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This one is not a how-to, but just a chance for discussion. (Reposted from my old brony blog.)
Most of the time my writing process goes like this:
1. Get idea of some kind.
2. Turn the idea over a bit. Discuss it with my husband or some of my friends.
3.Write a few words, maybe, if a scene I want in it comes really clear. Consider things about conflict, character development, etc. and hammer out where the idea needs to go to make a good story.
4. Lay down an outline, make a bunch of notes about various things that should happen. Write a little bit.
5. Constantly tweak the outline and talk about plot points with others to fine-tune them. Write some more.
6. Apply tweaks. Go back and change things a bit. Discuss the new version more if anyone happens to be around to do with. Write some more of it.
7. Eventually finish story.
And then I edit it, send it off to pre-readers, edit it some more, and post. Also, any two steps may have pauses ranging from days to years in between them.
But every now and then my process goes like this:
1. Get idea.
2. Idea immediately demands that I write it NOW, so I sit down and start writing with no idea where anything is going or why. Outlines form nebulously in my head. Plot points resolve themselves as I reach them. I hammer frantically at the keys until the thing that has burst into life in my head is all out on the page and it is finished.
It doesn't happen often. None of the stories I've written on FimFic so far were done that way. I had one of them attack me last night though, that will be posted eventually, (Note from present me: It was posted, and is up on AO3 as well, Honey Pie. This turned out to be the single story that got me the most attention on FimFiction, too. In general the ones that write themselves seem to be good/popular, though not always.) once I've filed a few of the rougher edges off of it. Mostly I write things the first way, the thoughtful way. But every now and then my muse, or my subconscious, or whatever, puts in a hand and the story pretty much writes itself.
What's your writing process? Do your stories ever write themselves?
Most of the time my writing process goes like this:
1. Get idea of some kind.
2. Turn the idea over a bit. Discuss it with my husband or some of my friends.
3.Write a few words, maybe, if a scene I want in it comes really clear. Consider things about conflict, character development, etc. and hammer out where the idea needs to go to make a good story.
4. Lay down an outline, make a bunch of notes about various things that should happen. Write a little bit.
5. Constantly tweak the outline and talk about plot points with others to fine-tune them. Write some more.
6. Apply tweaks. Go back and change things a bit. Discuss the new version more if anyone happens to be around to do with. Write some more of it.
7. Eventually finish story.
And then I edit it, send it off to pre-readers, edit it some more, and post. Also, any two steps may have pauses ranging from days to years in between them.
But every now and then my process goes like this:
1. Get idea.
2. Idea immediately demands that I write it NOW, so I sit down and start writing with no idea where anything is going or why. Outlines form nebulously in my head. Plot points resolve themselves as I reach them. I hammer frantically at the keys until the thing that has burst into life in my head is all out on the page and it is finished.
It doesn't happen often. None of the stories I've written on FimFic so far were done that way. I had one of them attack me last night though, that will be posted eventually, (Note from present me: It was posted, and is up on AO3 as well, Honey Pie. This turned out to be the single story that got me the most attention on FimFiction, too. In general the ones that write themselves seem to be good/popular, though not always.) once I've filed a few of the rougher edges off of it. Mostly I write things the first way, the thoughtful way. But every now and then my muse, or my subconscious, or whatever, puts in a hand and the story pretty much writes itself.
What's your writing process? Do your stories ever write themselves?