Guineapiggy

Well, for a start for those of you who don't know I'm a 19 year old would-be writer, journalist and critic with more issues than a news stand who has missed three years of college due to a life so chaotic I make the NHS look professional and spends more time in his head than anywhere else.

I suppose this in essence is the reason I'm making this post. I've wanted for a long time to throw the small, unfinished works that seem to stem from my many lovely escapist fantasies and go for something a little more solid.

Ideas can seem fantastic, stories, characters and worlds can have grown in your head for years, it's what gets people hooked on the writing bug, it's a fantastic outlet for this, but... and this is the but to end all buts for me, you need to put what you've thought of through the wringer and see if it comes out in tact. This means doing something I had once, in my oh-so-infinite wisdom, considered a sin;

Making a plan.

Open up a spreadsheet, (Yes, the mundane boxes, the lame macros, the horror and death...) and the first thing you should do is see if your little world adds up. Compare it to this world, look at any possible history you've created, does it seem plausable in even the most twisted, entertaining way, or is it just out and out inexplicable?

For example, the classic: Was your land/is your land scarred by civil war? What caused it? Why? What were the motivations? Good versus evil, left versus right, same old, same old.

Now, Look at any conflict in the history of earth. Remember that ideological differences don't make the most compelling reason. The war on Iraq, the invasion of Manchuria, the great war, all classic examples of wars with multiple causes be they economic, social, demanded by an ally, neighbour or larger power etc. If you want an example of where this is extremely well employed, try 1984, it's not just democracy versus dictatorship, ooooh no.

Write a few parallels, justify your arguments to yourself and back up regularly.

Characters are the most important here, their every action should be justified by a motivation, every word an opinion of a sort, it should all tie in. Whatever aspects you find important, give them a column and a brief explination, even though it's only to yourself. Background (To justify beliefs) usual location (To justify entry point), notable traits (Characteristics. Not 'Good and virtuous, super hero.'), motivations (To justify past and present alliances and actions in 'the grand scheme of things'), etc. The whole load.

Why are you putting yourslef through this?

Well, once you've worked out all this, it's actually set in something other than your mind the idea seems to take on some sort of form, something you can actually use instead of something you occasionally add to then start again totally dependant on a whim. Things will make sense, the story will stay on track, your work will be more accesable to others and you'll find writer's block starts to vanish.

At least that's what I found. Anyway, hope my rant was helpful, and actually made sense at coming up 2:00am after a long day.

__________________
I'll sing along, yeah with every emergency. Just sing along, I'm the king of catastrophies. I'm so far gone that deep down inside I think it's fine by me that I'm my own worst enemy.

Leapord

Very good points. Planning is definitely necessary in any kind of writing, especially if you want to be published. I know that a lot of writers can end up writing themselves into a corner at the end of their book or story since they didn't have it well planned. That's where the "deus ex machina" endings typically come from.

__________________
Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard, be evil.
People would sooner die than think. In fact, most of them do. -- George Bernard Shaw
Leapord is my name, leopard is the animal.