How do you write?

[bluflamingo]

So, I have a file sitting on my computer, entitled 'Big Bang notes' into which, currently, everything I'm thinking about for this story is being shoved. It's a better way of keeping things together than endless post-it notes, which is how I organised my entire working life when I was working somewhere that I had a desk.

Currently, the contents of this file are about half a page of A4, and there is one thing that is actualy a major plot point. It's three words: search for Elizabeth?

Everything else is notes for little moments that I'd like to have in the story; some of them are tiny ideas, like 'Cam having a this is so cool moment' and 'Lorne with Parrish and Cadman, being teased for something really embarrassing that's happened recently'; some of them are actually vaguely related to plot, like 'Cam and Rodney get stuck somewhere to make it up' (because hell no are they going to get along in the beginning) and 'Cam sent to Atlantis because of injury?' (because, really, wouldn't Daniel be a much better choice?).

There's also half a dozen or so lines of a fight between John and Rodney, because even I in my happy John/Cam OTP land think that John's feelings for Rodney by season 4 aren't just friendship. Actually, this scene has been bouncing round in my head all week.

I still don't have an actual plot, but I figure I'm going to go with my tried and true method of plotting, which is to say, start it and the plot will develop as I go along. Plotting everything out beforehand bores me to tears, to be honest, because I feel like I'm just writing up what I already know, and there are no surprises.

I've been reading a lot of posts about people plotting out their stories by chapter, or by main plot points, or even just knowing most of what's going to happen, though, and I'm kind of curious about this. How do you know what's going to happen? Does the plot come to you pretty much fully-formed, or do you develop it as you write your notes or what? Explain this mysterious method of plotting to me! I don't get it!

Also - do you make notes for other stuff as you go along? Every story I've ever written has had a page at the bottom as I've gone along where I've stuck ideas for what will come next, and bits of dialogue, or description that I'm thinking of using, and sometimes even the end line (not always - more often than not, I'm writing away happily and suddenly realise, huh, that's the end and I have nothing else to say). Do you do that? Do you find yourself walking around with your main characters playing out a scene you haven't written yet in your head? Do you wake up with a brilliant idea for what comes next, or find yourself jotting ideas in the margins of your lecture notes? If you make notes, what kind of things go into them? Do you usually use everything that you jot down or does some of it never happen? Does your plot ever get derailed partway through, or are you stronger than that and keep it going where you originally intended? What makes the difference?

If you're anything like me, you love to talk about how you write, how you plot, why you do it that way... so come tell me!

Comments

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

*g* This is a source of discussion for a lot of people on my flist at the moment...

My personal method, if you can call it that, is to have a character (or sometimes characters) and to want to get them to a particular point, emotionally. So, say I'm writing Ianto from TW, I'll know that by the end of the story, he's going to have realised something about someone, or he'll have told someone something, or whatever. I don't know how I'm going to get him there, but I know where he's going.

The stories I've been most pleased with are the ones where the character has changed his or her mind half way through - so Ianto decides he doesn't want a happy-ever-after with Jack, or Shep decides he's good at keeping secrets after all... I can't plan rigidly, but I do need to have an aim, and a vague understanding of the journey I want my character to take.

(God, that sounded pretentious. I hope you know what I mean)

So yeah. Basically, it's all a bit vague and woolly for me. And yes, I do randomly jot down conversations that my characters have in my head, or a particular phrase that seems to sum up how my character's feeling at a given moment. One thing I absolutely have to have, though, is a clear mental picture of where this is all taking place. I have so many images saved on my computer, of beaches, various locations around the world, parks... All have been used at various points to help me get the right 'mood'. That, more than the words, is important to me, cos if I can't 'see' a scene, I won't be able to write it.

I wish I was one of those people who could plot things out. But I figure, I couldn't do that with essays when I was at uni - why would I suddenly be able to do it now?

[bluflamingo.livejournal.com]

It didn't sound pretentious at all - I've heard a lot of people say similar things, and it makes a lot of sense. Like having a destination but setting off with only a really big scale map, maybe.

What you say about setting is interesting to me, cos that's one thing I'm really crap at - if I don't remember to do it, half the time, the scene might as well be happening in a white box, because I forget to even mention where they are, never mind any kind of description of the place.

But I figure, I couldn't do that with essays when I was at uni - why would I suddenly be able to do it now?

Yeah, I know that feeling. I still don't plan essays, really - I usually have a list of points that I probably want to make, and quotes I probably want to use, but half of them will get abandoned, and the introduction gets rewritten dozens of times so it actually relates to what ends up coming after it.

I don't know that I wish I could plot - I just feel weird because everyone else has and I'm sitting here thinking, 'I dunno... maybe something about the replicators, and it might be cool to bring Sora back...'