The Backward OX

Do you plan a story this way, or are you writing’s Jackson Pollock?

Given that every story is made up of a number of scenes, should each scene contain these features:

1. A short-term goal that the character in that scene seeks to achieve?

2. Some conflict or opposition faced by the character in reaching that goal?

3. A disaster experienced by the character that makes the long-term goal seem doubtful?



If you agree so far, should each scene be followed by a sequel, in which:

1. Some emotion is experienced by the character as a result of not achieving the short-term goal?

2. The character begins to think rationally about what can be done next?

3. The character either decides to do something else to achieve the original short-term goal or chooses a new short-term goal?

4. The character acts on the decision, with this action being the transition to the next scene?


Or do you have another template that creates an easier flow? And if so, what is it?

Or, if you don’t have a template at all, do you simply throw paint at the canvas in some ad hoc, unplanned manner and just hope it comes out all right on the night?

Thank you.

rumpole40k

Hey Ox, I personally use both.

Sometimes I'll have a great idea and plot out the entire story arc before any of the characters even see the light of day. Usually the character's personalities cause me to revisit the outline a few times for revisions and such.

Othertimes, I'll just get a good scene in my head. Just "pop", there it is. I hate to just ignore it and therefore type it up. Many of these disjointed scenes have ended up flowing into a cohesive story line.

Rumpole

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"Doing? You're doing what ANY sane man in your appalling circumstances would do. You're going mad." - The Killing Joke.

Noirllyn

I usually make a very general plot summary of things before I start writing them, at least up to the climax of the story, even if I don't know the ending at the moment.

Generally, nothing can be gathered from the summary by other people. If I hand it to someone else to read, they usually tell me it sounds really stupid, but when they read the actual story they're like "o wow that's a neat idea".

A sample phrase might be "Protagonist goes to park and feeds seeds to pigeons." Boring and stupid, but that triggers the entire scene in my mind again and I can write it out.

Sometimes, if I'm writing a thing with more depth, complication, or specifically strange details, I'll make little notes of keywords next to each point in the summary {"Ahoy"/bowtie/duck}. Yet again, they make absolutely no sense, but they remind me of things I thought it would be important to include.

Out of the three main stories I'm working on, two I already have the endings planned for, one I have no idea. Two I have most of the internal events planned for (one of the ended, and the unended), but for the other one, I don't have much of an idea.

If I get stuck, I pick back up where I left off and get my character walking again--he's bound to hit into something, or at least move the plot along. Or, if I finished the last part at the end of the day, I wake my character up and send her off to work--something interesting is bound to happen.

If I have a set ending for a story, I usually let my characters bring me to it as it seems Natural for them as we go along. If I don't have any ending? I don't trust my characters not to wiggle their way into 4,000 pages of crap, so I try to set an itinerary for them.

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CodeRed

I would say I would be somewhere in the middle. Planning everything down to the last detail doesn't work for me because - well, the best way I can describe it is that - I like my characters to be organic, and by that I mean susceptible to change. Honestly, I'm a little scatterbrained when I write. If I have an idea that has a beginning, middle and end (which is actually rare for me) I generally tend to follow some of the core elements but often find it veering in directions that I initially did not intend purely because, as I've mentioned before, I follow the logic of the characters I've created.

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All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients. Ralph Waldo Emerson

lilacstarflower

I'm guilty of just jotting down scenes that come into my head and then make them all join up in a coherent way. The beginning and ends are set in stone but the rest changes frequently depending on which way I'd prefer. For the most part, I enjoy writing this way but there are days when I get really P***ed off and start writing out a detailed plan for each chapter

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RomanticRose

Somewhere in the middle for me, as well. I know what needs to come out in the scene, but planning down to the minutest detail just drains my creativity dry.

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HarryG

As usual, I can only answer the OP by personal example. Having studied writing, and having read several libraries dry, I embarked on a professional career which had nothing to do with writing, nothing whatsoever, to support my young family.


Of course I wrote at that time, in my part time, reams of it, short stories, TV scripts (I got paid for some of those), and tons of poetry, of the 'lost-love', 'the best-dog-in-the-world' variety (I love poetry).


But I was just waiting for the time to write real books, because I had several stories to tell. When the time arrived, and I prevaricated for years, it wasn't just a case of having stories to tell, I had to tell them; I had a pressing need to tell the world what I thought of it.


When I started on the first one, I had a beginning and several possible endings, so I made notes of the chapters in-between, carefully extending them to reach the target of 100.000 words, over something like 40 chapters.


My problems at that time were (included), would I write in the globular view (he said), or the singular view (I said)? I used the global view, it's easier.


Then came the censorship, mainly about sex and violence. It caused me the greatest problems. My last commercial venture had been the running of a large discotheque, four bouncers outside, four bouncers inside, a thousand arseholes, drugged up to the eyeballs hopping about, 18 barmaids robbing the tills, and little me in the backroom counting the money and watching the screens with disbelief.


I took a sort of halfway approach, sex happens, but not in every chapter.


Eventually, after not too many rejections, I got there. My earnings allowed me to buy a caravan at Clacton, on the Essex coast. I clearly remember writing the next one there.


So, what's the conclusion to answer the OP? I'm going to philosophize, I think I may have stolen this from an Irish folksong. When God made time, he made plenty of it.

The Backward OX

I guess I’m really beholden to all you guys in both this and other threads where I’ve asked questions. But the replies some of you have given raises another question (published authors may leave the room now). Do you write the way you do because it pleases you to write that way or are you writing what you believe a publisher will accept?

In other words are you just writing for fun or is there a mercenary motive behind it?

Or is it both? And if so, how do you rate your chances?

Ashes

My writing methods are... unheard of, at least unheard of, by me xP

I make sure to seperate writing my plot and writing the actual story. It's a bit like a play, or a film. I'll turn off my lights, burn some candles and incense, surround myself with firelight, play some Moonlight Sonata, and brainstorm, without worrying myself about the hassle of "Does that sound right?" I'll scribble, sketch, cross out, and blot ink all over my paper until it's satisfactory (and legible), then I'll sit down, reread it, and the writing (acting, if you're looking at this from my metaphor) takes place, improvising to fit my writing style as I go along. It's a difficult process, but I'm not complaining.

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SilkFX

Good Lord...

Allow me to introduce myself: Jackson Pollock, at your service.

In the first draft I have paint flying all over the place. I make tiny notes here and there, and occasionally a big note, but I'm trying not to even do that. Once it reaches something approximating completion, then I'll try to make some sense out of it in the rewrite(s).

Lately I've considered the anal outline approach but then my inner writing child makes like she's about to throw a serious tantrum.

To answer your second question, Ox: If I wrote for a publisher, I'd have been published 20 times over by now. Have you SEEN the crap people publish these days? Aside from paying attention to a publication's requirements ("no romance, no fantasy, etc., 15000 words maximum, 12-point font, etc.") I'm a firm believer in being sought out, rather than seeking. I'm trying to let the work speak for itself.

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To everyone who keeps saying "I can't start!" or "I can't keep going!" or "I can't finish!":

Early drafts are ALLOWED to be crap. Feel free to write the crappiest crap that ever crapped. Don't think about it...just get it all out on the page. Then roll up your sleeves and turn that crap into something worth reading.
The REAL work of writing is in REWRITING.
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