A question for the writers here

[regulus]

If there is any kicking about that is.

In short, I'm interested in how you approach your novel/book/essays. I have an idea for a book I'd like to do, but I find great challenges in sweating the little details that make up the meat of any book.

So far I found a sliver of success in writing a bunch of scenes and work hard at bolting them together, but I feel there must be an easier way. Too much of my time is spent evolving scenes or dialogue, so much so that the structure, coherency and flow of the story start suffering. So in short, what is the best way you found in keeping true to the integrity of the story whilst fleshing it out a bit more with each draft.

Please share your best practices and help a guy out.

 

[NickK]

I use MindNode Pro to start with an idea, then mind map additional ideas and expand on them as well as show the links between them.

From that I'll have the ideas for story archs and the relationships between them, the characters and the important interactions.

The book I'm writing has a fair degree of shifts in time so timelines are better defined as sequences of events. Place the events as needed into a chapter order and the basic flow appears giving a framework and speed. This leaves just the writing using the framework.

For example I have top down approach. I know the relationships between the characters, the characters basic model and the flow of the story. What I'm leaving until later is the smaller detail as I want more ideas to interweave.
I know one story arch has a female archeologist. She's not human. I know why she's an outcast. I know her past and future as well as her thinking. However I don't know her name as that will come later when I personalise her.

 

[SourChipmunk]

I haven't done it yet, but I always wanted to try an outlining technique. Put you idea down in a list. Put another idea. Expand on it. Expand on those bits. You can add or remove or move stuff around as necessary. After the outline seems complete, write it all together in a story format.

Might be better for a kid's story.

 

[NickK]

That's basically what you can do for developing a story. A mind map is a freeform idea map.. so just expand as you go then you start thinking about how to link the ideas.

To develop characters you can build them up by asking 100 questions as you would in a conversation about areas of their lives.

 

[Simi]

I outline a plan for each chapter first to last before writing anything except for character bios - I like the idea of 100 questions for characters, will definitely use that in the future.
If I know the main story in my head and how it begins, unfolds and ends then I will add some subplots such as romantic interest, friends, double cross, dream sequences, day to day stuff like a day out shopping or at a library and something happens (although I write horror so it's easier to focus on the mundane and make it interesting).

Once you have the plot and subplots formed then it's just a matter of chapter planning after which comes the writing. I used to jump headlong into it but quickly ran out of steam and ended up with a hundred short stories so now I take a more methodical approach which seems to be working well for me now.

 

[THMRK]

My approach to writing short fiction is pretty haphazard. I usually just dive in and let it evolve as I go. I've not really got the discipline (yet) to write anything greater than a short story.

For a script?

I note down the idea roughly somewhere (could literally be on a napkin) then I'll refine it and flesh it out a bit.

After that I'll write a treatment and synopsis. Both of which are very difficult (for me, anyway) and can sometimes actually put me off a bit from writing the actual script, but I usually solider on anyway cause I feel that having the entire story written out, with no dialogue but all the elements required to make it work and see where it's going is a huge help. The treatment is easily the most important part because not only does it help you arrange the story beat by beat, and allow you to basically write out the entire thing (minus dialogue) in prose form but later on down the line it's what many agents and TV studios will read before they even look at your script.

After that I write a monologue for each character. I find this is good cause it helps me to create the characters personality and allows me to get "in their head" as such. I might write a short character biography too cause it can be useful in relating how the main players in the story know one another as well as detailing their flaws and how they might act in certain situations which is paramount for comedy.

Then just dive in. If I need to change anything in the treatment when I'm writing the script I do it and amend the treatment as required. I find that dialogue comes very naturally to me, partly because I'm always interested in the way people speak to one another so I've developed a good ear for conversational detail.

 

[regulus]

Some excellent answers guys. NickK, thanks for the tip on that software, using it now and it's undeniably handy.

Woody, I can understand each and every issue you have as I wrestle with the same problems day in day out. I've started doing brain dumps by ignoring structure and dialogue and just hammering down words as fast as I can. Towards the end of a session I'd go through the paragraphs to see if anything is salvageable. It's not unlike walking through a scrapyard looking for working parts. Success has been slow but always tend to push the story forward when I need it most.

Writing varied and interesting characters is proving to be a massive, massive headache for me. I seem to be able at constructing an interesting environment, only to pollute it with half-ass characters. To overcome this, I'm plugging in characters from my real life friends, sparing me the pain of having to render a person from imagination.

Please update this thread at your convenience and let us know how the stories are shaping up. Writing being such a challenging thing to do, it can only be good sharing a best practice when you stumble onto one.

 

[regulus]

If I know the main story in my head and how it begins, unfolds and ends then I will add some subplots such as romantic interest, friends, double cross, dream sequences, day to day stuff like a day out shopping or at a library and something happens (although I write horror so it's easier to focus on the mundane and make it interesting).

I'm liking this idea. I try and write a story by including sub-plots right from the first chapter, leaving me a ton of parameters to consider. My stories usually live in ancient Athens or Rome where I'm a bit more free to conjure up a world as I see fit without having really to consider the believability of it.

I'll try your idea for my next chapter and only focus on the main protagonists and see if a few secondary plots (e.g, meeting bandits or prostitutes) could be worked in without having to consider the integrity of the main story.

 

[THMRK]

Some excellent answers guys. NickK, thanks for the tip on that software, using it now and it's undeniably handy.

Woody, I can understand each and every issue you have as I wrestle with the same problems day in day out. I've started doing brain dumps by ignoring structure and dialogue and just hammering down words as fast as I can. Towards the end of a session I'd go through the paragraphs to see if anything is salvageable. It's not unlike walking through a scrapyard looking for working parts. Success has been slow but always tend to push the story forward when I need it most.

Writing varied and interesting characters is proving to be a massive, massive headache for me. I seem to be able at constructing an interesting environment, only to pollute it with half-ass characters. To overcome this, I'm plugging in characters from my real life friends, sparing me the pain of having to render a person from imagination.

Please update this thread at your convenience and let us know how the stories are shaping up. Writing being such a challenging thing to do, it can only be good sharing a best practice when you stumble onto one.

My approach to character is that I generally take either aspects of people I know or the aspects of humanity I like/dislike (all my main characters are massive ignorant idiots because I loathe that in people, and it's my attempt to understand why people are such a way) but I've never found it that hard to write interesting characters. Relatable characters on the other hand, that can be quite challenging but these things highlight the need for you to create the characters before anything else. By doing biographies (likes, dislikes, history, secrets) etc it helps to create character that are more alive. By writing monologues for each character (I imagine them being interviewed for a documentary) it allows me to craft a personality that is likeable or unlikeable by making them talk about some interesting (to them at least) facet of their lives that they think might impress or interest other people.

Because I'm writing sitcom stuff at the moment, it's very important for me to create characters who rub off each other, who aren't very similar so conflict can arise which is funny, and which in turn can escalate to allow the characters to get into increasingly improbable or ridiculous situations. Every character I create can, in some way, be related back to traits either I or people I know have. Or in some cases the situations they are in can sometimes be situations I've seen or known people to be in.

So I guess, in effect, I do the opposite of you. I create interesting characters and then plug them into situations.

 

[regulus]

How's the stories going guys?

I tried writing character monologues and it helped me heaps in understanding my creations better. One of my characters is a secretly gay policeman married to a secretly lesbian partner. Neither of them realise the other half is ... other way inclined which awarded me some excellent opportunity to install some humour into an otherwise serious novel.

I sat both characters down and started asking them questions. Any questions, however inane. I gave it a week, came back and supplied answers. It certainly helped supply a more accurate measure of each character, allowing me to write far more comfortably as I now understand how each character would react to given situations.

Anyway, enough waffling from me. How's the stories shaping up?

 

[THMRK]

I just lost everything I'd been working on.

Hard disk failed. Silly me to have not backed up.

 

[NickK]

Ouch - have you tried a data recovery specialist? They can often take an HD and recover files (ie your book).

I started using TimeMachine ages ago with a 1TB external drive. I also copy the files to the mac mini downstairs just to increase the number of copies.
I flashed my MBP SSD yesterday and TM meant the restore was a simple start the machine with the TM disc and OSX DVD in.. a couple of hours later and it's back to exactly the point it left off.

Also I used the dictaphone on the iPhone to voice out some ideas when they come to me.. whenever they come.. and when I sync with iTunes they're copied over. I can then listen to them whilst scribbling the ideas down.

 

[NickK]

Writing varied and interesting characters is proving to be a massive, massive headache for me. I seem to be able at constructing an interesting environment, only to pollute it with half-ass characters. To overcome this, I'm plugging in characters from my real life friends, sparing me the pain of having to render a person from imagination.

Nothing ever interesting happens in the office - a saying for product management but it also underlies the same issue.

To make an interesting character, they have to have an interesting experiences with interesting relationships developing from them.

Place yourself as a character at home.. no inputs and therefore very little output.. however they're bored, they dream of excitement and have great fantasies.
Ever just decided that this weekend you're going to X city somewhere in europe? You meet a friendly woman.. do you say no when she invites you out for the evening? Got drunk? Woke up alone? Did she steal your passport? Money? Or did she pop out for fresh bread?
Pushing the boundaries for a character leads to excitement.. but you need experience to really write believably about it rather than sounding like a fantasy.

Have you been on a roadtrip? Just start at the beginning and see where it goes?

 

[THMRK]

Ouch - have you tried a data recovery specialist? They can often take an HD and recover files (ie your book).

I started using TimeMachine ages ago with a 1TB external drive. I also copy the files to the mac mini downstairs just to increase the number of copies.
I flashed my MBP SSD yesterday and TM meant the restore was a simple start the machine with the TM disc and OSX DVD in.. a couple of hours later and it's back to exactly the point it left off.

Also I used the dictaphone on the iPhone to voice out some ideas when they come to me.. whenever they come.. and when I sync with iTunes they're copied over. I can then listen to them whilst scribbling the ideas down.

I'm looking into it but the expense is a major deterrent. I simply don't have the cash to do anything like that right now.

I had a bunch of music I was working on and 3 scripts too. Very irritating indeed.