Writing - Planning or Stream of Consciousness

[tessarin]

Well real life and a general fatigue has slowed down my writing a fair bit recently. However, that slow down has proved useful in another way. It's forced me to reappraise whether I am over planning my fics. On some days I have struggled to write portions and yet on other days when inspiration has hit me and I have disregarded my plan, I have been

Comments

[speakr2customrs]

I tend to write a summary, a very loose outline of the story as a whole, and a more detailed treatment of a few points along the way. Almost always I write the very last line first; for instance, over two years ago I wrote the last line of 'Tabula Avatar': Buffy lowered her sword and smiled behind her visor. "You can call me 'Light of Heaven'." It will probably be another two years, and perhaps another quarter of a million words or more, before that last line is reached but I'm still on course.

I usually outline only content and plot, unless the character arc is central to the plot (as it is in 'Tabula Avatar'). I don't do metaphors.

I don't stick rigidly to the plan, and I modify it when problems crop up, but I can get derailed. In 'Sunnydale Passions' I'd based part of the plot upon an anatomical peculiarity of the kangaroo. When I found out that my memory had played me false, and that the peculiarity in question exists in wallabies but not kangaroos, that brought the whole thing to a grinding halt. With 'Life, Resumed' I hit a block when the Wombat said that she thought my long-planned last line was silly. I've been trying to modify it for months but when the road-block turns out to be caused by the road going to the wrong place it's a little hard to rectify the problem.

I do basic character bios, RPG style, for original characters and drastically-modified canon characters. Sometimes I do them in text but sometimes they exist only in my head. I modify them as I go along if necessary. If a character, or specific version of a canon character, recurs in another fic I don't bother redoing the bio.

[tessarin]

Thanks. Interesting your take on the last line thing. I generally have starting scenes and the end scene playing like a little sketch in my mind. Generally this occurs during the initial inspiration phase often quite a while before I put a plan down. But not the last line.

'I've been trying to modify it for months but when the road-block turns out to be caused by the road going to the wrong place it's a little hard to rectify the problem.'

That was sort of the problem I was having that prompted. The end scene fitted but the participants and their motivations were off.

Do you find the bios help with larger cast sizes?