Sunday, August 15, 2010

Starting Point for Your Story

All,

As I work on Real Stakes again I am once more impressed by how difficult I have made it for myself because of the starting point. It began with a plot.

Obviously I need a plot.

But my style is strongest, most natural, and most effective when I begin with character. When I was honing my craft with mystery and crime shorts that will likely mostly remain forever imprisoned in the AmoebaQuest folder on my computer, I started with a plot. When I wrote my first novels (sci-fi and fantasy), I began with setting. When my writing started to find itself in experimental fiction and edgy scoring, it was all begun with character.

As I have gone on to mature in psychological suspense, it still works best that way. My interest is in the people and their development. Ennui and Malaise started with a character, voice, and a development arc. Every time I sit down at it, it flows well and at a high quality. I am now in my third overhaul of Real Stakes.

Because I am adding characters to a plot, and that is not my best way of working.

How about other writers out there? Where do you start? Do you find it matters or not?

.Nevets.
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5 comments:

  1. My method varies, but I tend to start with a single moment of action: a line of dialogue, a horseman with a flaming torch, a galley on the water. Then I flesh out how the situation arose.

    Characters normally come last for me. I don't really discover them until I start writing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I keep trying to find a pattern between the starting point and the end result, and I can't find one. Of the few stories that I would call my best, two were inspired by character, one by setting, and one by plot. I do think starting from character is very helpful for me, but having a character alone has gotten me into jams. Somehow, the character needs to be intertwined with something else that creates movement for me.

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  3. I probably should stress one point of clarification. I start with character, which encompasses the subsets a character and characters, but is not identical with those sets.

    At a very basic level, a character in a story is an actor. Often that actor gets things attached to it such as a name, a description, a situation. In the development of character, a character also gets personality -- so behavior, expression, drive, foibles, desires, etc.

    At a deeper level, I think developed character also brings with it voice and psychology. When I conceive of a character, that voice and psychology are inherently dynamic.

    When I have the interaction of a dynamic psychology and voice with a developed character, I see a character development arc. Johnny's emotional and intellectual state is this and its condition is thus and it's tending towards becoming such.

    That's my best starting point. From there, it's just a matter of figuring out the plot or action points I want to through at the character to other enhance or combat that trend.

    And then the rest is details.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Endings are fun, as are themes. It's great to start with some idea you want to harp upon and then concretely embody it in a narrative without being preachy. Tough to do, though.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't think I have the shoulders to carry a theme like that. lol

    ReplyDelete

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