Opinions/Fanfiction: Entry 2
That’s right, kids! It’s time for another Opinions/Fanfiction.
Today’s question comes from http://www.twitter.com/Geoff_Bee
“Do you plan your stories out in advance or make them up as you go along? Is one way better than the other?”
Well.
Ugh.
Isn’t that just the question every writer dreads? There are so many different approaches to writing, and there are so many different schools of thought towards each one. When you’re taught how to write, they always start you off at the very, very basic point, saying a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
The beginning, in which you are introduced to the characters, the middle, in which a problem arises, and the end, in which everything is resolved. Or not, depending on your writing style. And, as a promising young thing with hope in your eyes and no concept of a creative process, you are encouraged to work through your story laterally, in that order. I don’t, personally, because my stories aren’t ladders.
A good story shouldn’t be a straight line. A good story should look like a line art drawing of an onion, with loads of individual arcs spreading away from the start point, finding their own space, and tapering back in at the end. As for planning, that depends entirely on which approach you’re more comfortable with. Some people like to plan out every single chapter, or scene or whatever before they even open up a word document. Some people go in with a good starting line and nothing but passion.
I can see the benefits and drawbacks to both. If you have no plan at all, you tend to get over-saturated with ideas, and then you forget whether something was meant to be important or not. In contrast, if you plan out every last little detail before you write, I find it sounds far too scripted, not to mention the fact that it’s only a very inexperienced writer who things they can tell their characters what to do. Most of the time, your opinions on what a character does are taken into consideration, but it’s the character who can turn around and say “screw you guys, I’m hopping the next plot device out of here”.
I tend to approach my stories somewhere between the two extremes. I’ll usually come up with the premise (romantic story, an older stand up comic meets a younger law student), then I’ll work on the characterisation. Actually, in writing fanfiction, these two are reversed. I pick the character I want to write about, and then I find the premise. Then I’ll let the idea roll around my head for a week or so, thinking up significant moments that these characters could perform that I would want to see in a story. These will usually be the first time certain characters meet, their arguments, or even just odd little jokes. Coming up with these moments helps me form a logical progression of plot; “I want to include this argument scene. But why are they arguing? Because he cheated. So they’re already a couple at that point. So that needs to be a dramatic moment then”. Then I’ll sit in front of my laptop for a half hour, trying to come up with a good opening line.
Once I’ve started, it’s easy. As soon as I’ve found my opening line, I can start moving all of my characters towards the first moment in my rough approximation of a plot. This has benefits, in that while I’m navigating them, my characters can come up with things which will give me new ideas for significant events or themes to include, and so the rest of the plot becomes slightly sharper as I know more and more how I want it all to end.
The one drawback of writing this way is that, especially with fanfiction where each chapter is published online as soon as it’s been written and spell-checked, the end chapters are a lot more detailed and considered than the beginning ones, and I have to resist the urge to change it all. Other than that, I love letting my characters lead the way, because I always feel it’s much easier to let them loose and note down what happens than it is to try and force them to behave one way or another. It helps that my mind runs so that I’m always thinking a chapter or so ahead of what I’m writing, because anything a character mentions in the chapter I’m on can be catalogued so it can come back and haunt them later on. But, you understand, this is just me. If you want to write, I’d say write however you find most comfortable. There’s no “better” or “worse” way, so long as the story gets written and no one gets maimed or killed in the process.”
Today’s question comes from http://www.twitter.com/Geoff_Bee
“Do you plan your stories out in advance or make them up as you go along? Is one way better than the other?”
Well.
Ugh.
Isn’t that just the question every writer dreads? There are so many different approaches to writing, and there are so many different schools of thought towards each one. When you’re taught how to write, they always start you off at the very, very basic point, saying a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
The beginning, in which you are introduced to the characters, the middle, in which a problem arises, and the end, in which everything is resolved. Or not, depending on your writing style. And, as a promising young thing with hope in your eyes and no concept of a creative process, you are encouraged to work through your story laterally, in that order. I don’t, personally, because my stories aren’t ladders.
A good story shouldn’t be a straight line. A good story should look like a line art drawing of an onion, with loads of individual arcs spreading away from the start point, finding their own space, and tapering back in at the end. As for planning, that depends entirely on which approach you’re more comfortable with. Some people like to plan out every single chapter, or scene or whatever before they even open up a word document. Some people go in with a good starting line and nothing but passion.
I can see the benefits and drawbacks to both. If you have no plan at all, you tend to get over-saturated with ideas, and then you forget whether something was meant to be important or not. In contrast, if you plan out every last little detail before you write, I find it sounds far too scripted, not to mention the fact that it’s only a very inexperienced writer who things they can tell their characters what to do. Most of the time, your opinions on what a character does are taken into consideration, but it’s the character who can turn around and say “screw you guys, I’m hopping the next plot device out of here”.
I tend to approach my stories somewhere between the two extremes. I’ll usually come up with the premise (romantic story, an older stand up comic meets a younger law student), then I’ll work on the characterisation. Actually, in writing fanfiction, these two are reversed. I pick the character I want to write about, and then I find the premise. Then I’ll let the idea roll around my head for a week or so, thinking up significant moments that these characters could perform that I would want to see in a story. These will usually be the first time certain characters meet, their arguments, or even just odd little jokes. Coming up with these moments helps me form a logical progression of plot; “I want to include this argument scene. But why are they arguing? Because he cheated. So they’re already a couple at that point. So that needs to be a dramatic moment then”. Then I’ll sit in front of my laptop for a half hour, trying to come up with a good opening line.
Once I’ve started, it’s easy. As soon as I’ve found my opening line, I can start moving all of my characters towards the first moment in my rough approximation of a plot. This has benefits, in that while I’m navigating them, my characters can come up with things which will give me new ideas for significant events or themes to include, and so the rest of the plot becomes slightly sharper as I know more and more how I want it all to end.
The one drawback of writing this way is that, especially with fanfiction where each chapter is published online as soon as it’s been written and spell-checked, the end chapters are a lot more detailed and considered than the beginning ones, and I have to resist the urge to change it all. Other than that, I love letting my characters lead the way, because I always feel it’s much easier to let them loose and note down what happens than it is to try and force them to behave one way or another. It helps that my mind runs so that I’m always thinking a chapter or so ahead of what I’m writing, because anything a character mentions in the chapter I’m on can be catalogued so it can come back and haunt them later on. But, you understand, this is just me. If you want to write, I’d say write however you find most comfortable. There’s no “better” or “worse” way, so long as the story gets written and no one gets maimed or killed in the process.”