The writing process

[JollyRoger]

Yes, you read the username correctly.

Yes, this is a serious thread, but is not one of the rare categories where I would put a Red Diamond on it.

Spoiler :

Resist the temptation to do it for me, gentle moderators.

The purpose of this thread is to discuss ways to get to a finished piece of creative writing.

Before I wanted to be lawyer, I wanted to be a writer. I now write quite a bit for a living, but the creative part of such writing is maybe 20% tops.

I am now embarking on trying something more creative.

Before JR became the cynical purveyor of one liners that you love to hate, I once went through the angst of losing the girl. We have reconnected after over 25 years of seeing each other and almost 25 years of speaking with each other. She has a work of published nonfiction on the creative process under her belt and a completed novel in search of a publisher. Despite my insane jealousy, I am trying to learn from her about the creative writing process and she has given me some good insights in between rolling her eyes at my pretentions.

This thread is for the rest of you to contribute your verse.

I have a bit of a method that I have started on that I will contribute later.

Any tips you all have or methods you use or think may be useful are encouraged. I really know nothing beyond how to write a one liner or maybe a limerick at most.

 

[Birdjaguar]

What happened to JR and when will he return?

In a word, I think that the best writing hangs on specificity. It's the individual moments of action or reflection that are expanded into a larger web of storytelling. I see writing, whether a short set of verses, a story or even business writing, as a collection of details woven together into something larger. It is a bottom up process once you have the overall concept of the story.

and then there is the terribly hard work and discipline of actually doing the writing day after day and week after week.

 

[JollyRoger]

JR is bordering close on starting a relationship thread generally reserved for the 16 to 23 year olds here.

So one suggestion I have received is to take my perceived protagonist and just write about him (or her if we are talking protagonista) doing everyday things in order to learn about that character. Does that seem like a promising idea or just unnecessary procrastinating from the harder stuff?

 

[Cutlass]

The advice I've seen the most is that the way to learn to write is to write. So maybe the learning process might have you write a 1000 pages to get something that can be miniskirted to 100 pages someone else would want to read. Sometimes I'd like to write. But lack of confidence and original ideas holds me back.

 

[Birdjaguar]

First put your protagonist into his setting
Choose the story teller (who is telling the story about the protagonist)
Think about how the story of the protagonist begins (through the eyes of the story teller)
Create some of the interactions or reflections that bring the storyteller and protagonist together.

 

[JollyRoger]

The advice I've seen the most is that the way to learn to write is to write. So maybe the learning process might have you write a 1000 pages to get something that can be miniskirted to 100 pages someone else would want to read. Sometimes I'd like to write. But lack of confidence and original ideas holds me back.

Thanks for remembering miniskirting. I think my problem is I try to immediately write the miniskirt and avoid the full wardrobe. The attempt gets trashed instead of kept as a learning experience or raw material to be refined.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Also I suggest you write about what you know so the details come easily.

 

[JollyRoger]

Also I suggest you write about what you know so the details come easily.

I think I write a little bit too much about what I know and it becomes TOO much autobiography.

 

[Cutlass]

I think you need some concept of who your main characters are, and what the basic story arc is going to be. But I've seen many interviews with successful fiction authors who've said something to the effect that their characters surprise them, in that they turn out to be someone else. And they change over time. And so does the story. So maybe you get a staring concept in mind, and then see how it evolves as you get it written down.

 

[Birdjaguar]

What you know might include: Texas, criminal justice, tax law, rural or urban living, falling in love after 25 years, Texas politics, law school, defending the guilty or innocent, or any other number of topics related to living your life. You might even know about living alone for long stretches of time or living in your parents basement for that matter. Could you build a story about a guy who uses short humorous comments as a defense against making commitments to women and then he meets a serious writer who insists that he change his ways and speak to her in long paragraphs? good stories come from many places.

 

[JollyRoger]

Could you build a story about a guy who uses short humorous comments as a defense against making commitments to women and then he meets a serious writer who insists that he change his ways and speak to her in long paragraphs?

Good God man, do you want me to write horror?

 

[Birdjaguar]

Stephen King has done well with that genre.

 

[jackelgull]

The writing process is the most painful part of writing. Before I write, I always have a grand vision guiding me. In my head, I have a story as beautiful as a pristine spring on a mountain top, but when the words pour onto the paper, they're more like the water of the Ganges, and I wonder if I've written anything more significant than syllables and noise. The greatest strain of writing is always mental. I know it seems quite obvious, but when you're sitting their staring at your screen wondering what happened to the story you had in your head, just remember, you wrote it as best as you could, and now you just need to rewrite it. I think stories are like children. Every parent has an idea of what they're child will be like. They all think they'll be good parents and avoid making their parent's mistakes. But life doesn't work that way. If you keep working at it, your child may become a functional adult, and your story may be an effort worthy of praise and publishing. Who knows?

 

[Joecoolyo]

I think you need some concept of who your main characters are, and what the basic story arc is going to be. But I've seen many interviews with successful fiction authors who've said something to the effect that their characters surprise them, in that they turn out to be someone else. And they change over time. And so does the story. So maybe you get a staring concept in mind, and then see how it evolves as you get it written down.

I don't do very much creative writing (I keep trying and failing), but I've found this is how my academic writing ends up.

I do some research, look at my sources, and get a cursory idea of where I want my paper to go.

Once I start writing however, it usually ends up completely different than I imagined it.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Yes, you read the username correctly.

Yes, this is a serious thread, but is not one of the rare categories where I would put a Red Diamond on it.

Spoiler :

Resist the temptation to do it for me, gentle moderators.

The purpose of this thread is to discuss ways to get to a finished piece of creative writing.

Before I wanted to be lawyer, I wanted to be a writer. I now write quite a bit for a living, but the creative part of such writing is maybe 20% tops.

I am now embarking on trying something more creative.

Before JR became the cynical purveyor of one liners that you love to hate, I once went through the angst of losing the girl. We have reconnected after over 25 years of seeing each other and almost 25 years of speaking with each other. She has a work of published nonfiction on the creative process under her belt and a completed novel in search of a publisher. Despite my insane jealousy, I am trying to learn from her about the creative writing process and she has given me some good insights in between rolling her eyes at my pretentions.

This thread is for the rest of you to contribute your verse.

I have a bit of a method that I have started on that I will contribute later.

Any tips you all have or methods you use or think may be useful are encouraged. I really know nothing beyond how to write a one liner or maybe a limerick at most.

The best tip anyone can give an aspiring writer is this: Sit down and write. It's a rare thing for someone to sell the first piece of writing they submit (though apparently Robert Heinlein managed). Isaac Asimov collected numerous rejection slips in his life, and he was in his 40s before he felt confident enough in his ability to make a living solely from writing. Only then did he dare to quit his day job (he taught chemistry at a university).

There are writing activities going on in the A&E forum. There are regular NaNoWriMo threads 3 times a year (the major event in November just concluded 3 weeks ago), Several rounds of Iron Pen have come and gone (next one will be in January), and right now jackelgull is hosting a "secret Santa" writing activity where people submit story prompts and someone else writes a story using that prompt.

There are other discussions as well - stories, poetry, and other things that are a little odd, such as drabbles. Those are super-short stories of only 100 words.

JR is bordering close on starting a relationship thread generally reserved for the 16 to 23 year olds here.

So one suggestion I have received is to take my perceived protagonist and just write about him (or her if we are talking protagonista) doing everyday things in order to learn about that character. Does that seem like a promising idea or just unnecessary procrastinating from the harder stuff?

All stories need some kind of conflict or problem to grab a reader's interest. They want to know if the protagonist overcomes the problem, and how (of course the protagonist might not solve the problem, and that also is a valid way of creating a story).

BTW, "protagonist" is a gender-neutral term. The protagonist is the main character, and can be male, female, the hero, the villain, or any combination thereof. It's who the story is about.

 

[Zkribbler]

JR is bordering close on starting a relationship thread generally reserved for the 16 to 23 year olds here.

So one suggestion I have received is to take my perceived protagonist and just write about him (or her if we are talking protagonista) doing everyday things in order to learn about that character. Does that seem like a promising idea or just unnecessary procrastinating from the harder stuff?

If I ever tried that method, I'd shoot myself in the head. That sounds utterly dreary.

First, come up with an interesting character (or more).
Give him a problem. [A story is a narrative about a character trying to solve a problem.]
To advance the story line, the best engine I've found is the question: "What goes wrong next?"

 

[onejayhawk]

I have written five books and several short stories. None have been submitted to retail publishers.

Years ago at an SF con, I had a chance to talk to CJ Cherryh. She was a high school Latin teacher who started writing on the side. Asked her which came first, Captain Mallory or the Norway (see wiki below). Her answer was the Fleet came first. Her personal style began with the large protagonists and descended to the specific.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downbelow_Station

My style starts with vignettes and moves to the reasons behind the scene. For example, I might consider Baron von Frankenstein saying, "It is alive." From that, I would work back to the work on cadavers and the reaction of the villagers, his publications and the reactions of his peers, his laboratory and the limitations of his resources.

J

 

[Kyriakos]

Yes, you read the username correctly.

Yes, this is a serious thread, but is not one of the rare categories where I would put a Red Diamond on it.

Spoiler :

Resist the temptation to do it for me, gentle moderators.

The purpose of this thread is to discuss ways to get to a finished piece of creative writing.

Before I wanted to be lawyer, I wanted to be a writer. I now write quite a bit for a living, but the creative part of such writing is maybe 20% tops.

I am now embarking on trying something more creative.

Before JR became the cynical purveyor of one liners that you love to hate, I once went through the angst of losing the girl. We have reconnected after over 25 years of seeing each other and almost 25 years of speaking with each other. She has a work of published nonfiction on the creative process under her belt and a completed novel in search of a publisher. Despite my insane jealousy, I am trying to learn from her about the creative writing process and she has given me some good insights in between rolling her eyes at my pretentions.

This thread is for the rest of you to contribute your verse.

I have a bit of a method that I have started on that I will contribute later.

Any tips you all have or methods you use or think may be useful are encouraged. I really know nothing beyond how to write a one liner or maybe a limerick at most.

Welcome to the gray world of 'serious' threads

Kafka was a (sort of) lawyer too, btw.

 

[Zkribbler]

Kafka was a (sort of) lawyer too, btw.

That would explain why his most famous protagonist woke up one morning to find that he had turned into a large cockroach.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Hmm. My writing process goes like this:

1) Have an idea
2) Don't stop writing.
3) Endless regrets once it comes on white paper.
4) Be amazed as people actually like it.
4b) Employ large quantities of alcohol if they don't.