(no subject)

[severity_softly]

I've realize why I feel so stagnated on my SnuSa fic (Ha! I've written one scene that's getting binned), even though I have an idea that I like. I don't have an end in mind, and that makes it all feel so impermanent and pointless. *sigh* So, I was curious if you all work the same way my brain seems to want to work when writing, which is to start at the end and then patch little puzzle pieces together after that to make the story leading up to it.

[Poll #1059579]

ETA: I might add, now that I'm thinking about this, that just because I tend to start writing only when I have a strong end in mind, doesn't mean the first draft of that end doesn't ever change. The fic still has a mind of it's own. :)

Comments

[florahart]

I always start at the beginning. I am a ridiculously linear writer and if I try to write an end before I am there I get all hung up in making it happen (and get badly blocked). Which is weird because am the most NONlinear learner in the world.

I said I need a strong beginning, but really what I need is a clear image that is either the very beginning or near it, and a general direction. And I do mean general. If I try to lock in anything, fic go boom. So, instead of outlining, I just keep a running list of "stuff I want to get in there somewhere, or stuff I need to refer to again, or occasionally stuff I need to go back and wedge in an earlier reference to" at the end of the doc, and roll down and look at it (and add to it or remove any mischief that's already been managed) every once in a while.

:)

I also never know the title before I begin. Okay, not NEVER; the Snape/Neville "Shooting Pains" I started with the title. Heh.

[severity-softly.livejournal.com]

I actually just added an eta, because I got to thinking about the idea of "locking things in" like you said. I feel wishy washy about it all if I don't have an end, which I generally write first... but there have been many times where my ending has taken a (generally non-drastic) re-write after I got all the pieces together. :)

The idea of writing in a linear way baffles me. I lose interest with my own stories when I try to write chronologically. Maybe that's why my WIPs tend to get dusty. ;) I think I generally write the end first, then the beginning, and then random scenes in no particular order after that. :P

Hmm, I don't think I've ever titled anything first either. I have slapped a title on a few mid-writing, but it usually goes on last.

[a_belladonna]

When I write, I also prefer to make a handwritten first rough draft. I don't know why, but I can't sit down by the computer and just write the first draft on that. I find it much better to write with a pencil on paper. (Perhaps I'm just very oldfashioned?)

[innerslytherin]

I wanted ticky boxes instead of radials! I never start at the end, but I do sometimes start in the middle. Sometimes it's just an image that bites me hard and makes me start writing. I may think, "What would lead to this image?" or "What would happen after this image?" Sometimes it's a situation or scene that gets me started. That latter is the case with both my lupin_snape Resurrection Fest fic and a fic that I need to get betaed that is otherwise finished. LOL In the case of my pervy_werewolf Slightly Smutty Post DH fest fic, it is the former, an image of Teddy Lupin's hand outstretched to bring Remus back from the dead.

Now, in the case of my Snupin Santa...I am still fermenting. I have two very different options out of the several that I like, but I'm just sort of sitting on them until something triggers. (And until I finish the two fest fics).

With Redemption...I have no outline whatsoever. In fact I keep meaning to make a list of the various subplots, to make sure I don't drop any threads in the weaving. With my zine fic, I used my novel-plotting method of index cards to make sure I had everything in place. With Duellist, I did no plotting beforehand at all.

Redemption I'm writing chronologically. Zine fic and Duellist were both written in a hasty fashion, chronologically at first, but then with me going in and throwing in entire scenes or several scenes, before I was satisfied.

Then again, writing can also be a very organic thing for me. Kiss Kiss, Hex Hex, for instance, was written in a single sitting in a single night. So was Sweets for the Sweet, though it also fits into a larger fic I have had on the back burner for well over a year now.

Usually the only thing I know for sure about a fic's ending, when I start out, is that it's going to be happy. ^_~

So...more than you wanted to know? *grin*

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love thinking about this sort of thing. (And hearing about it from other people.) I'll tell you how I work on long stories because the short ones I usually just write from beginning to end (although sometimes I apply the long method to them too).

I tend to start with an idea rather than an image, because all my image-based stories turn out to be too thin to go anywhere. What I consider an "idea" is something on the order of a summary: "Snape is blackmailed by the Ministry into doing their dirty work and Harry helps him get free of it" or something along those lines.

As the idea percolates, certain key moments in the story become clear (these are often images) and usually I sketch a version of those first, just starting with the one that most interests me. Usually at some point in this early phase I write some version of the beginning. There are often critical conversations that the plot turns on that I write at this point too. Everything inevitably changes drastically as I write more and more of the story.

After I've accumulated a certain number of sketched scenes and have a good idea for the overall shape of the story, I get more specific and start making outlines to tie everything together. Often I'm in a different phase of the story depending on which section of it I'm working on. I just keep getting more specific and detailed, filling in the gaps, until the thing's done. And then I revise it. :)

Sometimes I write the end at a very early stage. That's only if the ending is one of those images or critical story moments that comes to me early on. With other stories, I only have the vaguest sense of where I'm going, and I only figure out what it's going to be once the story starts to come into focus.

Uh, hope that wasn't an unwelcome info dump. :)

[snegurochka_lee]

I need an opening line, or series of lines, or short scene. Or, as bare bones, a title. From there, I can jump around and generally know the themes I'm following, 'cuz they will have been stated in the opening lines. It all comes back together eventually through the editing. And I generally write sex scenes at the very beginning or the very end (of writing the story, that is), but gah, never in the actual order in which they appear. :)

I don't think I've ever had an ending in mind for a single story when I started writing. Endings come out of middles and beginnings, for me.

But, hey, you find out what works for you, and go with it. One thing you sure can't do with this whole process is force it. Good luck with SnuSa!

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

I am, alas, so rubbish at writing fic that there is no rhyme or reason to what I do. I find that I lack staying power so my greatest luck is with a fully fleshed out, but short idea, or one that is written in brief segments that has no complex plot or arc that can be written piecemeal.

I truly admire writers who are able to compose these long chaptered fics - it's so beyond me.

[stasia]

*laughs*

Snape is blackmailed by the Ministry into doing their dirty work and Harry helps him get free of it

I know what story this is! *giggle*

Stasia

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

Haha! One day I might even *finish* it!

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

I used to be taken by a bunny and write the story whole, chronologically, with a clear idea of the ending.

Lately, writing for fic exchanges, I start out knowing a basic direction and conflict, but don't necessarily know the ending, and that makes me kind of edgy. Also, I write scenes with bookmarks for other scenes that I've yet to write. There's no sense of continuity to my draft for Snupin Santa, for example.

[summerborn.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, I picked "I feel more confident when I already have a strong end in mind" BUT those are also the fics that are most likely to give me headaches, if I write myself into a place where Y seems impossible to get to from X. Ugh, I really hate that. But still, the confidence in the beginning feels higher if I have an end in mind (which I usually do) :)

[calzamante.livejournal.com]

Just to elaborate, I don't always strart at the beginning, but more often than not I do. I don't think I've ever started at the end; although I do like to know exactly what will happen at the end, it never gets written until I get to it (unless I've come up with a kicker of a last line, but it's never more than that).

I do tend to plot, outline and get everything clear in my head before I start - although I have found on a few occasions that the finished product bears little resemblance to the outline *grin* - and because of that pedantic, anal-retentiveness, I cannot start writing if I don't have an end in mind. I just cannot realx enough to make a start and simply see where the characters take me. Even if they end up taking me somewhere completely different than we had agreed, I like to have that agreement in place before I'll commit myself to going on a date with them!

Fascinating poll idea, thank you!