creative process

[butterfly]

So, I was talking to my beta (is the term still 'beta' if the consultation takes place before the rough draft is finished?) during the process of writing my Natasha/Tony story and she mentioned that she writes linearly -- starts at the beginning of the story and writes until she's reached the end

Comments

[goseaward]

Vidding is super nonlinear for me: I first put in all the clips I'm sure about, then go through the source material chronologically and pull out stuff I think would be useful, then assemble in a super rough draft, then try to get the transitions correctly aligned. (I guess not always true--I'm working on one now where I worked out the clip lengths and transitions with solid-color fills because the music track and the singer aren't well aligned and I knew if I tried to do it with clips I'd fuck it up.)

Writing...I usually go story order unless I'm really stuck (and skip a scene) or unless a good line/moment occurs to me (and write it down so I don't forget). Mostly, though, I work out the bulk of the story as I go along so I really can't work ahead. Long fics have more of the out-of-order stuff than short because about 1/3 of the way through the story I usually outline the rest, which makes it easier.

[butterfly]

Thanks for responding. ♥

Vidding is super nonlinear for me: I first put in all the clips I'm sure about, then go through the source material chronologically and pull out stuff I think would be useful, then assemble in a super rough draft, then try to get the transitions correctly aligned. (I guess not always true--I'm working on one now where I worked out the clip lengths and transitions with solid-color fills because the music track and the singer aren't well aligned and I knew if I tried to do it with clips I'd fuck it up.)

Yeah, that basic process sounds similar to what I do as well.

Writing...I usually go story order unless I'm really stuck (and skip a scene) or unless a good line/moment occurs to me (and write it down so I don't forget). Mostly, though, I work out the bulk of the story as I go along so I really can't work ahead. Long fics have more of the out-of-order stuff than short because about 1/3 of the way through the story I usually outline the rest, which makes it easier.Do you find that you know how long a story will

[goseaward]

Do you find that you know how long a story will be when you first start it?

To some extent. At least, I usually know a rough "category"--so, like, I'll know if it'll be closer to 1k or 5k, or closer to 10k or 20k if it's longer. The longest thing I've written was 27k, though.

I have a friend who is a master at this, though--I remember when she was about 15k into a story telling me it would be 46k, and it was almost exactly 46k. o.O But she writes lots of long plotty fics, so she's good at figuring out how much room she'll need.

[butterfly]

I have a friend who is a master at this, though--I remember when she was about 15k into a story telling me it would be 46k, and it was almost exactly 46k. o.O But she writes lots of long plotty fics, so she's good at figuring out how much room she'll need.

That's impressive!

[1001cranes]

I write super non-linearly. I tend to write the ending first, then decide how it's going to start, and then skip back and forth and in-between to hit all the high points. I find writing all the in-between bits to be SUPER tedious. I think I'm terrible with build up? IDEK.

I've only ever really messed around with vidding, and that was more recently, so I can only assume this hasn't really had an effect on my writing. My sister jokes that I'm part Time Lord - chronological order just doesn't make SENSE to me. Much more fun to skip around!

[butterfly]

Oo, starting with the ending first. That's very interesting.

The skipping around is really working for me when it comes to working subplots in -- I realize in the last half of the story that I'm going to be using a particular character and enough of the earlier part of the story is unwritten that putting the character in doesn't involve much re-writing.

[jedinic]

There have been times when I wrote the ending first. Then discovered that since I had written the 'big reveal' or the 'payoff', I had very little desire to write the rest of the story.

So I didn't.

Which meant that I never completed anything, so now, I make myself write the entire story first and the fun bit, the big reveal, right at the end.

[1001cranes]

I think I might start there because I am so picky about endings? Books, movies, whatever - if I think the ending is subpar, it can actually ruin the whole story for me. I am super critical about them. So if I don't have a good ending, as far as I'm concerned, I don't have a story!

[butterfly]

Most of the stories I write aren't themselves non-linear. I think the closest I've come in an story that I've posted is just having flashbacks (I have a unfinished Mark from Rent story that was completely non-linear).

It's really neat to find out all the different ways people create.

[vanimy]

Be it music vids (even though I haven't made one in ages) or fics I do everything linearly. I do have some later scenes in my head and I know how they're going to play out but I don't write them down. The rare times I did it some things had changed along the way and I had to rewrite those scenes anyway. So I stick with linear stuff.

[butterfly]

See, I would be afraid that I would forget my ideas for later scenes! I wonder if my fear of my own bad memory is a factor for me in this.

The rare times I did it some things had changed along the way and I had to rewrite those scenes anyway.

I definitely do a lot of rewriting when it comes to those original scenes but for me this is a bit of a feature rather than being a bug. I'm able to get closer and closer to the core of the scene each time I re-write.

[spikedluv]

Linear! Though I frequently think ahead and build scenes in my head long before I get there in the writing process. It's such a relief when I can finally write something down that I've been imagining for ages. *g*

[butterfly]

Interesting!

I would be afraid that I would forget my pre-imagined scenes if I didn't write them down. It makes me feel much more secure to write them down while they're still fresh and new in my head.