My impression, after years of hearing writers talk about how they work on shows like "Fresh Air," etc., is that it's just amazingly, amazingly various. Whatever's one person's must-do method will be anathema to the next person, who will have a completely different must-do method. It's kind of like the variety of religions out there. At first it made me nervous, if I'd hear someone swearing by a method of writing or a way of approaching writing that was totally alien, but now I just shrug it off. There are lots and lots of ways of creating a story.
I have to go back to sartorias's blog and read comments over there :-)
Yes, I think this is true. It's wonderful to get that confirmation and to have so many fine writers on LJ and elsewhere who are willing to talk about what works for them, without any hint that it's the only way.
I may be completely wrong here, but I do wonder if the increase in the number of writers who write more intuitively is due to SFF becoming more "literary"? Compared to the Golden Age stuff where plot and ideas were king, readers now expect much more in the way of depth of characterisation and a more organic feel to the story. We don't want pawns pushed around the by the author to suit the plot. (Not that all plotted-in-advance books are like that, by any means. Depth and subtlety can be added as the novel is written or during the revision stage.)
From my limited exposure to lit fic writers, I would guess that far more of them are intuitive, write-to-discover the story writers than do-a-plot-outline-in-advance ones.
That's a very interesting observation. I'm not sure how the litfic crowd figures into all this, since most of the writers I have discussed this with, either in person or online, are genre writers. I don't recall ever discussing this particular issue with any of the litfic people I've met. Food for thought, anyway. Thanks.
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I have to go back to sartorias's blog and read comments over there :-)
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From my limited exposure to lit fic writers, I would guess that far more of them are intuitive, write-to-discover the story writers than do-a-plot-outline-in-advance ones.
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