The Writing Process

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

Nice process Slackbot, thanks for sharing that example with us. I do the outline thing in my notebook quite a bit. The only problem is that sometimes I get so caught up in writing the outline that I never actually get around to writing the story.I keep feeling as if there's a happy medium in there somewhere. I don't want to be so focused on the outline that the story doesn't get written. Because sometimes writing the story gives me enough momentum to get through a block that I come across in the outline. But at the same time it's hard to write a story that I don't know the ending to

 

[Puckrox]

When I write, I tend to jump around in the plot and write whichever part of the story I'm most interested by at the time. I usually try to get the whole story mapped out before I start, but I'm always open to changes as I go along. Sometimes your characters just want to change all of a sudden, and your only option is to just go with it!

If deeply inspired, I can write in almost any setting, be it Greyhound bus, during class (this one happens quite often), at friend's houses, in my school's library, in my room, etc. My ideal setting though? The Starbucks downtown. I know it's a bit of a cliche to "go to Starbucks and work on your writing", but I just really like the atmosphere there. I like having people around me, but who aren't going to bother me during my writing (well, not true, I've been bothered before, which usually turns me into a grouch). I'll usually put in headphones and listen to instrumental music while I write (like The King's Speech or LotR soundtracks). I write primarily in my laptop, and I've found that when I write I do so at home I get much more distracted my facebook/tumblr/the interwebz, whereas when I go out to write I feel like I have a much greater sense of productivity.

 

[charlietheowl]

These are all some great ideas and posts here. I've really been pushing myself to write more lately because it's been forever since I actually finished something. I came up with an idea for a fraggle fic last night when I was at a friend's house, and would love nothing more than to spend my afternoon batting around ideas and outlining, but unfortunately academic writing comes calling.

Writing about fraggles > writing about censorship calls on the book "the perks of being a wallflower" for my young adult literature class

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

These are all some great ideas and posts here. I've really been pushing myself to write more lately because it's been forever since I actually finished something. I came up with an idea for a fraggle fic last night when I was at a friend's house, and would love nothing more than to spend my afternoon batting around ideas and outlining, but unfortunately academic writing comes calling.

Writing about fraggles > writing about censorship calls on the book "the perks of being a wallflower" for my young adult literature class

I am totally with you there. High school made me miss book reports in middle school (which is somethign I neve rthought I'd miss) because in middle school I could at least pick the book. If its a book I like I can write about in non stop until you want me to shut up about the stupid thing. But if someone makes me read the book and then MAKES me write something about it, it's like pulling teeth trying to get me to do it.

I hope you do get some time to write your fraggle fic Charlie

 

[Puckrox]

Oh! Also!

A small group of friends and I (just eight of us all together) started a writing group! How it works is two or three of us share some writing every Sunday. We send it out a few days in advanced, then we get together and reread the pieces, and then we receive critique. This is great. We get both positive critique and comments on what needs to be fixed/worked on. If you have any friends that like to write, I strongly recommend this! It'll really help your work grow!

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

That's an aweseom idea Puckrox, glad you found a group to do it with.

 

[charlietheowl]

I am totally with you there. High school made me miss book reports in middle school (which is somethign I neve rthought I'd miss) because in middle school I could at least pick the book. If its a book I like I can write about in non stop until you want me to shut up about the stupid thing. But if someone makes me read the book and then MAKES me write something about it, it's like pulling teeth trying to get me to do it.

I hope you do get some time to write your fraggle fic Charlie

Thanks! I've been slogging along on this paper off and on all day and I have like four pages done. Most of the time I don't mind writing papers (I'm an English major after all) but I just plain left this one to pretty much the last minute. I told myself if I can get to four and a half to five pages done tonight then I can work on the fraggle fic before I go to bed.

 

[charlietheowl]

Hate to end up bumping myself here, but I've been doing a lot of writing lately on a small project over the past two days (seven chapters in a day and a half out of a planned ten or eleven), and the story is serving as a way to process a lot of feelings I've had over the past year or so, and it's been painful to write at times but cathartic as well. Does anybody find themselves writing for cathartic or theraputic purposes on here, and does anybody find that writing done under those circumstances can actually hold up when it's removed from the emotional heat of the moment?

 

[bazooka_beak]

Several years ago, when I was in high school and college, I used to plan out stories I wanted to write in notebooks and notepads. Usually I would just write out random paragraphs and events I wanted to happen. These days I do most of my writing on my computer. It's easier on my fingers and I can fix mistakes quickly Strangely, I don't like to use Word, except when I am proofreading. I prefer text boxes! For some reason they help me think.

I also like to listen to New Age, Instrumental and Classical music.

 

[newsmanfan]

Hate to end up bumping myself here, but I've been doing a lot of writing lately on a small project over the past two days (seven chapters in a day and a half out of a planned ten or eleven), and the story is serving as a way to process a lot of feelings I've had over the past year or so, and it's been painful to write at times but cathartic as well. Does anybody find themselves writing for cathartic or theraputic purposes on here, and does anybody find that writing done under those circumstances can actually hold up when it's removed from the emotional heat of the moment?

I've tried that...and it was AWFUL. Not the process, which can be good for the soul, but the finished work...well. I shred a lot.

But putting small bits of ourselves in our work is natural, I think, or at least ought to be. That old cliche of "write what you know" is very true when it comes to emotional experience and maturity, and I've found the best stories about relationships, good or bad, love or family or whatever, tend to come from the writer who knows what the H they're talking about! So yeah, putting it all in is good. But I personally have never had any success in writing good fic for the purpose of working out stuff that bothered me. Eh...to each their own.
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