S1E9A8N5

All this talk about Characters and Plot, I wanted to ask out of curiosity: On average... How long did it take YOU to come up with your story[s]? The Characters and the plot? Whats the longest time that it took you to develop your story[s] before you started writing it?

Sean

cbrmale

For a 70,000 word novel, I came up with the opening sequence and two key characters in a dream, which I wrote down. It had potential for a good story, with one major problem. I started doing some basic research on the locale, while still wondering how to make the story work.

About three or four weeks later, I worked out a way around the problem, which introduced a subsidiary plot line. I started to sketch the outline of the plot, which took a week or two. So it took about six or seven weeks.

S1E9A8N5

I've been in the developing mode for about a year or so now for my story. It's weird. A year ago, I thought I knew everything I wanted to write but then as time went, did more research, and thinking, things changed. My story is the same but the plot and characters have changed. I would like to start writing but I'm still coming up with ideas and characters. I hate waiting but I can't wait to start actually writing it.

Sean

aspiring

I have written so many different stories of different lengths that I can't possibly give you an answer to that. Somewhere between five minutes and three years, will that do?

Sean, I'd just start writing. Half of what you plan will probably be discarded once you get into it anyway. I plan my plotline but frequently deviate from it when my characters start doing things for themselves.

Fantasy of You

Lol it takes about two second to come up with a concept. Then it depends if you simply write and come up with a plot as you go, or work out the plot before you write. Someone said somewhere some time ago, that instead of having one idea as the foundation for your story, you should think of two unrelated ideas and usde them both in your story.. Anyway lol, I've started to ramble again..

The longest I have thought for before writing is about 5 mins, because that's all i really need. Characters seem to be fully formed in my mind lol, and the plot grows around them.

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Dawnstorm

Short stories:

- An image, an idea, a character... incubates in my mind, until it meets another and sparks a story that gets written right away.

Or:

- I improvise the story off the bat, only having a title that somehow intrigues me, or perhaps I have a literary technique I'd like to try.

Novel:

I'm only just writing my first (and - possibly - the only one; I'm not really a novelist, methinks...). The earliest concepts go back almost twenty years, although the recognisable shape of the thing is about five years old. I had three false starts, but the current shape of it seems to work.

Banzai

In my case it takes just seconds to come up with the basic concept of a story, and from there the rest just builds on it over a period which can be a day, or a month. And to be honest, the plot keeps developing until the moment i finish writing the story. I can come up with plot outlines as much as i want, but I always end up putting new things in to get around various problems that crop up when I'm writing, and they invariably end up growing into sub-plots, and so on. I think of it kind of like a forest growing from just one seed (the original concept being the seed) but perhaps thats because I'm a hopeless romantic! Anyway, for me, the plot development takes as long as it takes to write the story.

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cbrmale

This is bad advice, good writers plan their work. I recently read Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky, which is two parts of a four or five part Suite she was writing just before she was killed at Auschwitz by the Germans in World War Two. Surprisingly good considering it is from her hand-written draft, and it shows a good writer doesn't need to redraft and redesign to come up with a quality story. Attached as an appendix are her notes for part three, and I was surprised by the amount of detail she put into planning this part. It was also soul-destroying to read this appendix, because of what happened next. I suspect Parts One and Two came up so well as a draft, because the characters and plot were planned to such detail.

Go back through recent history, look at the writers of the twentieth century, see how they plan their characters and plot. Indeed, I am going to learn from Némirovsky and do more detailed versions of my characters biographies in future.

cbrmale

The two unrelated ideas crystallise into plot and sub-plot, essential for a well-rounded story.

Oracle

I spent around 3 years developing my plot/characters/history/world/mythology etc...

But that's for a multi-novel fantasy epic. I probably shouldn't have spent so much time in the pre-planning though, because now that I'm writing it, I've changed alot of stuff.

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Kimahri

I am still developing my story and characters all the time. I am in the process of editing my first book and always coming up with new things but to answer your question I would say it took me a week to develope the world and most of the characters.

kimahri

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bob rulz

For the novel I am currently writing, the very basic idea came around about 4 or 5 years ago. The main character actually has roots going back almost 6 years, but he's developed immensely and changed completely several times since then. I tinkered around with things a bit, but it wasn't until about 3 years ago that I truly began to develop the universe for which my story is set in. The basic plot didn't start developing until after that, and I wrote the first draft 2 years ago. I wasn't really ready to delve into what I was anticipating at the time, and I ended up scrapping it twice, completely changing direction, and taking some time off to develop the characters, story, and setting for my story before starting up again. Overall, in all of my works, the plot continues developing and evolving until I place the period at the end of my story. And on that note, I haven't really finished a lot of my stories yet.

aspiring

Sean says in his original post that he has been planning his book for a year now. I consider that good enough to make a start in actually writing it. If he keeps changing his mind and adding/removing new stuff he will never get round to writing.

Besides, not everyone wants or needs an appendix of information about the characters before they start work. I would find that soul-destroying, personally, because it would leave no room for my characters to grow and to surprise me.

Mike C

This is wrong. Some good writers plan their work. Some don't.

"Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say."
~Sharon O'Brien

When I interviewed Michael Moorcock (author of over 100 published novels) he said:

"What informs one's work is that element of uncertainty it has -- once you know where you're going in a book you might as well stop writing, unless you are a sort of journeyman booksmith content to turn out the same artefact year in and year out. "

It's just as acceptaable to dive in head first as it is to scribble little lists first.

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Sparx

Plan, plan and plan some more until you know your absolutely positive that your story contains no plot holes, is full of tension and drama, has a vivid world and fully rounded characters. Unless your an amazingly talented writer or you stole the brain of Stephen King and put it in your head, you should never just dive into a story and start writing. As a writing excersie sure why not but if your looking to be published, you better plan and plan good. Planning may be boring at times but in the end it will pay off once you realise how solid your story is.

Ive been planning my four part epic series for 2 years now and i've just started chapter-planning as i call it my the first volume in the four part epic. Even though it was boring at times, my story is now so solid without no plot holes and the characters are believable up to the point were i can actually regognise them in society. This can only be achieved by planning. They is no other easy way.

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