Ever happen to you?

[Weaver Atropos]

Yeah. That actually gives the entire thing a pretty cool effect. And, speaking from experience, sometimes you don't really need a spectacular beginning to hook in an audience. So long as you have a promising plot and intriguing foreshadowing, a lot of people are bound to stick around.

[Chibi-sitter]

Since you have a middle and ending... ever try starting your story from the middle or "end" and turning the beginning into a later part of the story?

:razz: THANX!
I feel dumb not thinking that myself (in 4 years that hadn't crossed my mind)

*hugs* You are the bestl!!!!!!!!!!

[Sovereign of Silence]

same thing here i have cary ideas for a story i wanna write but i can come up with the beginning and some middle but not the end. the end i'm blank and also sometimes i get a idea for this one part then i get another idea for the same part then i dunno which to write n' then i get frustrated then sad n' just put it off

[Ashi Halfangel]

Oh my god...I know exactly what you're going through. Problem is, I really dont plan ahead with a basic outline or summaries for my chapters. If I did, it would probably help me a bit. I always know what I want in the middle and end of the chapter, yet the beginning is very hard for me. You have to have a ending that really grabs people, ya know? I always felt my beginnings suck. I usually start the beginning of my stories with a dream or flashback. Sometimes I feel that when I write those beginnings that it's a little over done. *embarrassed giggle*

[akari kou]

It may sound like a lot of awkward work, but creating and keeping a working sheet is the best way to keep your story in check.

Before you even start writing, you should go and determine the basic 'parameters' of your story such as pairing, setting, time frame, perspective, main and side plots and the characters you want or don't want to appear.

After that, you do what I call 'snippeting': jot down sentences, scenes, ideas or words you want to use. From all these snippets you start to puzzle together a coherent storyline. Try to keep in mind the principle of reaction and counter-reaction.

Example: You just invented an absolutely spellbinding fighting scene. Your hero is battling against his nemesis and kills him/her with a stunning new move.

Solution: You can picture the fight scene perfectly in your mind. But how to start? Well, imagine your hero. How did he get into the situation? If he wasn't already there, he will have to:
1. be notified that his arch-enemy turned up ('Your highness, we were notified of a rebellion amongst the villagers, and we reckon it to be a work of our enemies of Doom'),
2. be transported to the battlefield (''Oh my god, someone stole a horse right out of the locked stables!'),
3. have a reason for wanting to fight his arch-enemy right then, right there ('You a**hole, how dare you kidnap my current love interest!' 'Mwahahahaaar, fight me or she will die!!!"),
4. have learned or figured out the new move ('Entrust yourself to the force, my padawan...'),
5. have passed the usual pleasanteries that usually precede a fight ('*?&1' "... er... excuse me, what di you just say? ah, nevermind, I#ll just stab you, all right?')
6. a smooth transition to the next task ('My Lord, now that you so bravely killed your enemy, may I ask how you were planning to get back home with your spacecraft destroyed?' "GULP")

A good working sheet can always help you find your way back into your story. It may be a lot of work at first but it pays!

Hope that helps, akari


:razz:

[melrose_stormhaven]

Ahahahaha! I do the same thing when I write stuff. XD

[Omnicat]

*looks as akari kou's post* ...that would kill my stories.

A work sheet is all fine and well, but if I can't get it right the 'natural' way - in my head and while writing - it's not worth being written for me. I don't want a smooth running machine, I want an organism. It's got to come from the heart, and that can't be orchestrated. But that's just me. Never mind me.

This, for example:

Before you even start writing, you should go and determine the basic 'parameters' of your story such as pairing, setting, time frame, perspective, main and side plots and the characters you want or don't want to appear.

is something I don't do, ever. I start out with the basic idea, be it a title, a striking sentence, an event, whatever, and I elaborate from that as I write. When I've got the first impression across, I start looking for surroundings, background, sidestories, which are usually already there when I finishthe first draft of a scene. When I'm satisfied with a scene, I move on to the next, and if things don't match after that, I go back to change it. I add subtle hints of what is to come or what happened before, or I change the environment an action is set in, or erase the appearance of a certain character and find another way to get his message in the scene across. That's my way of ensuring continuity, and it works really well for me.

The 'snippeting', as akari calls it, is basically what sparks my entire story. After that, all I have to do is expand it. Hm, I feel like I'm overreacting, that there isn't that much of a difference at all...
Writing, to me, is like weaving a web, not like building a framework. Though I doubt this metaphor will help much when you don't have access to my mind. :-?

My main problem is timing and opportunity. I've got... I can't bother to count, but there's a fifteen page WP file on my computer filled with story outlines of two to five sentences, and I scribble plots everywhere. And as much as I'd like to, I can't write all those plot bunnies out!

Either I don't have the time, or I don't have the necessary inspiration, or my mood spoils everything.

When I'm the right kind of sleepy or really relaxed, it's easy - an idea will just flow out of my pen, nine times out of ten the exact way I want it, no future revision needed at all. When I'm stressed or distracted - which happens far more often - I have to go back often, scratch things, add things in the margins, swap paragraphs around, all the things that make hand-written drafts a nightmare to type out. :evil: This is especially bothersome when I've got several ideas in the front of my mind at the same time.

The other problem is lack of inspiration... the times my usual method doesn't work. It simply means the core of the story isn't strong enough. No matter how much I try to build around it at those occasions, I've found that I don't reach any satisfactory results when I push it. That's why I don't like "construction work".

Not to say I don't write things like guidelines for a conversation every now and then - I do, when I'm short of time to go immediately into the desired depth. The problem is, that whenever I get idea's after I've jotted down a script version of a scene, it all goes to waste again! And what feels right always takes precedent over everything else, for me.


So, okay, what did I want to say with this post... well, that there are lots of different ways to go about writing, and that no-one should feel obliged to use one or other way when it doesn't work perfectly with their minds. But I'm only a beginner, my longest story so far was a scant 8000 words, so in a year or so I'll probably burn up in shame when I read this stuff back.

[Omnicat]

*looks as akari kou's post* ...that would kill my stories.

A work sheet is all fine and well, but if I can't get it right the 'natural' way - in my head and while writing - it's not worth being written for me. I don't want a smooth running machine, I want an organism. It's got to come from the heart, and that can't be orchestrated. But that's just me. Never mind me.

This, for example:

Before you even start writing, you should go and determine the basic 'parameters' of your story such as pairing, setting, time frame, perspective, main and side plots and the characters you want or don't want to appear.

is something I don't do, ever. I start out with the basic idea, be it a title, a striking sentence, an event, whatever, and I elaborate from that as I write. When I've got the first impression across, I start looking for surroundings, background, sidestories, which are usually already there when I finishthe first draft of a scene. When I'm satisfied with a scene, I move on to the next, and if things don't match after that, I go back to change it. I add subtle hints of what is to come or what happened before, or I change the environment an action is set in, or erase the appearance of a certain character and find another way to get his message in the scene across. That's my way of ensuring continuity, and it works really well for me.

The 'snippeting', as akari calls it, is basically what sparks my entire story. After that, all I have to do is expand it. Hm, I feel like I'm overreacting, that there isn't that much of a difference at all...
Writing, to me, is like weaving a web, not like building a framework. Though I doubt this metaphor will help much when you don't have access to my mind. :-?

My main problem is timing and opportunity. I've got... I can't bother to count, but there's a fifteen page WP file on my computer filled with story outlines of two to five sentences, and I scribble plots everywhere. And as much as I'd like to, I can't write all those plot bunnies out!

Either I don't have the time, or I don't have the necessary inspiration, or my mood spoils everything.

When I'm the right kind of sleepy or really relaxed, it's easy - an idea will just flow out of my pen, nine times out of ten the exact way I want it, no future revision needed at all. When I'm stressed or distracted - which happens far more often - I have to go back often, scratch things, add things in the margins, swap paragraphs around, all the things that make hand-written drafts a nightmare to type out. :evil: This is especially bothersome when I've got several ideas in the front of my mind at the same time.

The other problem is lack of inspiration... the times my usual method doesn't work. It simply means the core of the story isn't strong enough. No matter how much I try to build around it at those occasions, I've found that I don't reach any satisfactory results when I push it. That's why I don't like "construction work".

Not to say I don't write things like guidelines for a conversation every now and then - I do, when I'm short of time to go immediately into the desired depth. The problem is, that whenever I get idea's after I've jotted down a script version of a scene, it all goes to waste again! And what feels right always takes precedent over everything else, for me.


So, okay, what did I want to say with this post... well, that there are lots of different ways to go about writing, and that no-one should feel obliged to use one or other way when it doesn't work perfectly with their minds. But I'm only a beginner, my longest story so far was a scant 8000 words, so in a year or so I'll probably burn up in shame when I read this stuff back.

[Omnicat]

Add to that that I have a severe aversion to rules and schematics... it's the same with my grammar; I can create the most complex sentence strucures, but if you ask me some of the most basic rules of grammar... I'm completely lost.