A really stupid writing idea
A certain number of my stories peter out because I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I can't remember what interested me about the story, I don't know what someone is trying to achieve, whatever. You often get three pages of ostensibly witty banter but nothing happening, let alone text that fulfills two or three or four purposes (such as "reveals setting; reveals character goals; reveals character reaction to setbacks" and so forth).
And outlining as I've tried it just doesn't work for me. There is probably a kind of outlining that would work, but I'm a headlights at night kind of writer, it seems. I need to know where I'm headed eventually (though I might change my mind), and something about the premise or setting, and the rest is up for grabs.
So it only took me decades to come to this idea: Write it down.
I have a legal copy of Word, so I'm using Word technology for this, but see if you can do it in your word processor of choice.[1]
At the top, under the story title (which might well be "I Can't Think Of One" or "The One With The Toilet"), are a couple of lines (in a table but only because I love tables):
At the start of a scene, I have a list of these things:
Does this make me write faster? A bit. I still get sidetracked on some things: researching can often reveal things that make everything up to that point invalid, and I can still have a total failure of imagination and end up twiddling my thumbs...but a scene without a goal is a warning to me to look at it afterward quite closely. It means that I was probably spinning my wheels for much of it.
[1] Yes, I have separate templates for stories and for story drafts. Also macros and building blocks. Yes, I do a lot of cat-vacuuming.
Posted on DreamWidth at http://doc-lemming.dreamwidth.org/204419.html. Try this link to reply over there.
And outlining as I've tried it just doesn't work for me. There is probably a kind of outlining that would work, but I'm a headlights at night kind of writer, it seems. I need to know where I'm headed eventually (though I might change my mind), and something about the premise or setting, and the rest is up for grabs.
So it only took me decades to come to this idea: Write it down.
I have a legal copy of Word, so I'm using Word technology for this, but see if you can do it in your word processor of choice.[1]
At the top, under the story title (which might well be "I Can't Think Of One" or "The One With The Toilet"), are a couple of lines (in a table but only because I love tables):
- Premise: This is the basic idea and a note about what I think is fun about this story. If there isn't anything fun, this should not be written.
- Setting: When, where, why, and so on. Sometimes it's really short; sometimes it's a pointer to a place with more information. Might include a note about genre if I think that's not obvious.
- Conflict: What's the basic conflict here?
- Characters: Sometimes it's a name, sometimes it's a description, sometimes it's a story purpose, sometimes it's a goal. By the end of draft one, major characters should be listed.
At the start of a scene, I have a list of these things:
- Scene Setting: Where, when, how. Fluid in rewrites, but gives me an idea.
- Characters: Names of the main characters in the scene (could be the setting as a character). Beside each character (in separate columns, oddly enough, because-as I said-I love tables) is a Scene Goal and a Scene Obstacle. What the character wants in this scene, why they can't have it.
- Prerequisites: I only fill this in after the draft is done. Does this scene require there to be anything in a particular form earlier on? I'm using a very specific kind of prerequisite here: the way I write, everything depends on everything else, but what actually has to be there to make something work? This could be foreshadowing (oh, I just realized there's a betrayal; make sure that's foreshadowed) or there has to be a Chekovian gun on the mantlepiece. I use a separate revision pass to try and eliminate the crap, and some day I'll talk about that. (When I do it better.)
Does this make me write faster? A bit. I still get sidetracked on some things: researching can often reveal things that make everything up to that point invalid, and I can still have a total failure of imagination and end up twiddling my thumbs...but a scene without a goal is a warning to me to look at it afterward quite closely. It means that I was probably spinning my wheels for much of it.
[1] Yes, I have separate templates for stories and for story drafts. Also macros and building blocks. Yes, I do a lot of cat-vacuuming.
Posted on DreamWidth at http://doc-lemming.dreamwidth.org/204419.html. Try this link to reply over there.