A Journey Through the Writing Process

[JetsIn06]

I'm already scared that this will be the only post in this dynasty, but that is the reason I'm starting it.

I want to write, and I'm scared to do it!

I admit it. The process of writing is really intimidating to me. For the past year and a half I've had an idea for a story, and I've started and stopped a countless number of times. I get discouraged too easily, and I'm hoping that writing in this dynasty, and hopefully reading some tips, tricks, and encouraging posts from you guys, especially the writers out there, will help me get over my fear of moving on to the next step of the writing process.

I am really, really encouraging everyone to post the process that they use to write creatively. Thanks!

[JetsIn06]

hxxp://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php

Here's something I came across that I tried.

Again, the problem here is that I can get through the first few steps. I can write a paragraph that explains the plot. I can expand each of those sentences into a paragraph that is more detailed.

My problem arises around Step 3. I don't really know too much about my characters yet. Maybe this process isn't entirely for me. To me, I think it would be a lot easier and more fun to create the character while writing, rather than pre-planning it.

A character, in my opinion, is more realistic when it's created along with the action in the story, rather than this:

Bob is headstrong and is close to his family

Bob's motivation is to help his family though their financial crisis.

Bob likes movies.

It just seems very...bleh. That process just doesn't do anything for me.

[JetsIn06]

Okay, looking back at my last post, the character descriptions are obviously very bland. I just don't see, or maybe the better word is understand, how this process doesn't come out that bland.

[JetsIn06]

I guess the next thing to tackle is the actual story itself. What is it about?

Well, I guess I don't really know too much about it. Like I said, I have a basic idea, but not much else.

I've always really been attracted to speculative fiction, whether it's space opera, hard sci-fi, or even the occasional fantasy, and with this project, I'd really like to incorporate a lot of these elements.

The story that's been tossed around in my head is a very large scale idea, and I think it gets me into trouble sometimes. It's hard for me to break away from the macro. It's hard for me not to think about an entire civilization as a character. I guess the key is to determine what individual(s) of that group are really affecting/progressing the story, and then use them to explain the background of their civilization.

[JetsIn06]

Next thought:

I do have a main character. I don't know too much about him yet, but he exists. One of the problems I'm thinking about:

He could be spending a lot of time alone. I guess he could do some soul searching while he's alone, and it could be a great time to get some micro-level character development into the story, but I'm afraid that it could get quite boring for the reader.

[JetsIn06]

Thoughts on single POV vs. multiple POV:

Here's something that I just started thinking about. As I said, the story could potentially be very grand and large-scale. So I would think a single-POV is out of the question. It actually could be very refreshing for both the reader and myself to see things from different perspectives.

And because I am thinking of a galaxy-spanning story universe, it might be neccesary to have multiple points of view.

[korme]

Jets, my only suggestion (from way back on post deuce) would be that the reason you might want to think about your characters and have them already developed is because once you establish their histories and personalities, the usage of them in the story will flow much more easily for you, instead of having to think up reasoning and backgrounds on the fly.

[JetsIn06]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

Jets, my only suggestion (from way back on post deuce) would be that the reason you might want to think about your characters and have them already developed is because once you establish their histories and personalities, the usage of them in the story will flow much more easily for you, instead of having to think up reasoning and backgrounds on the fly.

Yea, that's true. Thanks for commenting. I saw you had a post in OT about writing and was hoping you'd chime in. How is it going for you?

[korme]

SLOW

[JetsIn06]

I hear ya.

[JetsIn06]

Outlining:

Well, I felt very motivated tonight, and started writing a plot outline, and it's really helping me move things along. It would be safe to say that I have a pretty basic outline for at least the first 1/3 of the story.

I'll still have a lot of fleshing out to do, but knowing how the story goes from A to B to C will definitely help, and now I won't be writing with no destination.

[Autumn]

I like your idea of doing this as a dynasty. I would agree with Shorty's idea above--I think you have to straddle the line between getting bogged down into too much detail about characters you haven't written yet (which you seem well aware of), and having enough concept of them that you know how to write them. I like to have some "things" that I *know* about that character, so that they're a person, not just some amorphous blob. It doesn't have to be everything about them, but some hard nuggets in there that help put a boundary around them. It reminds me of something I heard Meryl STreep say once about her acting, she said with each character she has a secret that she never tells anyone else, but she knows about that character. That's kind of how I work--the details in my head may never come out at all in the story, but they remind me who that character is. Something like:

"He always attempts very grand things and comes up short."

"He feels he is the greatest not out of arrogance, but out of fear of what would happen if he wasn't the greatest."

"She knows she doesn't really love him, but can't bear the thought of admitting it."

Knowing a few core things like that, or more frivolous, "He loves microwave popcorn because of hte sound it makes" just give me something to hold on to with the character.

My only other comment so far is that it sounds like you do what I do, which is do too much thinking and not enough writing. Tehre's no sense in worrying about whether a particular structure or method will be boring for readers if you haven't actually written it. I tend to spend so much time with those sort of debates that I never get aroudn to actually writing. This is bad. As much as we resist, the answer is almost always, "Just write and you can figure it out/ edit it later."

I really recommend Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg if you haven't read it.

[Izulde]

For me, the most important part of developing a character isn't figuring out who they are.

It's figuring out who they were.

[JetsIn06]

Thanks for the comments fellas.

Autumn: You hit the nail on the head. I spend way too much time thinking. I spend way too much time thinking, "This isn't it! This isn't what I want to write about," and not enough time practicing the craft, or just throwing my ideas on the page and seeing what sticks.

Izulde: I would think that figuring out "who they were" can really help you figure out who they are and who they will be, so thank you for your insight.

[JetsIn06]

So as I said last night/this morning, I ended up with an outline that seems to possibly be about 1/3 of the story.

But again, I've trapped myself and have been, as Autumn said, over-thinking and not writing enough. So, I decided that the best course of action would be to just start writing, and perhaps get far enough that the next 1/3 of the story will expose itself to me.

[JetsIn06]

While this may seem really insignificant to just about everyone, I wrote a whopping 6 pages today. Just to give you a point of reference, in the past year and a half, I've never wrote more than a page without starting over.

Slowly and steadily, I'm working on my faults and pushing through the "too much thinking, too little writing" problem.

What I've written is completely disjointed and needs to be redone, but it's really helping me get through the story. Plus, it's good practice.

[JetsIn06]

Damn, I'm getting frustrated again.

The problem I'm getting into now is getting bored by the non-exciting parts of the story. Maybe I just need to practice, but I'm having trouble making the non-exciting, non-action, and non-mysterious parts of the story sound any good.

I think most of you writers know the feeling when your writing something that is a major piece to the story, or to the mystery of the story...the words just fly from your head to your fingers and you get on the edge of your seat while your writing. It's tough to get that same inspiration when some of the less-exciting parts show up.

Anyone have any advice?

[Izulde]

Try determining how essential these non-exciting parts are to the story, first, maybe?

By going through these parts and seeing what they contribute to the story, you become more invested in figuring out why they're important and need to be there, which makes them more interesting.

[JetsIn06]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Try determining how essential these non-exciting parts are to the story, first, maybe?

By going through these parts and seeing what they contribute to the story, you become more invested in figuring out why they're important and need to be there, which makes them more interesting.

Thanks Izulde.

I guess what I'm kind of doing is looking forward to the parts I *know* are exciting, and that makes me kind of skimp over the slower parts. I have to remember that everything is contributing to the overall story arc, and in the end even the parts that don't seem so exciting to me are actually very important. If they're not, they shouldn't be there.

[Cap Ologist]

My advice for you would be to make your first draft relatively short, 30 pages maybe. When you finish, leave it alone for a month. Then get it out, read it again, and think about how to improve it, what can you add, what can you take out. I find that writing a short fixed limit piece helps me stay more focused on the plot the first time through. Then once I've got that nailed down, going back and tackling the 'non-exciting' parts seems a lot easier. And if you want any feedback of your writing, feel free to pm it to me.

[revrew]

One piece of advice...

A lot of rough drafts get 30% or more cut out before the final version. Hey, if it's boring for you to write, it's probably boring for your readers, too.

Many great books are a string of great scenes, so my advice is...don't feel like you NEED to write one, coherent story in chronological order. Make a list of scenes or events or conversations that just capture your passion. Write those scenes, even if they leave big gaps in-between. After you have a whole book full of scenes, you can go back and fill in as needed...or not, since much of the fill-in was never really needed anyway.

- don't be scared of gaps
- don't feel like you have to write the whole story in chronological order
- write what ignites you and figure out how to put it together later. Often, one sentence inserted into a great scene will take the place of a whole boring chapter you thought you HAD to write.

[JetsIn06]

Thanks for the comments guys, I'm sorry that I haven't responded. I've been so busy with my schoolwork that I haven't had a chance to do anything else for a while. But I have a nice little break from the books this weekend so I'm going to take your advice and try and bang out an outline, then try and write as many of those "scenes" as possible, rather than doing it chronological. I think that will help me very much.

Thanks again.