Books are never finished. They are merely abandoned.
Today, I bring to you something I'm sure nobody expected from me: a bit of writing meta. :-)
My usual writing method is very straightforward and methodical: I start at the beginning and keep writing until I get to the end.
It helps if I don't know too much about what happens along the way, but just let the story unfold as I write. This is because if I want to find out what happens next, I have a motive for writing; if I already know everything that happens, I tend to lose interest. For most stories, a certain amount of advance plotting eventually becomes unavoidable, but I try to keep it to the necessary minimum - a loose framework within which the characters and the story can unfold freely. Of course, this method isn't without its pitfalls, either, chief among them the danger of writing myself into a plot corner, getting stuck and losing motivation, and abandoning the story.*
In the past, I've deviated from the linear writing style only occasionally - to skip one scene that I was having particular trouble with or to write one scene out of sequence that popped into my head with particular vividness, and that I probably wouldn't be able to write as well later on.
In the past weeks, I've been writing a story completely beyond any semblance of linearity. Scenes pop into my head at random, from all over the story's timeline - I write them as they occur to me. And, for me, I wrote like a fiend, so clearly the alinear method has some things going for it. (The scenes have now stopped popping so energetically, although I one just came to me again and I hold out hope they will speed up again.)
It's very odd and unfamiliar… I have no real idea why this happened, and it throws up a host of problems that I'm unfamiliar with and never really wanted to get this well-acquainted with. Also, there is one problem that I know very well, one of the main reasons why I always stuck with the linear method in the first place: The incredibly bother of going back to fill in missing scenes that I am not inspired for and that I have already passed by, plot-wise.
This last week, I have tried to go back to the story's beginning and start filling in scenes. And - ugh. I know what needs to happen, in general terms; this is all just character development, but right now I don't know how to clothe it in interesting scenes. I find myself uninspired. I just want to rush things, get past this and back to the *interesting* bits, and of course that kind of attitude gets me nowhere with the missing scenes in question.
/writing woes
So… Do any of you usually use the alinear writing method? How do you motivate and/or inspire yourselves when the time comes to go back to the beginning - or don't you need to? Do you have a different writing method altogether? Do you have any general tips and tricks on motivation and inspiration?
This is all related to the new quasi-fandom I mentioned in my previous post… I think that I will soon have to out myself completely here, in the hopes that maybe, just maybe I can interest some of you. :-)
But now for something completely different.
Have some Snape/Nazgûl slash: vulgarweed's "Black Is the Colour" reveals the secret of just where all of those villains shop for clothes anyway (Bram's of Carpathia: The Very Finest in Sinister Menswear, if you must know), what undead witch kings use as a pickup line, and many other things you will not want to miss.
* I've done this several times, once with a really long scifi novel that I still vaguely wish could be saved - but that I still have no idea *how* to save. (Besides which so much time has passed that I'd have to rewrite the entire thing anyway to adjust the main character - he's noticably from a different phase. *g*)
My usual writing method is very straightforward and methodical: I start at the beginning and keep writing until I get to the end.
It helps if I don't know too much about what happens along the way, but just let the story unfold as I write. This is because if I want to find out what happens next, I have a motive for writing; if I already know everything that happens, I tend to lose interest. For most stories, a certain amount of advance plotting eventually becomes unavoidable, but I try to keep it to the necessary minimum - a loose framework within which the characters and the story can unfold freely. Of course, this method isn't without its pitfalls, either, chief among them the danger of writing myself into a plot corner, getting stuck and losing motivation, and abandoning the story.*
In the past, I've deviated from the linear writing style only occasionally - to skip one scene that I was having particular trouble with or to write one scene out of sequence that popped into my head with particular vividness, and that I probably wouldn't be able to write as well later on.
In the past weeks, I've been writing a story completely beyond any semblance of linearity. Scenes pop into my head at random, from all over the story's timeline - I write them as they occur to me. And, for me, I wrote like a fiend, so clearly the alinear method has some things going for it. (The scenes have now stopped popping so energetically, although I one just came to me again and I hold out hope they will speed up again.)
It's very odd and unfamiliar… I have no real idea why this happened, and it throws up a host of problems that I'm unfamiliar with and never really wanted to get this well-acquainted with. Also, there is one problem that I know very well, one of the main reasons why I always stuck with the linear method in the first place: The incredibly bother of going back to fill in missing scenes that I am not inspired for and that I have already passed by, plot-wise.
This last week, I have tried to go back to the story's beginning and start filling in scenes. And - ugh. I know what needs to happen, in general terms; this is all just character development, but right now I don't know how to clothe it in interesting scenes. I find myself uninspired. I just want to rush things, get past this and back to the *interesting* bits, and of course that kind of attitude gets me nowhere with the missing scenes in question.
/writing woes
So… Do any of you usually use the alinear writing method? How do you motivate and/or inspire yourselves when the time comes to go back to the beginning - or don't you need to? Do you have a different writing method altogether? Do you have any general tips and tricks on motivation and inspiration?
This is all related to the new quasi-fandom I mentioned in my previous post… I think that I will soon have to out myself completely here, in the hopes that maybe, just maybe I can interest some of you. :-)
But now for something completely different.
Have some Snape/Nazgûl slash: vulgarweed's "Black Is the Colour" reveals the secret of just where all of those villains shop for clothes anyway (Bram's of Carpathia: The Very Finest in Sinister Menswear, if you must know), what undead witch kings use as a pickup line, and many other things you will not want to miss.
* I've done this several times, once with a really long scifi novel that I still vaguely wish could be saved - but that I still have no idea *how* to save. (Besides which so much time has passed that I'd have to rewrite the entire thing anyway to adjust the main character - he's noticably from a different phase. *g*)