/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.11246470]

What are the beginning steps of your writing process?

Development of themes that you want to explore? Plot? Characters?

[Anonymous No.11246476]

>>11246470
what my dick wants to read about

[Anonymous No.11246688]

>>11246476
this

[Anonymous No.11248058]

I just start writing. You almost always have to bear through some bullshit to hypnotize yourself into it but it usually begins then

[Anonymous No.11249653]

I always write something about not being able to write because stupid and brainlet and then keep writing whatever comes into mind until I'm into it. Like >>11248058 said, you have to be hypnotized.

[Anonymous No.11249668]

>>11246470
Situations, then decisions, then exploring the characters which naturally leads to plot and theme.

[Anonymous No.11249790]

I find a composer that clicks and then craft a playlist of their work like an unofficial soundtrack. Listen to nothing but said soundtrack and watch scenes in your head materialize. For bonus points, method act all your characters, yelling over your obnoxiously loud music intended to drown out reality, and grab a prop or two for even more autism points. Oh yeah you should write eventually too

[Anonymous No.11250698]

>>11246470
>What are the beginning steps of your writing process?
>Development of themes that you want to explore? Plot? Characters?

Generally I figure out a setting or character I am interested in, develop them a bit, waste some time writing origins and introductions and then have to throw it all out again

Frequently I will end up mocking up a cover at around the 1/4 point through the book. This takes a couple hours and it is a surprisingly meditative process; allowing me to think about characters, setting, tone and events.

PICTURE RELATED is the cover to a project I have abandoned after about 8,000 words that got repeatedly rewritten. (I realized that I had a setting and a character I wanted to insert into it but no story arc.)
All of the elements on this cover are stand-ins. The front figure if the closest to a final look but I would end up redoing him for scratch. The robot int he background is a free-to-use 3D model but it doesn't match what I think the one in the story would look like and the submarine is a digitally edited Transformers accessory. These are just to give a feel for the world.

I have repeatedly tried to get a Giant Robot story started. This was my second attempt. The first was subversion but lacked story dynamism, the second was a reconstruction and satire but lacked a story arc. The 3rd, which I think I will actually follow through on is a more or less straightforward version of the genre but grounded in the organization politics which get shoved off to the side in most stories. With me luck on that last one... I feel liek I really have a germ of a story there!

IMO the hardest thing about developing a story is knowing the difference between a setting, a character and a story. You need all 3 but you can get surprisingly far into development before realizing that one is missing.

[Anonymous No.11251254]

I settle on a particular theme I want to write about, or an association of ideas I think can be related as part of some larger problem or theme, and then I start writing the main characters and the setup/the lead-in into the conflict, adding in extra characters here and there, different conflicts, subplots, etc. as I go.

I write without an outline, so there are a moderate amount of loose ends and some characters that suddenly disappear because I either forgot to keep writing them in to scenes where they could have fit, or because I realized later on that they should just be erased entirely, so I make a bunch of notes on the side and then within the text itself if I need to pay attention to a particular line or passage, and I resolve all the issues on the revision/rewrite.

I'll often have all sorts of new ideas on how to change a bunch of things, so I'll leave a bunch of notes and have to do another revision/rewrite lol. The process can be never-ending if you allow it to be. I think I revised what is technically my first book more than fifteen times, including two rewrites, before I finally released it, and even then I'm still highly critical of it.

[Anonymous No.11252759]

>>11246470
The first thing to understand is that 99 out of 100 people who write should not write and that you're almost certainly one of those 99 people.

[Anonymous No.11252766]

>>11252759
This is true but at the same time, you won't find out where you at for certain until you actually write.

[Anonymous No.11252772]

>>11252759
writing is a learnable skill

[Anonymous No.11252906]

>>11246470
It typically starts with an argument or problem surfacing in my head. I then write out the bones of that in dialogue or as a scene. The setting and other necessary elements of story are almost never put down at first. Those things come as I put the pieces together. The initial argument or action needs to sort out first. Then I can wait until I have another topic, argument, or action that my mind is playing with and I string it in somewhere as another scene. As scenes come together I begin to form an idea of who these characters are, where they fall in a plot, and what their ultimate resolution will be.

[Anonymous No.11252947]

I sit down and write out an idea or emotion. Idea's however are terrible to base a story from. So I take that idea, ask the five W's (who, what, when ...) and then try and turn that into a concept. After that I decide whether or not to base it as a story of: how the story develops to x concept, or, the world is x, will it change or stay the same.
Then it's a few days writing out pure plot. I usually try to get about 10k words of only cause and effect. Any and all characters (including and if there's an MC) are used situationally and are not thought of preconceived. Actually, nothing is preconceived except for the concept.
After this, I re read it thoroughly. If I like it, then I'll sit it away for a few weeks to read it again. finally, If I still like it, I'll develop the story.
This entails a lot of steps, and I usually start with the worlds continuity. Making sure characters should be where they are, act the way they are, and so on. I like to keep my worlds fairly open without a focus on a single character, and have an MC emerge out throughout the story. From there, I try and break the rules with a small plot lines, and mix situations throughout the work to try break tropes so the story isn't stale and mediocre. Once that draft is done it's onto colour.
The colour draft is my favorite, because it's all about putting down little clues and signals about what can or will happen. A great way to create tension. If you associate a colour with a character, or with characters development it infers cause and effect which will relate when the colour is shown, if that makes any sense. Just to give an example, you can give someone say, red clothing, and by the end they're wearing gold clothing. It gives a nice story the reader can get value from. Likewise, you can also do this through the environment, and associate colour with mood or atmosphere to show a change in colour to imply character development. Green environments might be suitable for the outdoors and nature, but if you make something like cities atmosphere green, it implies sickness (or something like that). So if you have an object or person which stand against that colour, then you have something special to focus on. It's hard to do in writing however, because you have to build up a specific image that can hold in the readers mind.
Then the next few drafts go over framing relationships between characters, needs and desires, sharpening up dialogue, ect ect.
A couple more drafts then I'll start looking to publish

[Anonymous No.11252951]

>>11252772
absolutely not
>writing is a learnable skill
case and point.

[Anonymous No.11253289]

>>11252772
meme

[Anonymous No.11253325]

Jack Kerouac used to just sit down and spam whatever he had on his mind until it formed into a book.

I do a similar thing, I spam absolute shit then go back and meticulously edit it until it's readable.

[Anonymous No.11253341]

>>11246470
For me, i start by writing what i fant the theme and characters to represent, as well as their relationship and conflicts. I try to create no antagonist at first and write every character being "good" so that should i decide one will be the protagonist and another have a conflict against him, both will have genuine reasons to do what they do. Then i try to write an elevator pitch for the whole story to get the feel of it, then i subdivide it into all the parts/chapters and write what i want to happen in each. I write quotes and events i know for sure i want to happen and as i begin actually writing the story i usually get nice surprises and ideas i didn't think of before so i note them.

[Anonymous No.11253363]

Is it a good idea to try writing more than one book at once?

I have multiple ideas floating around my head and want to write them down before I forget about them

[Anonymous No.11254049]

>>11253363
better to stick to one, because moving onto another project while there are others about will make it so you never get published

[Anonymous No.11254083]

>>11254049

> will make it so you never get published

how?

[Anonymous No.11254085]

Learn from the best

>3:00 p.m.
rise

>3:05
Chivas Regal with the morning papers, Dunhills

>3:45
cocaine

>3:50
another glass of Chivas, Dunhill

>4:05
first cup of coffee, Dunhill

>4:15
cocaine

>4:16
orange juice, Dunhill

>4:30
cocaine

>4:54
cocaine

>5:05
cocaine

>5:11
coffee, Dunhills

>5:30
more ice in the Chivas

>5:45
cocaine, etc., etc.

>6:00
grass to take the edge off the day

>7:05
Woody Creek Tavern for lunch-Heineken, two margaritas, coleslaw, a taco salad, a double order of fried onion rings, carrot cake, ice cream, a bean fritter, Dunhills, another Heineken, cocaine, and for the ride home, a snow cone (a glass of shredded ice over which is poured three or four jiggers of Chivas)

>9:00
start snorting cocaine seriously

>10:00
drop acid

>11:00
Chartreuse, cocaine, grass

>11:30
cocaine, etc, etc.

>12:00 midnight
Thomas Pynchon is ready to write

[Anonymous No.11254097]

>>11253363

Thomas Pynchon wrote three books at once just to flex on brainlets

[Anonymous No.11254703]

>>11253363
I have side pieces that i work on when i want a break from my main project. Just don't get attached to side pieces