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Mar. 14th, 2008 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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anansi133
I want to read more about how it feels when you write. Where do you imagine that these stories are coming from? Do you fight with your characters? How does the plot reveal itself to you?
Since I spent the day writing Dr. Who fanfic, (:bats eyes: why, yes, I'd love for you to read it and give me a critique!), I thought that this would be a good time to answer this one.
It all starts with a feeling. A do something feeling. I have no way to describe it other than to say it is a "it's time to write" feeling. If I was a professional writer, I would have this feeling somewhat tamed-to-hand, but where I am now, it's a fey thing that comes and goes. The first story I wrote was a play of Hänsel und Gretel in second grade. I've just always written.
A lot of the time, this feeling is sparked by an idea (read:obsession) or some other creative work. When I started writing Lewis Door, I was madly in lust with a certain Professor of Physics. My fantasies about him started becoming story lines and then it all just fell together.
I suck at plotting. What happens is that I see a certain scene -- um, it's kindof like seeing a memory, eh? And then I see another scene and then I have to let my head figure out how the characters get from scene A to scene B. I just got a scene for the WIP, just a sensory explosion, and now I have to figure out how it fits in with the story line.
Where does all this come from? I don't know, lover. I think that the human brain is an amazing thing, more amazing than most people dare to believe. I know that my own subconscious is an incredible stew of feelings and hopes, sensations and observations. I am not exceptionally bright, so sometimes it takes me a bit to work out what's coming from that stew pot; it comes out as dreams and intuition and these odd bits of story.
The most interesting thing about the writing process is when it is flowing along, when writing is at the same flow of information as reading. I was writing the WIP when a character just appeared, unplanned and unasked for -- but he appeared full formed and integral to the story line. I can only give you a weak shrug as explanation.
Finally, there is a craft to it, too. Grammar, vocabulary, the flow of dialog and description -- that part takes practice to come out right.
It is a wild ride and it can be a pain in the ass, too. Once a story has hold of me, I am its captive, quite literally. And there's the certain grief that it's really not that good and all I'm doing is wasting my time and causing myself embarrassment. But ... but I'll always have them, now. Jean Baptiste in his icy sepulcher; Nokomis Moonborn, blood steaming down her face; Lewis, standing at the Door of Chaos; Bastizhe, slashing the monster, screaming in rage and pain -- they are all me, and of me, and not me. I am never alone and I am never alone.
anansi133 I want to read more about how it feels when you write. Where do you imagine that these stories are coming from? Do you fight with your characters? How does the plot reveal itself to you?
Since I spent the day writing Dr. Who fanfic, (:bats eyes: why, yes, I'd love for you to read it and give me a critique!), I thought that this would be a good time to answer this one.
It all starts with a feeling. A do something feeling. I have no way to describe it other than to say it is a "it's time to write" feeling. If I was a professional writer, I would have this feeling somewhat tamed-to-hand, but where I am now, it's a fey thing that comes and goes. The first story I wrote was a play of Hänsel und Gretel in second grade. I've just always written.
A lot of the time, this feeling is sparked by an idea (read:obsession) or some other creative work. When I started writing Lewis Door, I was madly in lust with a certain Professor of Physics. My fantasies about him started becoming story lines and then it all just fell together.
I suck at plotting. What happens is that I see a certain scene -- um, it's kindof like seeing a memory, eh? And then I see another scene and then I have to let my head figure out how the characters get from scene A to scene B. I just got a scene for the WIP, just a sensory explosion, and now I have to figure out how it fits in with the story line.
Where does all this come from? I don't know, lover. I think that the human brain is an amazing thing, more amazing than most people dare to believe. I know that my own subconscious is an incredible stew of feelings and hopes, sensations and observations. I am not exceptionally bright, so sometimes it takes me a bit to work out what's coming from that stew pot; it comes out as dreams and intuition and these odd bits of story.
The most interesting thing about the writing process is when it is flowing along, when writing is at the same flow of information as reading. I was writing the WIP when a character just appeared, unplanned and unasked for -- but he appeared full formed and integral to the story line. I can only give you a weak shrug as explanation.
Finally, there is a craft to it, too. Grammar, vocabulary, the flow of dialog and description -- that part takes practice to come out right.
It is a wild ride and it can be a pain in the ass, too. Once a story has hold of me, I am its captive, quite literally. And there's the certain grief that it's really not that good and all I'm doing is wasting my time and causing myself embarrassment. But ... but I'll always have them, now. Jean Baptiste in his icy sepulcher; Nokomis Moonborn, blood steaming down her face; Lewis, standing at the Door of Chaos; Bastizhe, slashing the monster, screaming in rage and pain -- they are all me, and of me, and not me. I am never alone and I am never alone.