Well, fiddlesticks

[eponymous_rose]

Unexpected mini-hiatus is unexpected! The problem, apparently, is that I've only got time after work to make one real go at a fic, to get a running start and churn it out before I go to sleep. Usually not a problem! Usually I have the fic all written up in my head (comes of having long stretches of doing absolutely nothing at work), and in this case I've had two days to plan it.

What is the problem, then? The problem is that I've written two-thirds of the fic, am quite happy with the result, but I can't remember how I wanted it to end. And it's fairly important, I think, because it's a vital bit of characterisation and there is symmetry and there needs to be that final third to tie it all together, and I can't for the life of me remember what it is. I think my brain may still be scrambled.

So, with apologies, no fic for tonight - I haven't got time to put something together before bed, and I'm being Very Strict about getting my seven hours lately.

(Times like this I wish I actually wrote fic outlines down instead of relying entirely on memory. That would be the smart thing to do.)

Anyway, random discussion prompt! How do you plan your writing? Better question: do you plan your writing? To what extent?

Comments

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

Usually it comes together in a flurry of raw beauty and I make a clear and simple as possible list of the sequential order of the plot. (Or scenes rather than plot, if the story is short.) Sometimes I surprise myself at how well it sorts its own elements out.

[manji-chan.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I tend to write fiction the same way I write research papers, which is to say mostly in one sitting and with very little prior planning. Though there have been stories which have been so thoroughly thought out that all I have to do was add in a few transitions here and there to my outline and I was done. It all depends on how much trouble I'm having stringing words together at the time.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I frequently write whole (short) fics in my head before my fingers hit the keyboard/pen hits the page...

Longer, plotty fics are planned out with a synopsis/outline... (For example, I'm currently *researching* a post-S4 fic because it features a Classic Who character whom I've never written before, I'm re-watching as many of their eps as I can find.)

But sometimes I just start writing and see where the bunnies take me!

[savepureness.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, my writing. Pretty non-existant nowadays, though I do intend to have it ressurected as soon as humanly possible.
- basically, when it comes about exchanges or other community/user requests or assignments, I'm always procrastinating, and end up writing them down in the last couple of hours before the deadline ; one can easily see that there's no planning involved in the process, I simply start typing, apply a spellcheck afterwards, and submit my work.
- when it's about greater pieces, usually original (say, a novel attempt or what else), I do make a great amount of planning, basically from scratch - this doesn't mean the thing always ends the way I was planning it to, mind you.

Conclusion: I'm quite a hectic writer-wannabe.

[rachelbeann.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid your process sounds an awful lot like mine - I brainstorm, outline, and sometimes even write my story in my head in the oddest places, I swear. I have word documents were I try to write a brief outline the first chance I get, but that's often a jumbled mess that doesn't make sense to me later. So usually I just go from brain to paper.

[northern_magic]

Every finished story I've written was completed under twenty-four hours. So far, that seems to be the running limit; this doesn't bode well for any long plotty things I have in mind. (See Topologica, which I've been mulling over for just under a year now, and I have things and bits and a fairly detailed and extensive outline written, I swear.) I guess it's easier for me to visualise and get a handle on short fics, around 700 words or less, before they start to run away and fray over alternate timelines on us. "The Universe in Gallifreyan" was sort of an exception (and the second longest thing I've written): I quickly jotted down a series of events and structure and some sentence fragments, and the next day sat down and spilled it.

It seems I spend more time planning fics than writing them now, though. My binder's a mess with ideas.

[ice-feather.livejournal.com]

I rarely outline. My head tends to become filled with lots of little scenes and chunks of dialouge, and then I'll just hurry to MS Word and start typing, generally winging it.

Even with the original novels length I'm working on, I've not really outlined. I've got fairly indepth synopsis, and I know how they both end, but I don't outline every chapter. I just write and go where the "muses" take me. If what comes from that is rubbish, I try again until I get it right and something usually clicks into place eventually.

I like to be "free" when I'm writing and I feel like if I outlined everything obsessively, I wouldn't be.

[paranoidangel]

Short things I don't plan beyond thinking about it in advance.

Longer things I think about in advance, then write down what's going to happen in each scene. I've found that then it's easy to just go and fill in all the prose and dialogue and I can write much more quickly that way.

[rapunzelita.livejournal.com]

Ah, I forget fic ideas all the time, it's horrible. On the other hand, I have one every thirty second. Usually, it's rubbish. I suppose we must be thankful for small mercies, and all that jazz :D

What I usually do is I write my magnifiglorious idea down on a bit of paper (post-it, envelope, cashier ticket, or simply in my Moleskine) and usually the bit of paper lies around or stays in my pockets for two weeks, until I unearth it again. If it's any good I store it in my notebook, if not I just mutter "what utter bullshit", crumple the paper and put it in the bin.

As for how I plan my writing, hmmm. Usually, I start with a very vague idea, and a few sentences that sound really good. Either I write them down or forget about them. If I don't forget, I wait until the last possible moment (especially if it's a ficathon) and make a Huge Writing Marathon of Doom in which I go to sleep around 6 am with a fic full of typos. And bad grammmar (especially if it's in English). Then I wake up 10 hours later, go "OHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT I HAVE TO BETA READ IT BEFORE I SEND IT", and thus begins the most painfult experience ever. Yes, I hate beta reading my own stuff this much.

[charleygirl.livejournal.com]

I'm rotten at planning. Usually I have an idea and let it germinate for a while before I start writing. I have a vague idea of the direction and that's about it - the whole things takes shape as I write. And things stay fluid - with the SH fic I've just finished the villian's motivation changed about four times before I was happy with it.

I never used to feel the need to edit a great deal, but lately I've been doing quite a lot of rewriting.

[zekkass.livejournal.com]

Plan my fic? Nah. I'll get an idea, and maybe a general idea of where I want to go, but when I write, if the story goes in a direction, well, I follow the story.

Planning too much kills my creative drive, see.

[memorae.livejournal.com]

I normally plan it out almost completely in my head and then I write all of it down on paper, in a spiral notebook skipping every other line if I'm somewhere I can get that. Then I go over that somewhere between two and a million times depending on what sort of shape it's in, changing words, adding and subtracting sentences, only when it's almost done can I type it into the computer because whenever I open up Word I get flashbacks to keyboarding class in high school or having to write English explications and it kills any trace of creativity.

[eers.livejournal.com]

The few short stories I wrote for the schoolpaper a year or so ago weren't planned; I just started writing and ended up with something that looked like a story. The Doctor Who short things weren't planned either, but they were very short and drabble-ish. But I'm attempting to write a novel-length detective story now (well, actually two, but one has more attention at the moment) and I thought these definitely needed planning. I could just see myself writing half a book and then thinking: "Wait. How is this going to end again?" or having to go back every time to insert clues and whatnot. So I'm planning meticulously this time, and spending too much time perfecting my plot outlines of doom. I hope that at some point I'll have finished them so that I can start writing the actual story... :P So far I've got a few pages that I wrote on the train, but they need typing up and editing and all that, so it's not very much at the moment. But... holidays! Hahaaah! Time! :D