Damn, I'm tired. And writing.

[valis2]

For some reason this has been a ridiculously sleep-deprived week. I feel like I haven't slept at all. I've woken up a million times, and, because of La Luna and Her Magical Effect on Women, I've also been incredibly tired and cranky from the start before the sleep unhappiness.

I need to finish my merry_smutmas piece too.

I don't know about all of you, but I've finally figured out what's going on with my head and how I write.

1. I have to go through a long process of thought incubation first before I can write a single word. If I can't get it to logically make sense in my head it goes no further. This is the longest and most difficult part of the writing process for me. I think of several scenes and explore them, sometimes multiple times.

2. Outline. Very important. Often teamed with thinking more of the daydreamy stuff, but more focused. I outline in a way that makes sense to me, with snippets of dialogue. Well, the point of the dialogue. It often looks like this:

• Chapter Forty-eight: Pity
o SS POV: Severus’s room, Friday evening, September 31st
§ Severus dreams about ghosts leaving Hogwarts, Sarah leaving, he suddenly feels lonely
o ST POV: Sarah’s room, Saturday morning, October 1st
§ Dreaming of places she has lived, the manor, the forest in Poland
§ Severus wakes her
§ She realizes he could have just taken the artifact, realizes she should really trust him
§ Apologizes
§ He accepts, is a little clumsy for a moment
§ He says I’ll come back to reapply...

So you see what I'm talking about. The dialogue isn't exact, it's just the point of the dialogue. Everything gets fleshed out later.

3. Actual writing. If the outline is there, and the thought is there, it goes fast. My problem shows up when I haven't spent enough time on the daydream phase. If there is any point in the outline where I haven't detailed everything I often get a little stuck. It's happened with tLS a couple times, where I had sections of the outline with no material and I had too many ideas to sort through.

By this point I've actually "written" most of the major scenes in my head, sometimes several times, which makes the biggest scenes simpler to write when the time comes. Often it helps to point out new little details that I can indulge in because I'll start the scene in my head at the same moment over and over again, and sometimes the scene will proceed to a different place, especially if I spend a moment in another character's head.

4. Polish, beta, polish. My favorite part, though sometimes frustrating. This goes fast too.

Anybody else have a process to their writing they'd like to share?

Comments

[jen-deben.livejournal.com]

I seem to have two modes to my writing.

Mode 1
The plot bunny bites me on the bum, I sit down in front of the computer to staunch the bleeding, and something great falls out of my brain.

I always like it, whatever I end up writing while in this mode, but damned if I can force this sort of thing to happen at my bidding. The muse is very fickle with these kinds of stories.

It also only works for short fiction. I can't sustain a trip to "Golden city" for longer than about 15 000 words.

Mode 2
I spend ages obsessing and fighting with plot ideas, trying to outline something that will work. I sometimes enjoy this process, but often I find it a real chore. And if I don't outline in enough detail, I will inevitably find myself painfully stuck when I try to write the story.

However, once the outlining is done properly, I can sit down and just write the bugger with very little trouble.

I usually like what I write while in this mode, but occasionally have to do major rewrites or rethinks, and the work never quite "sings" the way stories that come via Mode 1 do.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I sometimes do Mode 1, too, but it usually only works with poetry/drabbles/shortfic, and I really need to be inspired. Sometimes I'll carry around the seed for a little while and think about it once every so often, and then I'll be at the computer, and an interesting line will pop into my head, and I'll try to capture it.

Mode 2 strikes close to home too. If I have any holes in the outline then I have to go through the whole daydreamy thing again, but it takes a little longer, sometimes, because I'm part of the way through and I have to make certain that it doesn't spoil anything in the future or contradict anything in the past.

[jen-deben.livejournal.com]

Thinking about it, I do the daydreaming part too, but it's faster for me. My brain scurries through the scene once, and then I really need to write it down. If I don't write it down right away, I risk either losing the energy of the scene, or forgetting crucial points so that the scene no longer works well - which is to say, I risk slipping out of Mode 1 and into Mode 2, where the evil outline becomes required.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Hee! That's about how it goes with me! I find that about half of my stories were written in, say, one day (well, there will be some polishing later, but the writing is whoosh). The other half is accompanied by moans and groans, and often it takes a beta to prod at some part of it before it is what I want it to be.

I have often wondered which process produces the best results. If a story doesn't work at once, should I just drop it? It would be a great relief if I could, but more often than not I just can't rest before I have finished it.

However, once the outlining is done properly, I can sit down and just write the bugger with very little trouble.
I envy you :-). I find that if I need an outline at all, the writing is going to be trouble :-(. It seems that there will always be something forced about it, at least to me (I'm not sure about the reader). It is as you say: the ones that just 'drop out of your brain' have a spontaneity (and 'song') that apparently can't be matched by something that needs days and days of careful constructing. I think it's the 'song' that drives me onward; if there is no song, I need an outline :-).

[jen-deben.livejournal.com]

if there is no song, I need an outline

LOL! That's a beautiful way of putting it.

I've decided (for me at least), that it's better for me to just write, rather than wait for the 'song' to start up, even if I'm not totally happy with what I write when it's forced.

I have read authors who say that you should write every day, that there is merit to making a habit of it. Since I have a real tendency to avoid writing if I'm stuck on something, I'm trying to take their advice. Better to have something, rather than nothing, even if it needs work.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. When a text (fictional or otherwise) doesn't run smoothly, I'd do anything to avoid going back to it, and that's not a very productive attitude... :D

Also, it does happen that things that felt forced when I wrote them, actually turn out to be quite all right when I go back to them afterwards. It's true: anything is better than nothing at all... But it's, you know, straining. Only people who don't write can think that writing isn't labour :-).