McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Just starting... again

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ducky4u:
Hey!

Ok so I used to write a lot but certain events in my life have made it hard to do so. Thanks to such wonderful reading (such as our gracious author host Jim Butcher) I am starting to get comfortable with the idea of writing again. Here is my question:

How do you guys start? How do you organize your ideas? I can write pretty fast and fairly eloquently (hopefully) once I get started, but organization and raising the framework of the plot has always been my most difficult step. That being said, I thought I would get some suggestions from people who have been there before and maybe learned a couple tricks to getting those first couple steps done.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated and you have my eternal thanks.

Ducky

"Laugh... it is the difference between friends."

LizW65:
This doesn't work for a lot of people, but I've learned from experience that I will never finish a writing project that doesn't have a very clear and detailed road map. 

I start with a basic 1-2 page outline of the overall idea.  My next step is to break it down into thirds -- beginning, middle, and end.  I then outline each chapter separately -- usually a page for each chapter, almost, but not quite, French scenes. 

(I should add that I DON'T adhere rigidly to the outline once I get past the rough draft stage; things get re-arranged, added, or dropped as needed; characters disappear or change entirely, and so on.)  However, it serves as a guide should I get stuck on a particular scene -- I know where to go next instead of shutting down entirely, which is what I tend to do when I hit a snag in a project (bad habit, I know, but I'm working on it.)

As I mentioned, this doesn't work for everyone; there is no one-size-fits-all method to writing, and many people can't function at all inside such a structured framework as mine.  Good luck!

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
I need to know the key scenes.  They're the pillars the story is strung between. This is something akin to Jim's "Big Middle" model excpet with more points of attachment; for a novel of 100,000 to 200,000 words, which is the range my stuff tends to fall out in, there are usually five to seven of these. (The current work in progress has thirteen, but that is because it is insanely long and would be three fat volumes or more slimmer volumes - it falls into nine internal parts, and i have no strong feelings about how those are divided up with extra bits of cardboard -  if it ever saw print.)

One I have the key scenes, I can audition for characters. See who I've got in my head who will react to key thing X by doing Y to keep the plot going, and then figure out who they are, building from those character moments and the world they grew up in.  (I do need a world, but worlds are much easier than stories; I have worlds falling out of my ears.)  Make sure to stop Aramis from sneaking in under some assumed name.  (Never work with Aramis, because he never tells anyone all of what he is doing, including the writer.)

And then, well, I have people, i know where they come from and go to and the key bits they're going through, the rest is working out the path from pint to point to point and then seeing where I can put cross-connections, as many as possible. 

meg_evonne:
I agree with above.  If the idea of an outline sends terror through your gut, try JB's ....

Big Ass poster board (try the stand up folding monster)  and draw a big ass curve on it.  Buy some colored post it notes... and start plastering scene ideas along the arch.  Use different colors for the sub-story archs (arcs?).  You can move them all around as you fill in the blanks. 

Below the arc, I stick additional post its for each character as I build them, starting with their physical characteristics, move on to their quirks, their flaws, their hopes, their dreams, their relationships with other characters...

Over the top of it, I'll put any wild ass idea that I would like to use in that arc somewhere.

Only problem?  This like eats up your table forever---.  Good point--you can't ignore the honking thing and you've no room to eat anymore so you lose weight.  Bad point--you really can get ticked off lugging it all over the place.  so I shifted to Xcel charts and color code it, now.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
The most important thing to remember about outlining:

Tim Powers, bestselling fantasy author and winner of major awards, does not write a book until he has an outline down to what information is exchanged in every conversation through the whole book.

New York Times Bestselling Author Steven Brust makes everything he writes up entirely as he goes along withoput the slightest idea where it is going; though sometimes goes back and cuts rambly bits ionce things get unstuck again.

Both of these authors have had successful careers including writing some stunningly good books.

Figure out what;s right for you and work with that.

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