I'm not really an outliner. I will confess it here and now. I will also confess that there have been some times that I have really regretted it. And I will further confess that I think the reason two novels have stagnated in-process for me is that I had an open and a close, and lost my way in between. An outline would have helped prevent that.
I'm also a bit of an explorer. I've been an archaeologist. I've been a forensics tech. I've been a historical researcher. I know the thrill of uncovering things, and have been intoxicated by it. When I'm writing, I'm also exploring. I love seeing the story unfold as I write it the same as if I were reading it or watching a movie of it.
But I am writing it.
And that's where I get really confused by other writers sometimes. I do know what it's like to be surprised by things as I write. I do know what it's like to get angry with and even yell at a character. And I do know what it's like to reach a point where I realize that what I was intending will not actually be possible.
What I don't get, however, is when writers find themselves stumped. I'm not criticizing them. I'm not complaining. But I literally cannot conceive of it. Here are some examples of what I'm talking about:
"I don't know if I should have my character do this."
"I don't know where to go from here."
"I had planned for that character to be a villain, but they went and did something heroic, so now I don't know who my bad guy is."
I hit stumbling blocks in the middle of the road. I get that. I can understand how you sit at point A and look to point D but aren't sure how to go from A to D.
But I don't see how you can get to point C and not know where you're heading.
Partly, it just has to do with the way I think. I'm not much of a step-by-step kind of guy. I conceive the overall big picture, and then have to go back and fill out the details. So when I start writing, I know how it starts and I know how it ends, and I have a sense of the voyage between, even if I don't quite have all the details picked out yet.
To me that also seems like basic story-telling, though. If you don't know where you're heading, I'm not sure what it is you're doing when you sit down to write. Again, I don't mean any offense whatsoever. Just journaling about my own confusion. To me, if I go to write a story, if I don't know where it's going, I'm not writing a story. I quite literally don't understand what's in your mind when you write a story that is only a beginning.
Of course, I remember reading a forward by A. C. Crispin in one of her Star Trek novels (blush). It was a great story, and very creative, like most of her stuff that I've read. And one of the things she said was that a lot of her stories just start with her asking a, "What if..." question. "What if Spock and Bones sat down to play a game of chess?" Hmm.
Too, I love writing for prompts. (Check out Flashy Fiction!) But when I write for prompts, I think for a little while, and start writing once the big picture comes to me. I don't start before I know where it's going.
If any writers who work free-form from a beginning want to chime in and clue me in, I'd love to learn. I'm a curious fella by nature, and if I can understand rather than be confused, I prefer it!
.Nevets.
Did you write this for me? I could swear...
ReplyDeleteI've write written a multitude of beginnings without conceived stories.
The one I'm writing now? You could say I'm stuck at point C.
In my case, I latch onto a fragment and just have to write it. When those moments come, I don't care that I don't have a story to go with it. I'm just letting inspiration envelope me without expectation.
I think this is the reason I'm not good at flash fiction, and why I abandon a lot of stories. I'm not good at conceiving an entire story all at once. I have to follow it.
Thanks for chiming in, Casey.
ReplyDeleteSo what is it about the fragments that gets you to latch onto them if you don't know where they're going? If you don't see the story, what's the draw?
Just trying to learn and understand! :)
.Nevets.
Hm. Some of it is creative outlet. I'm a very visual person. I'll imagine something, see it in my head, and immediately want to put it on the page. Even if it's just a blip.
ReplyDeleteOther times I see the potential for an awesome story in a fragment and write it to see if it will develop.
When writing a novel, I’m much like you. I know where I’m starting and I know where I’ll end; it’s the journey that’s murky. Now for flash… yeah, I never have a clue what I’m going to write. It’s all free. I never even think about it. Nor do I edit.
ReplyDeleteCasey, I think I see where you're coming from. I do something like that in my head sometimes. Play around with an idea to see if I think it can go somewhere. I just never start writing until I figure out if there's a big picture around the idea. But I can see how writing it out might help.
ReplyDeleteIf you're doing that and you get to a point where you are stumped, do you say to yourself, "Okay, so this idea didn't work," or do you gnaw on it for several days to try and force it to go somewhere?
(And I am about as non-visual a person as you can be, by the way! LOL)
Heather, I envy you a little bit. I think it would be fun to be able to write that way in a flash setting. My brain just doesn't even work that way. I don't process from one thing to the next, so if I don't see the overall frame, I don't really see anything.
The one exception to that is trade-off stories, where a friend writes a paragraph (or sentence or whatever) and then sends the story to me, and then I write and it back, or send it along to the next person. In that case, because I am mainly just responding, almost conversationally, I don't need the big picture.
(And I don't edit flash writing either. Whatever comes out is my first go at that big picture that popped in my head.)
Thanks, both of you, I really appreciate the insights into how other writers operate!
(Know I'm late chiming in on this.)
ReplyDeleteMe and a writing buddy were talking about this the other day. We both have ambitious projects that fell apart due to lack of planning. But then, he has a great story that came to him in a dream. And I've written several pieces based simply upon the word pictures I hear or think of.
In general, I think one step ahead of my typing fingers, then go back for massive edits. I have tried to outline but end up mired in subplots.
And like Heather, I don't have any idea what my flash fiction is going to be until I finish it. Often, the story line changes and surprises me.
If nothing else, this thread has shown me that I'm an odd-ball. hahaha
ReplyDelete