How I Write.
Jan. 4th, 2012 08:23 amOK so I saw this meme first on Faeri's journal but I'm blaming ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
valtyr and jazzypom.
How do I write? Good question. I think I'm closer to Valtyr than to Jazzypom. I usually start with a concept or a snatch of scene, maybe a line of dialogue.
then I usually let it simmer in my head for a while (or just leave it there as is the case with a lot of original universes that never saw paper). I'll turn it around and poke at it, get all sort of ideas for it, that don't all make it into the fic (no, knowing Jan ran away from her father's house to join the clothier guild, until her father was killed and she took up soldiering with Hank, her father's aprentice, to avenge him was not usefull to write A Long Way to Go)
So I end up with a serie of points I want to hit along the journey and a general sense of what I want to see. But I wont have any detailed plan until I start writing. Because the only way for me to know how to get from one point to the next is to walk the path, so to speak.
I make a lot of decision as I'm writing, sometimes whole characterization points or even scenes come up to me. The order of the scene frequently changes as I start to write or are not decided. It's when I refine my vague plot points into an actual series of actions.
of course sometimes (a lot of the time) I hit a wall, where I can't get to where I want either emotionaly or naratively (or both) and I poke, and poike and poke at it. Sometimes the bricks rearange and a door open, and some times I have to backtrack to get on the right road. (in other words, I take out my trusty notebook and rewrite the entire scene, which works surprisingly well)
And that how I write.
.... Forgot something. How detaled my points are before I start writing can depend a lot. it also depends on how far along I am.
For example, A Long Way to Go, which is my longest and plotiest fic so far, started out as me having a fairly good idea of the AU world it was set it but none of the plot (there was no plot back then) and I just wrote scenes as they came with no idea of what was coming after. Then plot got in. And I started drawing maps, and realised I needed an outline. Now my outline wasn't the most detailed but by the middle, that fic was the most organised I had even written. With outlines, timelines and while I added some scenes as they came and fiddled with the order on the fly I did have a good idea of all I needed to write.
Now for We Need to Talk. I started writting with a fairly good idea of all the points I wanted to hit. Unfortunatly my structure for that fic was Tony-tries-to-figure-out-way-to-tell-husband-he-is-transgender-and-take-a-trip-down-memory-lane. So I had no idea in what order the points were going to come or even how to get to them. I just turned on the Tony voice and let go.
valtyr and jazzypom.How do I write? Good question. I think I'm closer to Valtyr than to Jazzypom. I usually start with a concept or a snatch of scene, maybe a line of dialogue.
then I usually let it simmer in my head for a while (or just leave it there as is the case with a lot of original universes that never saw paper). I'll turn it around and poke at it, get all sort of ideas for it, that don't all make it into the fic (no, knowing Jan ran away from her father's house to join the clothier guild, until her father was killed and she took up soldiering with Hank, her father's aprentice, to avenge him was not usefull to write A Long Way to Go)
So I end up with a serie of points I want to hit along the journey and a general sense of what I want to see. But I wont have any detailed plan until I start writing. Because the only way for me to know how to get from one point to the next is to walk the path, so to speak.
I make a lot of decision as I'm writing, sometimes whole characterization points or even scenes come up to me. The order of the scene frequently changes as I start to write or are not decided. It's when I refine my vague plot points into an actual series of actions.
of course sometimes (a lot of the time) I hit a wall, where I can't get to where I want either emotionaly or naratively (or both) and I poke, and poike and poke at it. Sometimes the bricks rearange and a door open, and some times I have to backtrack to get on the right road. (in other words, I take out my trusty notebook and rewrite the entire scene, which works surprisingly well)
And that how I write.
.... Forgot something. How detaled my points are before I start writing can depend a lot. it also depends on how far along I am.
For example, A Long Way to Go, which is my longest and plotiest fic so far, started out as me having a fairly good idea of the AU world it was set it but none of the plot (there was no plot back then) and I just wrote scenes as they came with no idea of what was coming after. Then plot got in. And I started drawing maps, and realised I needed an outline. Now my outline wasn't the most detailed but by the middle, that fic was the most organised I had even written. With outlines, timelines and while I added some scenes as they came and fiddled with the order on the fly I did have a good idea of all I needed to write.
Now for We Need to Talk. I started writting with a fairly good idea of all the points I wanted to hit. Unfortunatly my structure for that fic was Tony-tries-to-figure-out-way-to-tell-husband-he-is-transgender-and-take-a-trip-down-memory-lane. So I had no idea in what order the points were going to come or even how to get to them. I just turned on the Tony voice and let go.
