More sausage-making from Yahoo Answers.
A person asks: How do you write your first draft of your story?
And I answer:
1. Remind myself that the first draft is allowed to suck. Nay, is GOING to suck.
2. Attempt to come up with a pithy first line to get the writerly juices flowing. Figure out what the opening scene needs to do.
3. Tear my hair out as my characters (a) refuse to cut to the chase, and then (b) refuse to do what I need them to do for my PLOT. Such as it is at this stage. Outline? What outline?
4. Work around that. Okay, my protag is not the kind of guy who will just walk up to someone and kill them in cold blood. What would he do instead?
5. Post something whiny on my LJ about the plot not coming together. At which point I get an idea about bringing the plot together, and the post becomes moot.
6. Realize that the story I originally intended to come in at 5,000 words is probably going to be twice as long. Tear my hair out some more. I'm getting a bald spot. Hey, booze!
7. Realize my villain has no motivation, other than He's an Abusive Bastard. This works in real life. Fiction, not so much. Gah. More hair pulling. More booze, less mixer.
8. Realize that I don't actually WANT my protag to kill my villain and thus sully himself. Figure out a workaround for THAT, which involves manipulating someone ELSE into killing the guy, who really does need killing. I'LL DO THAT. Drinking the booze directly from the bottle now.
9. Roar to a conclusion. Realize that I put a loaded werewolf on the mantle in Act One and then DIDN'T have him go fangs and fur in Act Three. This is a problem. But, hey, I have an "end."
10. Realize that the story is irretrievably broken. Cry. Drink some more. Whine to my Writing Buddy, who offers me a very nifty solution! HOPE IS RENEWED.
11. Dive into the second draft.
*reads that over* Man, it's like making sausage. You really don't want to know.
Process? I'm supposed to have a process?
In other news, I read hitman!Ben to the Hubby yesterday, and he still thinks there's something missing but can't put his finger on it. And I tend to agree with him, but can't put my finger on it either...
Oh, wait. There it is. Maybe. I've got about 50 words to play with here. Let's see if I can pull it off in less than that.
And I answer:
1. Remind myself that the first draft is allowed to suck. Nay, is GOING to suck.
2. Attempt to come up with a pithy first line to get the writerly juices flowing. Figure out what the opening scene needs to do.
3. Tear my hair out as my characters (a) refuse to cut to the chase, and then (b) refuse to do what I need them to do for my PLOT. Such as it is at this stage. Outline? What outline?
4. Work around that. Okay, my protag is not the kind of guy who will just walk up to someone and kill them in cold blood. What would he do instead?
5. Post something whiny on my LJ about the plot not coming together. At which point I get an idea about bringing the plot together, and the post becomes moot.
6. Realize that the story I originally intended to come in at 5,000 words is probably going to be twice as long. Tear my hair out some more. I'm getting a bald spot. Hey, booze!
7. Realize my villain has no motivation, other than He's an Abusive Bastard. This works in real life. Fiction, not so much. Gah. More hair pulling. More booze, less mixer.
8. Realize that I don't actually WANT my protag to kill my villain and thus sully himself. Figure out a workaround for THAT, which involves manipulating someone ELSE into killing the guy, who really does need killing. I'LL DO THAT. Drinking the booze directly from the bottle now.
9. Roar to a conclusion. Realize that I put a loaded werewolf on the mantle in Act One and then DIDN'T have him go fangs and fur in Act Three. This is a problem. But, hey, I have an "end."
10. Realize that the story is irretrievably broken. Cry. Drink some more. Whine to my Writing Buddy, who offers me a very nifty solution! HOPE IS RENEWED.
11. Dive into the second draft.
*reads that over* Man, it's like making sausage. You really don't want to know.
Process? I'm supposed to have a process?
In other news, I read hitman!Ben to the Hubby yesterday, and he still thinks there's something missing but can't put his finger on it. And I tend to agree with him, but can't put my finger on it either...
Oh, wait. There it is. Maybe. I've got about 50 words to play with here. Let's see if I can pull it off in less than that.