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I am in a writer's group once a month and much to my surprise, one of the small group is a published author and has written a few novels that I think are doing well. J P Blackmer, does that ring any bells? He writes Scottish fiction set about 600 years ago.
So, now to the point. He said that when he writes a book, he writes a little bit here, and some there, and finally in the middle and when he thinks he has a story then he works out ways to join all the little bits together. Hmmm. I wonder if I should try that?
Gwendolyn
Comments
There are many many many
There are many many many different methods authors use to write a story. I've read a number of books on writing and just about all of them contradict the others. As the saying goes different strokes for different folks. ^_^
I remember reading a story where a young author at a conference on writing (I can't remember his name) got up and gave an impassioned speech on why it's important to outline everything before writing a story. After he sat down, a veteran author (It might have been Anne McCaffery) told him that she'd never outlined anything in her entire life.
What works for one person might not work for someone else. You could give this method a whirl and see if this particular approach works for you.
Have delightfully devious day,
Paul and John
I agree with the comment--try different methods. And try them at different times. And if you find a method that works, great. And if you find that you're dry, you've hit a wall, story-blocked, whatever ...try a different method.
You'll find any number of anecdotes about writers' styles, approaches, quirks; just don't get fooled into thinking you'll write like Hemingway if you stand at a podium and do it longhand.
Some of my stories have been closely outlined before starting. Some have flowed from title to The End. The important thing--absolutely the most important thing!--is to write. Write every day, if possible. Don't wait for The Muse, don't wait for the right method. Throw words up on the screen or down on the paper. They don't have to be good; that's what editing's for! And save everything.
Think of somebody dithering over what kind of wallpaper they're going to use in the bathroom of the children's room of the house they haven't purchased yet. It's okay to make a note about it; or to think about wallpapers while you're at a stoplight, but you're never going to get your house if you don't start until you've selected the bathroom wallpaper.
And as to my cryptic Subject line: Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote some of their songs individually; some together. Some were complete songs; some were scraps. Some were written when they were teenagers and brought out years later; some flowed out fully done in minutes. And, of course, we remember "Scrambled Eggs"! http://www.beatlefan.net/b208394-lennon-mccartney-who-wrote-...
The point is that they wrote all the time, with all different methods.
Karin
The best way to write ...
is to write!
That's an old aphorism that is as true today as it was then.
My first novel was huge - more than 750,000 words! It poured out of me like a volcano spewing. I wrote until my hands ached. I had to hold ice cubes in them to ease the pain. Not one word was planned ... no outline, nothing. It just happened.
My next novels were similar, except that I had worked out the story in my head, long before my fingers hit the keyboard.
Even my technical stuff is mostly extemporaneous. Yet, it isn't. I have already created a mental outline. I have assembled facts and figures. I have created diagrams, tables and supporting documentation. I've done all the necessary stuff needed to fulfill the technical goal. So, writing is essentially putting what I've already figured out on paper.
The problem with these approaches is they demand extensive editing. And, of course, the editor is an idiot, who doesn't understand the story, who can't keep my characters straight, etc. However, slow but surely, I recognize that the editor is not out to sabotage me, but to provide an important interface between my inner world and the world in which my readers live. Then, I abjectly surrender, and do what I'm instructed to do. And, miraculously, it works out really well ... after six or eight rewrites, or so.
So, my advice is, if you can plan it out, do so. It will probably save you time, effort, and heartache, because it should require less editing. However, if you dive in and just start writing, expect that you will rewrite several times.
However, don't stop writing. As you write more, you will find that the amount of editing decreases. Therefore, the number of revisions decreases. And, you become a better writer.
Red MacDonald
I haven't written since ...
I haven't written stories in almost 6 months, and I have missed it but did not realize how much time had passed. Oh, I have written in blogs and things, and I do not know if that is the same thing. One of my books has lived in my head from beginning to end for years. Inshallah, someday it will be on paper. And, actually, I just realised that several of my stories could have been written as part of one book, not a series of stories, but as a single story.
I wonder where I'll be in 10 years. "Do or Do NOT".
G
One time in band camp...
... I wrote a novel backward. I wrote the last chapter, then the one before it, and the one before it...
In the end it wasn't very good, but that would have been true whether I'd written it forwards, backwards, or here and there.
But it was worth it. It was the first one I ever finished, and *that* was an accomplishment all by itself.
I am not an experienced writer of fiction,
But I write constantly, usually on forums and tech stuff. I just got through a passionate argument about how AM works after a short article that I plan on redoing for my blog. Such is the life of a geek.
The stories I wrote I had two different experiences. One (I Will Always Be There For You) came straight from my subconscious, and almost wrote itself. My boy pointed out the autobiographical aspects after I wrote it, I had not seen them until then.
The other peculated purposely until I was ready to write it. About 70% was done in my head before I started putting words down.
I think I may have had something very equivalent to a breakdown. I was really down, in a dangerous way, before I decided to do something about it, and contacted a gender therapist, who is helping, but not in the way you would think. At the moment we are working on the depression only, with side references to the GID. I am still having trouble reading. Part of it is time, but part of it is something else. Some TG stories, where free will is gone and people become things, really disturb me deeply. Not all of them, but where it is accepted this is normal and reasonable as part of the story. I think it is a personal nightmare for me. I view 1984 in much the same way, but actually changing someones body for someone elses pleasure adds a new twist.
Day before yesterday I bought some flats. A little small, but they fit. They make me feel very different in a good way, but it is hard to describe. Needless to say, not for casual wear, yet.
I reached a new low in weight this morning, 226. That is my count down timer for HRT.
I'll be writing more. I'm not too sure about novels, but I am thinking of revisiting "The End of the World, As We Knew It". It is not paradise, but in many ways a better world than we currently live. The press of overpopulation is gone, and there is no longer the stigma of sex changes (though some will linger) because they are real and complete changes, with children being the goal. The idea of "I do not pass" is a thing of the past. Medicine has had an epiphany. PTSD abounds but is treatable, and life spans have lengthened enormously, at least for those who can afford it. Space programs are everywhere and their necessity is obvious and not to be questioned. There will be colonies on other planets and the moon. I don't know if anyone would be interested, but I think I'll make it an open universe.
The only question for me is how dark to make it. It is not a paradise after all, though for folks like us I suspect it would be a much better world.
So do ideas pop out of the void for you other folks, and offer themselves up? I have to work for them, think hard about what would interest me. That is, unless my subconscious has something to say.