mood for practically everything - from dinner dates at home to workouts. Yes, even writing. And it's especially effective if you're writing an emotional piece. Just don't choose songs that have lyrics in your native tongue, because that'll distract you. SO KEEP WRITING
Writers block may just be one of a writer's best gift to the world. Far too many writers think that putting words on paper is the act of writing, there is no shortage of lots of useless stories that go spin in circles or even catch your attention. Having something to share, a real life experience or some insight into something others might be experience or be feeling is normally the best test as to whether there is something worth sharing or not. I drive with the radio off, I make it my time to just think. All my stories start with the end, the story is what got you there. If you're not interested in the end, you'll never bother with the journey it took to get you there, saves the reader a lot of time.
how much (and what) do you do at the very start of your writing process? Write. like, thats literally it. There is no researching, there is not mapping out plots or anything. At the very start of my writing process, its just getting words on paper before I forget. What occurs before you start writing your first draft? How much do you already understand about your story? Typically day dreaming or night dreaming. Basically, i'm spaced out and fixated on a scene that I'm compelled to write down (circle back to the above answer). I don't really understand my story at this point. Its just a scene. I don't even know if it will go anywhere, and if it does go anywhere, if it will be a novel or a short story. I guess the one thing I do know for certain during this point is the main character's name. I've never had a problem naming main characters. They come to me with names already (its the side characters that i struggle to name!) Do you just have ideas? If so, what kind of ideas? How formed are they? How do you know if this is going to be a story you want to spend any time on? Same answer as above Do you write an outline? Do you write samples, or pre-first-drafts? How much do you have created before you start writing what could be called a first draft? Once I get to a point where i think I want to continue it, I make a bareboned outline (bullet points of plot points i MUST have in it, in the order I see them happening). I dont write samples, just keep writing until it is "done." Once the story is "done" that becomes my first draft, then I go back and mold the heck out of that lump of clay! At what point do you have a fairly solid idea on what your story is going to be about, or what it will encompass, or what the plot will be like? unclear. One of my WIPs started off as a simple diner scene that was a page long. Didnt have a plan or anything with that one. Didnt really have a plot, either. well, now the project is 128,982 words long SF/F that takes place on a different planet with an aliens and humans coexisting, and the initial diner scene occurs like 30 pages in even though it was the first scene I'd written! What is your first "spark"? Do you just know you want to write a story? Do you have some inkling of what you want to write? Do you just have a spark for some kind of setting, or a single event, or what? also unclear. Maybe its something i've read or watched on tv or something that festers. maybe its more personal than that. I just finished an epilogue for my novel and I didnt even know what to write. the first line that came to mind, though, was “It is time for me to end my journey. Who knew that a girl from the desert would be my successor?" then I woke up and wrote it down and the rest of it snowballed out from that. And how does it grow from there? Once i have a foundation and an outline, then I do a bit of research. sometimes I research as i write and as questions or uncertainties come up. typically in this research, new ideas crop up and more inspirations arise.
These are some great questions. My answers to a few of them: Do you write an outline? Do you write samples, or pre-first-drafts? How much do you have created before you start writing what could be called a first draft? I occasionally write samples (or fragments, as I think of them), but they aren't related to any larger WIP when I write them. Just as scenes or images I want to hang onto for obscure reasons. As far as outlining, in my previous WIP I started from some unorganized notes and jumped right into the first draft. This worked, I think, terribly, so for this WIP I am trying the snowflake method, as described by Randy Ingermanson. You can google his website for a brief description, but I've found I've had to modify it quite a bit, as it's geared toward writing a very specific sort of book (the kind of fiction he writes, in fact) which is not what I'm interested in. However I think the basic idea--starting from an overall vision and breaking it down into more and more detail--is sound. Although I may be a bit biased as a similar approach is used in project design/project management, which is a big part of my real job. What I do write a lot of are notes, and mostly notes on the setting/world. I think everything I've written fiction-wise is speculative to some extent or another (either sci-fi, alt-history, or fantasy), so it always requires some kind of world building and I guess that's the part I do first. I can easily get into the tens of thousands of words worth of notes before I actually start writing the first draft. At what point do you have a fairly solid idea on what your story is going to be about, or what it will encompass, or what the plot will be like? Again to compare my previous WIP, I don't think I ever did. With my current one, after going through the snowflake process I would say by the end of that I had a pretty solid idea, but the thing is of course it's never really finished until it's finished. A lot can always change no matter how much you think you have down and finalized. What is your first "spark"? Do you just know you want to write a story? Do you have some inkling of what you want to write? Do you just have a spark for some kind of setting, or a single event, or what? And how does it grow from there? I can identify some discrete images which I would say are the first sparks. My current WIP was sparked by this map. My previous WIP was sparked by reading about the Voynich manuscript. Those sparks often lead more into world-building than actual storytelling, as I described up above.
When you are writing a story - especially something in a longer form - how much (and what) do you do at the very start of your writing process? it depends on the story. too many factors will change the answer. it ranges from a single sentence to an entire wiki. What occurs before you start writing your first draft? How much do you already understand about your story? A lot, but not everything. It's more like I have to accumulate enough that i'm impatient to start writing, but again, the amount of content varies. Do you just have ideas? If so, what kind of ideas? How formed are they? How do you know if this is going to be a story you want to spend any time on? how much cool shit is in it? and what's the theme and why does it matter to me? how delightfully fraught is the situation? how many great moments are floating around in my head? Do you write an outline? No. Outlining is a super effective method that has no place in my process. Do you write samples, or pre-first-drafts? No. It's another super effective method that has no place in my process. How much do you have created before you start writing what could be called a first draft? It depends. Right now i'm worldbuilding for an epic fantasy and it's far and away the most work I have put into a book that is not actually writing the draft. At what point do you have a fairly solid idea on what your story is going to be about, or what it will encompass, or what the plot will be like? It's different every time. These things don't happen in an established order for me. I don't like deciding too much about the story before I write it. What is your first "spark"? Do you just know you want to write a story? Do you have some inkling of what you want to write? Do you just have a spark for some kind of setting, or a single event, or what? And how does it grow from there? It's different every time. This story I'm working on happened because my alpha reader hates a particular magic system trope because it offends her as a scientist. Naturally I had to think of a way to use it in a way that she didn't hate, and when I figured it out, I told her, and then the story grew from there.
I often don't have any story at all in mind right at the beginning, often just a situation. And as I write about the situation it starts to suggest a story (plot). In his book On Writing Stephen King says he frequently doesn't create a plot at all, just a situation. For instance, in Carrie the situation is—a girl at the onset of puberty develops telekinetic powers that unleash her repressed inner turmoil and she goes on a destructive rampage starting at the school prom. With that situation in mind he just started writing (after doing some research which included talking to women who in school had been like Carrie White).
I just write almost on autopilot. Even to me it's kind of weird, but I just start writing. Putting myself in a routine is the best thing I could have done. I know whenever I decide to write I will write and then I'll see what comes of it. Somehow, a workable instruct for story structure is ingrained in my subconscious. I think that's probably the biggest thing I have going for me. Sometimes I'll write something and with thought feel like I know how to do it better so I'll open a blank document a just do it again not working off the original. I also have this thing where I don't save ideas. If I think of something new that would be cool to write about, I'll find a way to make it fit into what I'm working on most of the time. But mainly I just write. I don't really think there's too much to it than that, at least not for me anyway.
I'm working on a novel and novella right now. The novella was actually inspired when I came across an old cartoon - the Snorks. They had fire under water and this amused me and kicked off a daydream. Don't ask me how I turned a cartoon into a dystopian piece it's how my brain works; very surreal. But I jotted down the idea and sat on it for years. The jotting was rather extensive a list of possible scenes, and happenings. Even a title. Just recently I pulled it out when I finally thought of a reason why my dystopian piece kicks off in the first place. That happens sometimes, an idea will sit until pieces fall into place forcing it doesn't work. Got about eight pages done but I'm still unsure about the conflict. I have ideas but they're all kind of floating around nothing too concrete. I don't even have a name for the mc's son who is a major character. Sometimes this works especially with smaller projects because if I hunt for a name too soon I tend to bend his behavior to suit the name rather than having it emerge at the right moment. I don't write outlines for shortstories or novellas but I do extensive jottings making a list of possible happenings to see where my story could progress to. For novels I do outline. I never sit down and force an idea - the ideas usually spark from bizarre musings. I always jot down my ideas and some go nowhere but others if I start writing while I'm interested I'll finish them. A can tell a novel from a novella by writing - if the opening is too 'windy' and I'm too into the character it's a novel - if I'm more concise and moving the plot along it's a novella. My sparks grow from daydreaming a kind of what would happen if - sort of thing. I did that for one of my short stories on here - Not Pink. What would happen if a robot had an abusive owner.
I've done this following process on some longish novellas (40, 50, 60k words, etc.) and a couple early novels (100k+). I kind of do it on short stories too because I often write 10k word stories. With those, a lot of the early steps are just done in my head. There's just not as much planning to keep track of with a short. Daydream I always start here. I get my best ideas while walking trails around town or right when I wake up. If I just let my mind wander, I come up with amusing things that I wish were true. I write them down. I have a big file full of crazy ideas. I subscribe to the Dreamscape theory of Robert Olen Butler. As hippy-dippy as it seems, it truly works. I bow to his creative Zen mastery. I guess some authors abuse substances to pull this off, but I'm not a fan of that. I like fancy drinks, but I don't drink for that purpose. I'm too straight-laced to consider anything else. (That's not something I respect.) My mind drifts easily, which is often a negative, but it's nice at certain times. I can find a lazy trance pretty fast. Spoiler: Reminds me of . . . And I go: What, what's the matter? And she goes: What's the matter with you? I go: There's nothing wrong mom And she goes: Don't tell me that, you're on drugs! And I go: No mom I'm not on drugs I'm okay, I was just thinking you know, Why don't you get me a Pepsi And she goes: No you're on drugs! I go: Mom I'm okay, I'm just thinking Find the emotional core, theme, moral choices Within the story is a defining decision the MC must make. The decision determines who he/she is as a person. I have to FEEL that conflict. It has to be emotional or the story isn't worth doing. They can succeed or fail, but the attempt needs to matter and be relatable to a reader. I write a logline at this point. Write in two directions I plot backwards and forwards finding crisis points. Lots of brainstorming happens here. Anything is possible and I try to measure crazy reversals and twists that seem entertaining. I use Truby's list of story structure points, which are: need, desire, antagonist, MC's plan, conflict, self-revelation, and the ending equilibrium. (Okay, I gave these the wrong names. Whatever. I looked them up and that's how I think of them.) I also use a lot of James Scott Bell's tricks for plotting here. I think he and Truby work well together. Though there are some conflicts with where they see the moral crises. Whatever. List all characters/scenes I do the Jungian archetypes and the four-point antagonists from Truby. That usually opens up scene possibilities. Find character needs and arcs I use Snowflake Method for this. I write a paragraph dealing with each character's arc. I look for tension and believability. There's so many different techniques I use, I don't think I can list them all. I really feel the Snowflake Method is my focusing method though. Testing feasibility If I'm still interested in the characters and the crazy events I want to put them in, then I'll keep going. Otherwise it's back to step 1. (Daydream) If I find myself wanting to write scenes, then that's a good sign I should keep going. Outline, finding subplots I write a two page synopsis. (Snowflake again.) It had better look good, or I re-evaluate my choices. I connect all the pieces and test for interconnectedness. I do Truby's scene weave with the outline, just to check variations. Zero Draft This is one of my favorite parts. I get to pretend I'm a pantser. I write high speed impressions straight through the story, from beginning to end. It follows the outline, but is much, much more detailed. The details in the scenes are mostly extemporaneous. If they break the outline in a way that improves the story, then they stay. (I will then adjust the outline and recheck everything.) 10k words a morning is very easy. Now I don't mean I type 10k, because I leave a lot of holes. Sometimes the zero draft falls into paragraphs, but mostly it's in unconnected lines. Only I can make sense of it. It's almost like hearing a TV from the next room, just snippets of scenes and dialog. Details I'll need to research pop up. There's realistically 2k that I actually type, but it will be 10k when it's filled in. I don't think I could write it all in a day though. It's exhausting in a strange way. Couple hours and I'm done. I can still zero draft a novel in a week. It'll be 15-20k words long for an 80k book. Research Sometimes this changes the draft. I go back and rewrite the outline if that's the case. 1st draft If I get this far, it is a 100% guarantee that I will finish the story. I've never hit this point and failed. There would have to be a meteor strike or a zombie apocalypse to keep me from finishing. I usually do 1500 highly-edited words a day, but I can hit 5000 (this is very unusual though). If I'm very busy then 1000 is okay. Distractions do happen. When I say highly-edited, I mean that my 1st draft is most people's 10th draft. I can edit as I go because I know exactly the path I'm on. The small adjustments do change my plans, but only on the scene level. I already took care of the big changes in the zero draft. 2nd draft This is actually my favorite part. I typically delete 15% of what I wrote. Then it's mostly just line edits from there. I do many, many edits. I wish I could finish more efficiently. I do consider my multiple drafts a problem, and I'm working on this.
I usually start by opening a word doc and just start writing bullet point ideas. This is like a brainstorming session for me and everything gets written down. I often come back to this list and add to it as I go. One of my biggest regrets is forgetting an idea so I write them down as fast as possible. Then I start with the first scene I have subtle grasp on and just start writing. It might just be dialogue so I’ll just write it like a script usually. I will jump around and not really be strict about structure in the beginning. I’m more concerned with getting as much down as possible. I actually think I take a quantity over quality strategy here and plan to cut later. I feel like it’s easier to cut rather than trying to remember a line or idea.
Short fiction: I usually just have he broad strokes. I don't plan much at all. Long fiction: To keep myself from getting lost in the wilderness, I usually create a story grid - chapter number, setting, approximate date/time, and what happens in that chapter. I like to have some flexibility, though, and so if I get to a chapter and feel like veering away from what I'd planned out in the story grid, I'll do that and just update the grid if necessary.
I get inspirations from anything or everything I consumed as entertainment. My current work is inspired by the novels The Man in the high castle by Philip K. Dick and Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstien.
I am also very much inspired by music. There are times when you don't want to write anything or the text turns out to be very dry and not interesting. As soon as I turn on the music of my favorite composers in the headphones, the text begins to form in my head immediately. In addition to music, it is very important for me to read authors whom I admire and whom I would like to be like in terms of writing style.
It's a real delight reading everyone's writing process. I spend 30-50% of my "writing" time thinking about a character in a situation and wondering how it ends. I don't dwell on plot or character details. When I sit down to write, if the basics of the story aren't clear enough, I'll do a one page max summary just to clarify things. If the essentials are clear enough, I start writing without a summary. (Note I use summary instead of outline. Outlining feels to me like a map to follow. Outlining stifles my creativity) This process allows me to be creatively uninhibited as I write since I don't have details. I've discovered that my best ideas often aren't the "cool" ideas I started with.
As usual, my answer starts with a question: What motivates you to write? A 'big idea'? A situation you found yourself in? I don't know, it's just an urge? My motivation was easy, a nightmare that chased me for years. I finally decided to write for Sanity's sake. I hated writing my whole life, so I figured it would be a short crash into a wall. It would be stupid and then the nightmare would be stupid and I would be out of it. Easy, right? Well, an MC with a terrifying problem that no one else thinks would be a problem. The antagonist that wants to torture him with his problem - boring, that'll die fast and quiet. Oops! Just describing the two made me curious. What if? What about? No way was I going to get stuck into this, so I started sabotaging my ideas by coming up with off-the-wall challenges, "I dare you to write only dialogue..." Done and dusted, right? Backfire!! As soon as the characters seemed like real people-things, the whole thing mushroomed into infinite, 'what ifs', 'what nexts', and the dreaded, 'when?' I needed a timeline! That inspired a beginning and an ending! Now I was free to write anything between those, as long as it fits in the timeline - vignettes, scenes, partial thoughts, wild ideas. Borders began to create themselves as some things had to happen between others or get put away for later until they fit. Ideas and answers came so hard and fast, I had to create 3 and 4 letter representations of words and forego punctuation (what I call write-streaming is born)! (Grammarly and search-and-replace are my good friends!) I could write parts of things, get another idea, stop and inject [notes in brackets] and be right there in my original traen of thought. A couple of [notes about where I was] when it was time to stop or break away, and I could pursue another part of the story entirely 'cause I had an idea, or go eat, etc. Collect all the [brackets], then jump in anytime! My timeline is now full of [brackets]. It's a living thing! I looked up, one day, and I'm 400+ pages in! *faints*
