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

[dossier.livejournal.com]

I have done outlines, and I have seen the story whole and complete and simply applied myself to writing it down.

The thing about outlines is that for me it's perfectly fine to adjust that to take into account one of those OMG THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS moments. Also, I find that if I don't know the ending before I start (even if I change what that ending is midstream), I literally go nowhere, ever.

Sometimes an outline is no help at all and I rail and rage at the story for fifteen years, anyway. Yes, no kidding.

I have also written in out-of-sequence chunks, as a matter of fact, it was the only way I wrote for a long time. The thing about that is, it only works if I have a good idea of the story overall beforehand. The story that I'm flailing around with now is basically done according to the outline, and I suddenly realize that huge chunks are missing. so going back in and backfilling, and taking into account the foreshadowing. Which like you, usually comes in *after* the ending is written, though I occasionally find that I've surprised myself, and it's already there to some degree.

It sounds like what you're doing is developing the theme of the story before you get to the plot. I never can do that, must have plot, and then I can go back and tease out the accidental themes and improve them. Once in a great while the theme will bang me between the eyes halfway through and I can actually write that in as I finish. GLORIOUS.

But yes, theme is what drives the heart of the story, and the plot can just be the bare sticks upon which you lay the theme. Those are far more emotional stories and I applaud you for that.

[bluflamingo.livejournal.com]

I'm really fascinated by how many people talk about needing to know the end before they start - I hardly ever know how something will end before I start it. I can see how it would be useful though.

I occasionally find that I've surprised myself, and it's already there to some degree.

Yeah, I'm the same, sometimes, though I think that's more because the plot has come out of something that I wrote, rather than having the plot before I started if that makes sense, so I'm unconsciously foreshadowing what's coming for myself and for the people reading it. I don't know - it sounds a lot more pretentious written out than it is in reality (in reality, it's 2000 words in and going, oh! plot! yay!).

I like the idea of developing the theme before the plot - that sounds a lot better than fumbling around and hoping the plot comes to me (that was what I found odd doing 14 valentines - the character pieces about the female characters had zero plot before they started (and zero once they were done, in some cases!) and generall started with me writing a sentence about that person and then going on until I realised what I had to say about them; the other seven, the pairing based ones, I had a rough idea of where each of them was going before I started).

I think theme is easier for me in a way, because really what I want to write about is people belonging together and belonging somewhere, and that fits in easily to the vast majority of stories, even if the plot is about something else. I think that's part of why I liked your East of the Sun as well, because so much of it was about, or had the underlying theme of, belonging and family and creating a home.

[dossier.livejournal.com]

LOL East/West's theme was a complete accident. I had no idea that's what it was about for about, oh 65,000 words, which is one of those cases where I set it aside for abut 4 months and thought about what it really meant in terms of the character development, and then change the ending about 60 bazillion times as I progressed.

I was going to say that I found it difficult to write from a theme, but now that I think about it, almost all of my older stories were derived strictly from a theme, and I struggled to make a plot out of it. Now, I have plot and have to go dredging it up. Fascinating! I'll say that I was a lot more prolific during that period, at least in comparison. Maybe it's the fandom itself, that SGA/SG1 screams NEED PLOT to me, or that so many others do it so much better, and I'm just trying to squeeze out my own little niche.

And yay for the 2000 words! If you want to bounce anything off of me, or need a second beta, I'm more than pleased to help.