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different appraches towards stories



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Sat May 07, 2016 1:07 pm
MrBrainwasher says...



We all writers have different approaches towards stories,I haven't completed a single story yet,though I would say,it's more because of lack of time.But still,I need to know about someone's experience.
Like,how one get to the story
How he starts
Do they know the end??
Please help
  





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Sun May 15, 2016 8:59 pm
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Zackymas says...



Well finishing a story can be easy, and done relatively quick. Because writing a story isn't necessarily writing a 50,000 words-long novel. You could simply write a 100 words-long flash fiction. Which is most of the stories I write. I realized how I simply can't bring myself to write novels, I enjoy quick, short moments full of emotion which eventually build up to a bigger scheme. Thus now I write tons of short stories and flash fiction, while at the same time trying to develop a world/idea.

What I do the most is "writing from the seat of my pants" or simply writing as you go. No actual outline, just get IC and see what happens. I usually know the end when I get to the middle of the story; sometimes I set it before starting. Other times I just go on until I feel like it's time to finish.

You just gotta find your voice man :)
  





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Sun May 15, 2016 9:30 pm
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Kale says...



I used to have major story commitment issues, and for the longest time I couldn't figure out why I'd lose interest in stories longer than 5k words.

Eventually, I figured out that I'm very much a spontaneous writer, meaning that planning things out in detail really killed my interest in a story, and that if I wasn't interested in a story, I'd lose my motivation to complete it. Nowadays, I keep my planning as loose as possible (planning being used in the loosest sense of "here's a bunch of cool stuff I want to happen") and save the major structural concerns for later drafts, because editing and revision are amazing things. This approach has worked out really well for me, and it also helps me wave off my inner perfectionist because the perfectionism has its set time and place (namely, after the first draft of word vomit has been completed).

A lot of people I know who have issues completing stories tend to be more spontaneous writers, so if you're similarly a spontaneous writer, you might find my approach useful.

With that said, there's nothing wrong with short stories, and some of the most impactful and thought-provoking stories I've read have been quite short. Hemingway is an excellent author to look into, as well as Asimov. Both are known for their novels, but their short stories are excellent.

I also tend to write things completely out-of-order. My usual progression is usually middle, end, then beginning, with lots of jumping around between as I fill the gaps in with scenes. It's pretty chaotic, but it works well for me, especially since it gives me a good grip on the central conflict/turning point of the story as well as where things eventually end up. At the same time though, I make sure I'm not too wedded to the details, so sometimes things like the ending will change so that it's the same in spirit/significance, but completely different in execution than I initially envisioned.

I've mentioned a little about how I organize my planning/writing over in this thread, if you're interested: What is a StoryBible?

Basically though, when I go into a story, I rarely know how it starts or ends. I figure that out along the way, and it's the figuring out that gives me the motivation to complete at least the first draft of the story.
Secretly a Kyllorac, sometimes a Murtle.
There are no chickens in Hyrule.
Princessence: A LMS Project
WRFF | KotGR
  





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Thu May 26, 2016 4:13 am
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Rosendorn says...



I am a ridiculously stubborn individual, so I tend to start at the beginning and finish at the end, even if it takes me three years. But you asked, specifically, how a person knows where those things are, and my answer is basically: where you feel like it is.

For me, the start of a story is the start of the cool stuff. I have one story that opens with talking to a friend about boy troubles that turns into a kidnapping in the first scene. I have another where there's an intel gathering operation that goes horribly wrong (or right, depending on your perspective) and the main character trips into an underground war. I'm a very late starter because I tend to start with the scene that makes me go "here. Here is where things start getting fun to write" and I worry about introducing backstory later.

When it comes to endings, those are where the story has basically run its course. Has the character's life stopped? No. I have written enough sequels (both official and fanfiction) to know that lives never end and there's always a new adventure. But as you write and poke and prod at the story, you'll find there is a point where the conflict is resolved, there's a bow on the present, and not all the threads might be picked up but the main one is, and the loose ends are best left loose.

My general writing process is basically hopping from one cool thing to the next and figuring out the most awesome bridges to get from A to B possible. While Kyll jumps around writing the key scenes then bridges them later, I use the key scenes and plot them along some vague sense of timeline because the buildup towards those scenes often changes how the key scene plays out and I get very frustrated when the bridges don't take me to what I had imagined. As a result, I tend to figure out the key twist or goal for the scene and leave the details to when I've actually written my way up to there. Or keep the goals really short so I can recreate them no matter what the lead up.

Basically, I follow butterflies and write out the path the butterfly takes as I go. The start of the story is when I notice the butterfly; the end of the story is where that butterfly stops to rest and I can finally catch it to admire both its beauty and the path I took to find there. It's constantly asking myself "what'd be cool to write about?" and never really looking farther than a few thousand words in the future (which is like pulling teeth in my current novel draft because I'm not quite sure where C and D are, after having written A and working on B, but I'm getting there) just because there's no point, for me.

It's all about gut feeling and doing what I love and trying to make something that makes me feel something. There's no science, and you can follow every scientific advice in the world and still not find something that makes you finish a story.

Only writing what interests you can do that.

So stay hungry and keep hunting things you want to put on paper.

You'll be amazed what you can do.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  








Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.
— Maya Angelou