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#1
06-23-2005, 09:41 PM
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The writing process
I have been trying to get started on writing a fictional novel but I am really struggling with where/how to begin
I have most of the characters thought out and all the major events/timeline. But what to do next is stumping me. As of now I have a bunch of jumbled events floating around in my head. Anyone work on something similar? 
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#3
06-23-2005, 09:42 PM
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Re: The writing process
Maybe start with an outline. Or else just start writing to get a draft - something. Then go back over it and over it and improve it wherever you see that it can be improved.
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#5
06-23-2005, 09:51 PM
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Re: The writing process
Take a scene you like. It doesn't matter where it occurs in the timeline. Take a scene you have in your mind that you think will work well, and write it. Re-write it. Re-write it again. Work on that scene until you are sick of it, and then pick another scene to work on.
Eventually you can tie the different scenes together. Thats how I write.
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#7
06-23-2005, 10:01 PM
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Re: The writing process
Unjumble them by writing out all the scenes, on index cards maybe. You can always add things and change them later, but a really clearly written down outline and scene by scene plan helps a lot to keep your through-line clear and everything coherent and connected. And to clarify what your own goals are and what you really think about your characters and themes, etc.
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#8
06-23-2005, 10:22 PM
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Re: The writing process
The best advice I can give you is to just start writing the story wherever it seems like it should start. Don't worry about the grammar and all of that, just write. Tell the story. Get to know your characters.
You may find that you're starting in the wrong place, and what you thought would or should happen won't. The characters need to decide for themselves what they'll be doing. If you don't find this happening, well, you aren't succeeding in bringing them to life. That's something that a lot of writers forget, and why many books suck. If you try to fit the story to an outline, the character motivations won't be genuine and the book will suck. Any story, not just Tolkien's, grows in the telling. ~D
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#9
06-23-2005, 10:32 PM
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Re: The writing process
Depends on how genuine your thinking is before your outline shapes up. People aren't paint-by-numbers, but neither is a writer's understanding of them, necessarily.
There's a place for both structure and things organically growing from themselves. Neither is mutually exclusive.
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