McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Curious

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Kelli:
I'm about to finish up one right now, not a novel so much as a short story turned novella. It might technically reach "novel length" by the time it's done, but just barely.

In my case, this particular story is the back story of a character that I've been writing about and developing for a long time now, over many stories. He's a recurring main character that I'm quote fond of, so I'm having a really hard time finishing up this story in particular because it's been such an interesting and revealing examination of his life. It's very satisfying, but there's also a part of me that will be very sad when it ends. It's been quite a ride.

RMatthewWare:
I always know the end of my story before I start writing it.  The process I follow is to start putting ideas together to the point I have enough to write the outline.  Then I write the outline (mainly to keep things in the right order) and write it out to the end.  I don't start the actual writing until I know where I'm starting, the main events along the way, and the way I'm going to end.

Is that odd for most writers?  Do most of you just start with an idea and go from there?  Or is it more organzied?

Matt

Tasmin21:
Often, I start with a character, then I figure out what story they want told.

With my current monkey-on-my-back, I decided I wouldn't write it in order, I'd simply write the scenes as they came to me and put them together like a puzzle later.  Now, as I try to fill in the last gaps, I find myself struggling.  So, it's not really the end of the story that's got me thrown, it's the end of the process.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: RMatthewWare on June 10, 2007, 10:47:49 AM ---Is that odd for most writers?  Do most of you just start with an idea and go from there?  Or is it more organzied?

--- End quote ---

Steven Brust has said in public that he starts writing and sees what happens, with no more planning than that, and it certainly seems to work for him.  Tim Powers outlines to the extent of knowing everything that's said in every conversation before writing the actual text. Among reasonably successful published fiction writers of my acquaintance, I know one who never outlines because doing an outline counts as the story being Told and then not tellable again; one who regularly does an outline, finds the characters take things in a different direction within a couple of chapters, and hopes one day to actually tell the story she's been outlining for ages; and one who writes scenes in entirely random order.

There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays
And every single one of them is right.

Kelli:
I finished my latest story today... the first one I've actually finished in a long time. I've been wandering around feeling a bit lost today.

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