McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Curious
Cyclone Jack:
--- Quote from: Kelli on June 11, 2007, 05:48:56 AM ---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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Heh. I don't have a problem with that here. I always have at least 4 going. More often, 6 to 10. :D
meg_evonne:
ref. your first posting. How the heck do you write an ending first? Is this unsual or does my mind only work from beginning to end? I'm not a normal type thinker but writing the ending first, puts me upside down. Unless you just love teasing apart puzzles? :D
Cyclone Jack:
--- Quote from: meg_evonne on June 11, 2007, 10:17:00 PM ---ref. your first posting. How the heck do you write an ending first? Is this unsual or does my mind only work from beginning to end? I'm not a normal type thinker but writing the ending first, puts me upside down. Unless you just love teasing apart puzzles? :D
--- End quote ---
I literally write the ending first. Sit down and knock out so many words of epic or intimate confrontation between people having no idea how they got there or WHY they are doing what they are doing. It's generally a full scene.
I make up characters in my head all the time. I'll see a pretty girl or a shady looking guy while shopping and the old brain will start spinning webs about them. They aquire names. Pasts. Odd habits. Some fade away. Some start scheming. Eventually, they make their fate known to me. It makes sense to me. You don't start on a journey without a destination in mind. Once the destination is chosen, the process becomes one of investing that fate with all the power my imagination can muster.
For example:
For the past two years I have been slowly writing an epic fantasy novella called The Woman Who Hitchiked With Cats. The genesis of the story was myself waking up from a sound sleep with the final scene in my head. A very old woman in fur and leather in a bizarre saloon says: "My name is Charity. And, here on the Borderland, Charity is a stone cold bitch." She rises up, kicks over the table, pulls a massive gun and begins executing every sumbitch in the place.
I also knew the following, on some deep and secret level:
She wore the skull of a cat as a talisman, and the skull had eyesockets as black as space.
Her name was not Charity. That was an alias. And, in her journey to this grubby saloon on the edge of reality, she'd also worn the names Faith and Hope.
I just have to get her there. And there lies the pain, the agony, and the utter primal joy of writing for me. :)
Kathleen Dante:
--- Quote from: Cyclone Jack on June 11, 2007, 11:06:36 PM ---I literally write the ending first. Sit down and knock out so many words of epic or intimate confrontation between people having no idea how they got there or WHY they are doing what they are doing. It's generally a full scene.
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I do that, too. Write the ending first without any idea how the characters got there, I mean. Well, usually, I already have a start. The challenge becomes connecting the two. :D
Cyclone Jack:
--- Quote from: Kathleen Dante on June 11, 2007, 11:48:58 PM ---I do that, too. Write the ending first without any idea how the characters got there, I mean. Well, usually, I already have a start. The challenge becomes connecting the two. :D
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Once I have my ending I can then proceed to craft an intriguing and evocative beginning. I am primarily a writer of short fiction which is, IMO, as much about structure and theme as character and narrative. I feel that beginnings and endings should be deeply linked and feel inevitable.
Then comes the middle, and the middle is the hard part! :D
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