When you write stories

Jolyon Trevelyan · Post by **Jolyon Trevelyan** » 21 Apr 2016, 12:03

I am not sure if this is the right place to post this question

I am wonder when you stories do you always know what you are going to write about. Or do you sometimes just start to write without actually knowing what you are going to write about. You just start and see what story get told ?

katiesquilts · Post by **katiesquilts** » 21 Apr 2016, 12:29

I always decide on characters first! Sometimes I'll wish for a specific kind of character, one that I haven't seen recently in any of the books I've been reading, and an image of my character will just pop into my head. Then I think of a foil for that character, and imagine them interacting. Sometimes I have to invent a plot just to fit my characters!

My writings tend to be very dialogue-heavy, so obviously the characters and how they play off one another is what's most important to me, but.. *shrug*

DATo · Post by **DATo** » 22 Apr 2016, 01:09

I usually start with a basic idea for a plot line and then the story sort of evolves from there. With me it is sometimes like "automatic writing" that is usually associated with seances. The ideas just sort of come to me and I write them down as they appear from wherever in the recesses of my mind they spring from. The real work is in the editing. Once the story is done I usually spend a great deal of time refining and polishing it often adding some scenes and also deleting some.

The interesting thing is that as I am writing the original draft it is as though I am reading a story that someone else has written. I am often amazed at the twists and turns the plot takes (or could take) even as the ideas are springing to mind. Another interesting thing is the experience of hitting a crossroad where the story could go in one of two or more directions and having to make a decision as to which path to take. One could, of course, go back to this point in the story later and start over but sometimes that can involve removing pages of text that required great effort to create and revise.

I seldom know in advance how the story will end. About half way through my mind begins to consider ironies and since just about all my stories contain twist endings the effort then goes into constructing events which support the twist. When I began writing Werewolf (can be found in the Creative Works: Short Stories section) I had no idea at all that the story would end the way it does, the twist idea just sort of sprang out of nowhere but I liked it and used it which gave an entirely different slant on the entire story which readers have told me they generally liked.

So, to answer your question succinctly, I would just say that when I begin a writing project I have a general idea of what I want to write about and then the story takes over and leads me where it wants to go.

moderntimes · Post by **moderntimes** » 22 Apr 2016, 13:03

For short stories, I conceive of the story in a single gestalt, a contained and coherent story line. For example, my short story "Cat Food" is about a quiet, private man who's invaded by 3 thugs in his home. But in the "reveal", he's a vampire and destroys these armed crooks easily. I had the image of the story in my mind, the central character keeping a very sedate life, but not because he's shy, but because he has learned to not bring attention to himself over the centuries.

So the whole story was there and I just wrote it out, adding small details about the vampire's life and the 3 thugs.

Therefore, for short stories, there's no "development" for the story, just the trimmings.

However, my novels are completely different. A full length novel can't be visualized as one complete and whole story with all the plot sequences in place from the beginning. Instead, I have a general theme in mind for the novel: "My private detective goes thru a terrible experience in his life, but he redeems himself in the end."

Aside from that overreaching central theme, I only have vague ideas about what will actually happen. So I think, "How do I start the novel?" and I'll make a few scattered notes in an "ideas" file about the beginning: "murder scene, police ask him to give his feedback, private eye is sickened by the murder". Then I'll start writing for real, fast, no worries about details, just the hard story lines and dialogue. I save that (maybe chapters 1-4?) and then think, "Okay, now what happens?" "Let's give the private eye a break and a bit of humor in another case." or "Introduce a new character who will be a big item later?" And then I write that.

I proceed thru the story, creating story segments -- chapter groupings of maybe 4-5 chapters per plot sequence with the overriding "big" plot in mind too.

After I get started, I find that the very act of writing helps me write more and more. I work forward in the book, all the time going back and revising earlier chapters, and as I proceed, the whole novel takes shape.

So for longer works, I have a general and basic theme and idea for a plot arc which covers the whole novel, and then I create various small plot arcs beneath that major arc, and eventually, I've got 70,000 words. Easy (ha ha, no way)

StainedGlassTiger3 · Post by **StainedGlassTiger3** » 22 Apr 2016, 20:25

I always have to know what I'll be writing about. I can't write anything except papers for school if I don't have everything laid out very precisely. (Lots of charts and lists are usually involved.)

I'm actually working on a collection of flash fiction, which I'm planning very minimally, in order to try to get over this limitation.

moderntimes · Post by **moderntimes** » 22 Apr 2016, 21:35

Some authors, famed ones, work from a detailed outline. Some just wing it. But most are in between, as am I.

I once tried to write from a precise outline but found that it severely cramped my creativity. So I just sketch a few pertinent things I want to write about, and work from that very flexible outline.

What was happening, of course, was that I had persuaded myself that I just couldn't write an entire novel without a careful outline, and I mean a formal one, with I. II. III. and then A. B. C. subcategories. I think this was a leftover from my formal schooling. There's this common misbelief that you cannot write without first sitting down and creating a careful outline. And therefore, college composition profs will insist that you first turn in an actual written outline with will be graded separately from the story to follow.

And some writers may actually need this, but for most, it's a habit which was impressed on them in school. I was "cured" of that when I started writing copy for a big newspaper. You wrote off the top of your head, mostly, because you were under deadline. Sure, an article about the latest school board meeting requires that you take notes in the meeting and have a list of items to write about in your story. But the actual use of an outline? No time for that, you gotta get your story done by text deadline so your editor can have a look at it before it's "locked down" for the paper.

I keep a file of "ideas" on my PC desktop and use it to put ideas and plot twists and short bios of new characters, stuff like that. Then I start writing down a very rough outline of what I'll be writing in the novel. My private eye is named Mitch so my rough notes might be: "Mitch meets with Duggan in homicide about the murder / no clues as to why the victim was chosen / then Mitch finds a clue -- what is it? She's got an email on her laptop from an unknown source and so it needs to be tracked, leads to an escort service she was working with..." and so on.

That brief summary might result in 4-5 chapters.

So I find outlines which are too detailed are restrictive and waste time. Of course this is an acquired knack which I've developed, because once long ago, I thought I needed careful plans and outlines to write. I don't.

KatherineEWall · Post by **KatherineEWall** » 22 Apr 2016, 23:34

I usually have a concept, a character, and an emotional connection to the character. I let it roam around in my head and heart, until I feel it is time to let it emerge on to the screen/paper. Most often, I think I know the end, but sometimes it does not end up where I originally thought. For instance, in one short story, my character returned to the place she lost her young son. It was a tragedy with many lives lost, and it was presumed the little boy was one of them, although his body was never found. This made it difficult for my protagonist to find closure. I thought this pilgrimage would finally find peace, but instead she committed suicide. Well, I suppose that is one way of finding peace. Still, at the conception of the story, I had no idea it would end that way.

Jolyon Trevelyan · Post by **Jolyon Trevelyan** » 23 Apr 2016, 18:45

I am going to answer my one question. Which is something i normally don`t do.

The only thing i know when i start a story is the name of the main characters i generally never have more than 4 main characters mostly just 1 or 2. The rest of the characters i just make up as i go. And the connection between the characters i also make up as i go along. Of course the connection between the main characters i know before i starts to write.

But i never actually know what i am going to write about. Generally i just start to write and than i see what happens. Even if i have some idea what to write about the story always evolve in a different way that what ever my idea was.

I generally don`t like to think about the story i just like to start to write and than see what happens and what story i write.
Because if i do try to think about a plot and a story and make plans i just can`t make it work. I can only make my stories work if i don`t think to much about it. If i just start to write and than see were it goes. I guess the best way to say it and i guess i could have just said that instead of a long post. I just wing it

But i only write for myself and very few people get to read what i write.

moderntimes · Post by **moderntimes** » 24 Apr 2016, 11:10

Well, Jolyon, if you only write for yourself, it really doesn't matter, does it? It's like a little kid's "secret diary" into which is poured the dreams of becoming a superhero or astronaut, plus a rant against that terrible Billy Winton who's one grade above you and is rude and maybe he should be turned into a frog just as soon as you get that magic spell book you ordered.

Writing for yourself also means that there's no reason to have good grammar or to fix typos, no reason to create meaningful characters, good stories, intelligent dialogue, plot arcs which depict values and concepts. No reason, really, to write in the first place. Because if someone writes but nobody else will read it, there's really no literary value in the exegesis. It's like playing a video game by yourself, because the outcome is equally valueless.

Only when you write for others to read is the content of the writing of any value. Otherwise it's just engaging in a private fantasy, like playing pirate in your bedroom with the door shut.