Gathering of the Figments

trinity · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 8:34 am Post subject: I'm Curious....

Okay so I read this blog post the other night and it was talking about how people write stories. What their method is, what they have to do before they begin writing said story. It made me curious if anyone here on the Figments writes like me and if not, I was curious how it is they wrote.

The question might be confusing so I'm going to tell you how I write and, hopefully if you didn't get it, this will help you understand.

First, I MUST have an outline! A whole document dedicated to me putting story related things inside. Like the ones I will mention below.

Second, I MUST have a summary! If only a sentence or a pargraph, I HAVE to know what this story is basically about.

Third, I HAVE to have a section for Chapter Titles! Sort of like this.
Example:
CHAPTER TITLES
Chapter 1-
Chapter 2-
Chapter 3-
Ect.

Fourth, I also HAVE to have a section for Chapter Description! Which is similar to the above and when I get inspiration I fill out the Chapter 1-thing with a description of what goes on in Chapter 1.

Fifth, all my characters must have names! I'm getting better with this one. Now and days only my main character must have a first name. But I really like it better when a few of the other character have names too.

And if all that is done, finally I can open a new document and begin writing.

I started to do this when I went back and read old stories and had NO idea where the story was meant to go. It sucked and now I do the above so I remember the plot and where I wanted the story to go.

So, how do you do your stories? Do you just write and not worry about having a plot or summary? Do you write it from back to front? Does your main character not have a name and through the whole thing you just call him/her X? Is anyone as completely OCD with Outlines as me?

As I've said, I'm curious. Razz

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DarkWaltz · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 11:45 am Post subject:

That's interesting, you plan out much more than I. Names are a huge part for me, and I have to have a very basic outline, but that can just be in my head, and other than that I just start writing. Sometimes I've started things without knowing how the story ends as well, which is always interesting. The only thing I've ever done intensive summary and outline and pre-writing organisation was for my NaNo. Actually, come to think of it, that worked out really well. Maybe I should do that more often...
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marianas · The Scarlet Pimpernel Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Posts: 435

I usually write completely haphazardly, with no outline whatsoever. Which is probably why I never finish anything...

For NaNo, however, I knew my characters' names and had a list of chapter titles. And I finished. So I think outlining is a good idea.

But I really haven't written any long stories recently.
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pommie42 · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 3:48 pm Post subject:

Planning. Pfft. Who needs planning?
That's how I write Razz

I seriously would not recommend writing that way though!
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Hawkins · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 4:23 pm Post subject:

Well...generally I'm away from my computer, and because I'm almost schizophrenic, I talk to myself. A LOT. I mean, I have entire conversations back and forth between myself (literally about nothing in particular...I once went on for hours about how "they missed". Dunno who they were, or what they missed. *shrug*) and usually it's subconscious. Once I realize I'm talking to myself again, I usually pick out a line or two of my dialogue to use as the first sentence of a story. And then for the rest of the day, until I get back to my computer, I'll go over basic plotlines and come up with one or two names, and usually I'll come up with lines that I /really/ want to use in my story. And then, when I get home, I tap out the line that I wanted to use as the first sentence, and it just kinda evolves from there. Very Happy

And Shaye, you don't have to say it. I'll say it for you:

Shocked

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