How do you write your story for the first time? Best explained inside.

I'll do a guideline. NOT an outline, just a couple page guideline. I usually start to do mass amounts of worldbuilding. (I have done 10k in just worldbuilding), I'll scribble ideas and scenes down, getting to know the characters and the situations. Some characters are really easy some aren't.

I hove lots of files with just snippets of ideas for any given project. I am attempting to get it all organized but....

With one of my stories I just started writing and the world and the mc and the situation sort of unfolded for me as I wrote it. And I just sat down to write a single sentence that had been bothering me for months. Then another sentence followed the fist and the next thing I knew I had six handwritten pages of this adventure...

Each project is differant and I can/could take HOURS describing each project and how it came about. And, uhm, trust me. I have A LOT of projects...

You realize, of course, that this is merely a variation on the pro-outline vs. pro-wing-it debate, right?

I don't outline. I have a title. I usually have at least one major character's name, but rarely more than that. I have a general idea/theme/question/what-if in my head.

And then I sit down and write. First page of the first chapter, or first page of the prologue (that's another common debate). Stop when necessary to name characters. Stop when necessary to work out a tricky plot point -- because, of course, somewhere in the depths of my story-trained mind, there's something resembling a plot being doled out to me.

Apparently, my subconscious likes to torture me. But that's just me.

Whatever works for you, works for you.

Usually I'll start with an epiphany and think "wow, I'm amazing cause I just thought of the next NYT bestseller!" Then I'll write maybe a page of it and realize that I don't know where it's going, so I save and close the document.

Later--maybe a couple of hours, days, or months--I think of another idea about the same story. So I'll write it down on a post it. Or a napkin. Or in a notebook. On an old piece of paper. Whereever. Sometimes I won't write it down, but just think about it. All of these little ideas start building up until I feel good about it again.

Then I reopen the document and usually start over in a new, better, direction. I start writing and going through it and just type as I feel I want to type. I don't think I've ever known from the beginning what will happen in a whole novel. I just don't think that way. I make up as I go.

My first drafts aren't perfect, obviously, but I don't think they're terrible. Only once in my writing 'career' have I put a sentece for a whole scene. Usuaully I'll write everything as it should appear in a final version, including all the details of a trainstation. I don't take very long to write a book in the first place, so it's not like I need to jump ahead, I don't think. And since I don't even know the end of a story while I'm writing, I couldn't really move forward without the small details, anyway.

Even while doing that first draft, if I change something in the story I'll go back and fix it in the previous chapters. I don't like having continuity mistakes running through my manuscripts, even if they are a 'first draft'. I think this comes from the fact that in school I only ever write one draft, even if we're told to do more. I just don't see why you should do it like 3 times if you could just do it right the first time....

That being said, you shouldn't get caught up in those revisions. Sometimes, if something's a large change in a scene, I'll just highlight it in the document so I can come back later. If your revisions while writing are holding up the writing, then you'll never get anything done.

That's just my opinion of course, and how things work for me. I'm sure it's different for other people.

Good luck!

The series I'm writing at the moment has evolved over ::counts backwards:: 21 years. It started with my first imaginary friend (age 3), and though I always knew his story, it was nothing without the other characters, who had the audacity to make me wait around until much later to meet them (ages 14, 16, & 17). Once I had my cast of characters everything fell into place for me, and I had my first novel finished three months after my last one decided to show herself.

I don't think this is normal by any means, but you asked, so there it is.

I start typing. Then, 80,000 words or so later, I stop.

Shadow_Ferret said:

I start typing. Then, 80,000 words or so later, I stop.

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Can you please teach me, Shadow? I wish I could stop at 80k!

HourglassMemory said:

Do you have many files? Many napkins? Many pages filled with random scenes or even just words?.

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My stories start with a character.
Then maybe a few more characters.

I spend a lot of time thinking about them. Who they are, how they live, how they think, what they want.
I see them in a lot of scenes that are 'background'. Scenes that will never appear in the story.

All of this is in my head. While I'm writing one story, I'm thinking, a little, about the next one and the one after that. Characters live inside my head for years.

I have stories in my head now -- not a word on paper -- that I might write in 2010 or 2011.

So. No notes on napkins.

HourglassMemory said:

Do you take many notes before you actually commit anything to paper? How much would you say?

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No. The scenes, most of them, are in my head as pictures and words before I sit down to write the story.


I don't do 'character sketches' and outlines and so on before I start writing.

Lots of folks do, though, and find it helpful.

HourglassMemory said:

Do you already have the entire story and all the characters in your head after a few days of thinking about it and all you have to do is type it?

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It takes more than a few days of thinking about it, of course. But when I start writing, I have the whole story in my head.

There may be plot twists I don't quite settle on up till the final draft.
Awkward, that.
But this is just plot devices stuff, not important relationship stuff.

HourglassMemory said:

Do you write it quickly, so you can cover the whole story (is this called the first draft?) and then go back and complete scenes you typed in only one sentence, for example?

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Depends. Some stuff I sketch in with just the dialog and go back to later.
Maybe 1/10 of the first draft is this sketch-in stuff that gets expanded in later iterations.

And the first draft doesn't go particularly quickly.

HourglassMemory said:

Are you a perfectionist while writing your first draft?
With this I mean, do you write the whole story, but you still think about minor details like how a train station looks like and you can't seem to work well if you don't have that detail there?

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I can leave stuff in a mess behind me and go onward and come back and fiddle and then go onward and then come back and fiddle ...

HourglassMemory said:

The first time you write your story from beginning to end, does it have many errors?

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Not so much errors, as language than will be refined and polished and improved the second and third time through.
I put down the skeleton, maybe, and then come back to add muscle in the next draft and then dress it up pretty in skin the next draft ...

HourglassMemory said:

Many one sentence scenes for later editing?

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This is far more rare.
I try to get at least the dialog down for all scenes.

I mean, I make the decision on what the scene is, so there's no reason not to write it.
And if I unmake the decision later ...
no harm, no foul.


Hmmm .... what I mean is --
Lets say, right from the opening, I know that I have to put in a little scene about halfway through to build up one of the characters.
I don't know what the scene will be.

So as I'm writing towards that scene I play back and forth with whether it should be my folks playing cards or arranging flowers or walking along the street ...
When I get there, I don't just bracket in a sentence (write a scene with Quentin and Claudia in it and maybe the ferret.)
I pick one of the possible scenarios and write the scene.

Because that leaves me with something to work on.
And in a month I can change my mind and say 'damn it, not card playing. They're out in a fishing boat.'
And I just toss out the scene with the card playing.
Whump, overboard goes 2000 perfectly lovely words abut card playing. Byebye.
No big.

HourglassMemory said:

I can't seem to move to another chapter until I think the previous chapter looks presentable.
Actually, I keep re-writing little things because it seems I'm never satisfied.

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A lot of folks have this problem.
Sometimes a detailed outline helps.

Basically, a writer has to get over the desire for perfection and finish the manuscript.

You might try Lamont's Bird by Bird. Some folks with this problem have found her immensely useful.

It was all in my head. I let it stew for a few years before I wrote a single word. By then I knew my characters very well and had a pretty good idea how the story would unfold.

Later on I did have some notes and charts and what not to just keep everything straight. I had perhaps 12 pages of notes and some simple outlines. That was all I had. Everything else was in my head.

Butt in chair.

Write until it's done.

Whatever method you figure out how do it will be the right way for you.

Rinse, repeat, until you run out of ideas.

My thought process goes like this:

Whaddya wanna write about?

I wanna write about character A, character B, and explosions!

Kay. Write it.

Kay.

No notes. No outline. Occasionally I'll have a title. Sometimes a plot. Sometimes an antagonist. Most of the time, though, it's just 'I wanna write about...'

Start

I start with a title. That's all I have, except for the knowledge of which genre it will be. I drop down a couple of lines, and do my best to put an interesting character in and interesting situation. I keep writing until the novel is finished. When it is finished, it's finished, except for a polish it a bit second draft.

I sit down and start typing shit.

HourglassMemory said:

How does it all unfold for you? Do you have many files? Many napkins? Many pages filled with random scenes or even just words?

Do you take many notes before you actually commit anything to paper? How much would you say?

Do you already have the entire story and all the characters in your head after a few days of thinking about it and all you have to do is type it?

Do you start writing with a few ideas and let it develop as you type?
If so to this last option:
Do you write it quickly, so you can cover the whole story (is this called the first draft?) and then go back and complete scenes you typed in only one sentence, for example?

Are you a perfectionist while writing your first draft?
With this I mean, do you write the whole story, but you still think about minor details like how a train station looks like and you can't seem to work well if you don't have that detail there? As if you're writing your book almost to be left untouched in the end.

The first time you write your story from beginning to end, does it have many errors? Many one sentence scenes for later editing?

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1) It unfolds in different ways. Various ideas occur to me at various times, until eventually we have a quorum and an actual concept to work with. This is usually just one computer file, though I will usually have a few jotted notes in my commonplace book.

2) I usually have quite a bit in terms of notes before I really start writing. I'll usually have three or four pages of concept -- sometimes far more -- before I even commit to an outline. My outline is the "make or break" point: Am I gonna write this or not?

3) It usually takes me more than a few days. When it finally comes together, it comes together quickly, but I may need to spend weeks or even months with an idea before it comes together. And it's never just having to type it -- sometimes it comes easy, sometimes it comes hard, but even at its easiest and most blissful, there's work involved.

4) No, I've got to outline. That said, while I'm outlining (and this can last months), anything goes. And even afterward, I'm open to amendments and big changes, but I've got to have a framework to build from.

5) Absolutely NOT a perfectionist. There's a lot of stuff I look up in advance, but there's also a lot of work I do while I go or on rewrites.

6) Lord God yes, there are errors. But what else is editing for?

I think about it for a few weeks before deciding to expend energy and valuable writing time on it. If it's still exciting to me, or even if I still remember the idea, I think it's good enough to explore.

Then I think of a character who can carry my attention and hopefully a reader's interest for many hours.

Then I scribble a few notes, draw a diagram of how the conflicts intertwine. I map out the beginning, an ending, and a way to shake things up in a big way if I fall into the mid-novel slump.

Then I write the damned thing. After a while, it outgrows my notes and I stop for a day and re-scribble more notes before continuing on. By this time it can be totally different from the original notes, and that's okay.

I try to get it right the first time. I don't like going back and filling things in or rewriting.

I get a basic idea and write it down. Come up with the people that fit the story and write from there. Once I've got the first 15-20K words down I have enough of the structure that I can write a brief description of each chapter. After I finish a chapter I do a scene breakdown of the next.

So basically, I start with an idea, wing the first couple or three chapters and rough outline the rest.

I usually have the idea floating around in my head anywhere from a few days to a couple of years.

When I am ready to write the story I just pick my brain and let the words flow.

On my current project, I figure 1000 words min. for 72 scenes equals about 70,000 words total. My numbers for no reason other than my own method of madness.

Currently I've described on paper a total of 29 scenes out of the desired goal of 72. It may sound like a lot, but out of that, I have ten scenes that just set the beginning up. I know the ending scene and I have some of the middle climax already written up from an earlier outline.

I just have to fill in some of the gaps before moving on. My next step will be to expand on my descriptions with in-depth questions and goals for each of the 72 scenes to make sure they make structural sense.

It's a big gulp to swallow, but I'm trying to develop this in baby steps. Hopefully when I get ready for the first draft, I'm merely playing with my inner voice. As for characterizations, I'm going to try and leave that up to the stimulus-internalization-response theory or the sequel after the scene for reviewing the importance of that previous scene.

Yes, I do leave quite a paper trail. I have a lot of notes.

I do plan on letting the first draft be as crappy as it will turn out on this project (except for spelling errors). I used to do the editing as you go on a previous project, but I'm going to expand my horizons a bit and try a different tactic. I need to keep thinking baby steps. Not too much at once now.

My plan is to not force myself to write quickly. There shouldn't be a need to if every scene is laid out in detail. I just have to pick a day and write just one scene. Because of the logical connection in the in-depth outline on the current scene to be worked on, I just focus on that one scene as if it were the first day of writing, oh say, chapter 1 for some people. When it's all done, save it, print it, close it up and wait to begin the next scene when I'm ready. With only a necessary minimum of 1000 words per scene, I will be sure to hit my eventual goal of 90,000 words.

What I do seems to vary a great deal between projects. For my series, I started with the characters living in my head for a number of months (actually, one had been there since I was three), and have hundreds of thousands of words worth of outlines, notes, ideas, and scene sketches. The only thing I have no notes whatsoever for are my protagonists. I don't need notes for them because I have every detail memorized.

I must have a detailed scene by scene outline for the series because I don't write the chapters in order. I jump around to whatever I 'feel' like writing that day. I consider the first draft complete when every scene has been written.

I make all my notes and outlines on the computer. I never, ever jot things on paper because I WILL lose the paper. I simply commit the idea to memory until I get the chance to type it up. I save it all into my series notes file (which is a god-awful mess and really needs to be separated by book).

I write extremely detailed, complete, and clean first drafts for my series. My first book required a good bit of revision for plot issues, but I expect the first draft of the second book to also be the final draft, needing only line editing.

Now I have another book I'm writing without any outline at all. All I have for that one is two pages of notes basically saying who the protags and antags are, what the antagonists are trying to do and why, and why the protags get involved. I honestly have no idea how it will even end and knew very little about the characters before I began writing. Obviously, this story will be written in order from beginning to end and will no doubt require content revision for consistency. No skipping around means no one-line scene summaries.

This has been the only project other than my series to hold my attention for longer than a chapter or two, perhaps because even I only have a vague idea what will happen next.

The first draft of this project is still detailed and fairly clean, though I don't worry as much about small plot details and explanations because I know it will need revision later.

I actually seem to do very well working with an outline and working without, depending on the project. I certainly wouldn't want to write a twelve-plus book ongoing fantasy series with dozens of subplots and numerous main plots without a lot of outlines and notes, but a stand alone action/adventure/romance seems so simple in comparison writing notes would be a waste of time.

I take the characters who have become impatient enough to stop letting me sleep at night. At least two at this point, and I poke them, observe them, until I figure out the conflict between them. They don't have to be the protagonist and antagonist; with my current WiP, it was my two POV characters, who are on the same side.

Then, I take those characters, that conflict, and start writing. Things *always* crop up along the way, little bits of interesting dialogue that add up to more conflict, other characters, et cetera. I write until I have 80-90k, then I usually get stuck. For a while. So I take a break.

When the break is over (and the shorter the better, but usually no less than a month), I print my WiP and read it, jotting down things that 1) didn't make sense, 2) weren't clear enough, 3) were cool but their potential was never really used, 4) should have been on the pages, but weren't. I figure it all out. And if there's no climax/resolution/conclusion in there, I scrap it - but that hasn't happened yet. (I follow a similar pattern with short stories, except obviously the process takes far less time).

Did I mention that I don't outline? I tried that and have had stories die on me because of it. The story I'm writing has to excite me, has to move me emotionally, I need to be involved - and all this fades once I've sat on a scene/idea/mental image for too long.

But I'm a linear writer, and I write everything as though I was going to get the entire job done in one draft. So all the scenes, bits of detail and such, are there. There is a chapter missing halfway through my current WiP, but that's because at the time of writing that part, I hadn't realized I needed it. And since I'm past the break -> re-reading -> figuring things out stage, now I know what I need there, and how the book should go from where I'm at.

It's slightly different for each story, but this is the system I've used for my last two novels, and the one I plan to keep using:

The premise enters my head, and I write it down.

I write down lots of random brainstorming notes - ideas for plot points, scenes, characters, anything that comes into my head. If I think of something when I'm not near the computer, I write it on an index card, a scrap of notepaper, whatever's handy, and stick it in my pocket. It usually gets typed up a few days later, when I remember it's there.

I write out some more structured and detailed character notes. During this step, and the next one, I'm still writing down the random brainstorming notes when things pop into my head.

I write out a list of scenes (it's not a definitive list, but it helps keep me from getting scattered when I'm writing the outline). This is where I figure out the basic story arc, and approximately what order things need to go in.

I write a phase outline. This is where I create the basic skeleton for my story. It's almost like a first draft, with no pretty writing and hardly any details. Draft 0.5?

I write the first draft. I already have the structure to work from; now I can add in the details and the writing. I rarely deviate from the phase outline; when I do, it's usually to leave out a couple of phases because I've realized they're unnecessary. But sometimes things do appear that weren't in the outline - not whole scenes, generally, but things like a hidden character morivation. This is part of why I always write scenes in order (the other part being that writing out of order would make me scattered); when one of these things pops up, it often leads to something else later in the book, and it's easier to deal with that while I'm writing than when I'm editing.

In both cases, the first draft has taken less time than the prep work. But that could be skewed, because the first was for a class and I therefore had to take more time with the prep work than I normally would, and I originally wrote the second for NaNoWriMo.

After that, the rewriting starts. My plot structure is pretty solid, because by now I've had three opportunities to make it that way - the scene list, the outline, and the first draft. It's mostly minor stuff that needs fixing - a scene that doesn't belong, an awkward-sounding conversation, a place where I went off on a tangent, lots and lots of clumsy writing. I also have to add in stuff I've neglected in the first draft, like more detailed description and (argh) body language.

Most writers, I think, write more organically than I do - they don't have as much figured out before the first draft as me. But this is the way that works for me.

Hmm. I tried a slight variation to what I had with little success before, and it seems to make a difference.

I've discovered that I "flow" the best longhand, btw. I have a little notebook that I keep it all organized it. It's a two subject with pockets in the divider.

This one started a little funny. Remember that funny little website, They Fight Crime!? I was playing with that one day just goofing off, and came up with six characters that I thought it would be cool to be together. So I started thinking about what would be cool to be a central conflict, or rather story arch, for them all, and what motivations each of the six would have. So then I had six main characters, and I decided two POVs were plenty.

Then I've found that writing out a few lines of what I want to happen next, then writing it all, rinse and repeat works great for me. If I go too far ahead, I get bored. If I don't do anything at all, I feel lost, so this is good middle ground for me. It never turns out exactly like a jot down, but the only thing I really care about is getting that pen to the paper.

And never mind my sig line, my WIP count is a bit higher, but I've not had time to type in my stuff and update my word count.

A theme comes to me and i let it stew. Do nothing about it. Then a character comes to me and I let him/her stew.

Then the theme expands or dies down in me; doesn't get me excited or it does.

If I do get excited, I just start typing till the end. When I finish one chapter I do correct typos or any glaring mistakes. This helps in making the revisions easy.
In my first type I do try to avoid reading as much as possible what I have written. It happened to me on the first MS, I couldn't revise because I knew each word, I had fiddled and perfected each scene to whatever level of perfection I could attain at the time.

But i am still learning and trying new things. There are no absolutes for me.

I get a really annoying feeling like I have to write but I don't really know what to write yet. This might come from a movie or book or wherever. After a few days or weeks I figure out what it is I want to write, like what kind of story and what kind of protagonist. Then I start working on the setting, maybe researching different settings, and when I finally decide, I do about two pages of notes on the setting and the characters together.

At that point I'm usually writing already, but I can't really get going until I have those notes--I need to know what the setting is like if it's not somewhere I know, or I just can't write.

Then I keep going until the end. Then I edit.

I don't do character sheets but I do a lot of musing, which helps a lot.

I sit down at the computer and the 'movie' starts in my head. I just type what I see.

Then, after it's finished I go back and kill dialogue tags, superfluous adverbs, and extra commas.