What's your story-writing process?

[MuscleHintz]

To writers for this forum:

Do you typically write an outline first? A plot summary? Make a visual idea in your head? Do you create a clear intro, climax, and resolution? Do you prefer to make a rough draft of your story on paper before you start? Or do you just put down your pen and start typing?

[arpeejay]

I type, I post, I edit.

Just like Julius Caesar!

xoxo

Richard

[Rarity]

For me it comes from a random inspiration and it spreads out from there. I can take seemingly bland objects, note their attributes, and personify them. From there, all it needs is another random idea - something that fits with the newly made character(s). After that, I type away, reread once or twice, edit as needed, and poooooooost. However, I reread it againandagainandagainandagain to spot mistakes I missed, so most of my posts are edited like crazy.

My strong suit is picturing scenarios and characters pretty quickly. Sometimes I even make them in The Sims 2 just to get a physical image to refer to if I ever get bored enough. The problem is story execution, since my vocabulary is meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh and even though I know many other words it's an idiosyncrasy to use the most common ones over and over and over since I type really fast. I can spit out a story fast, but it probably will be subpar compared to many of the better ones written - like the ones LondonBoy writes.

[nnnrg]

Not that you'd know it from here.

Depends on what I'm writing. If it's directions to a computer or a description of things needed to make those directions (specifications and plans) I generally have a goal already.

Fiction is another thing.

If it's a story, I start with a character, which means a look or personality, and add a situation, then add history and other characters and finally end up with a "snapshot" of the character. If it's a vignette (like the "shorts" that arpeejay has been doing lately) I generally have a description of an event.

Otherwise, it depends on whether I do it just as something I'm writing or if it's part of some kind of roleplay collaboration or writing collaboration, since with group writing, I can't set up the same kind of complicated things I sneak in unless I have learned the other writers' techniques.

When it's just me, if I have a plot already I decide if I'm going to use the standard three-arc three-way-weave that's so very popular in movies. There's books dedicated to this structure. It's more interesting to read things which have that kind of depth to them but it isn't necessary at all - the "Hunter" stories on this forum have an overall progression but there isn't an overall 'conflict' as such, more an exploration of what it means to have rewritten one's own life, and coming to terms with the power to do that and to do it to other lives without losing humanity.

I doubt that I could pull that off. Anyway, what Click_Flash says, I can do fast scenarios and quick character sketches, but unless I'm focussed on something more, they don't really have the depth that a more skilled and inspired writer brings.

And yeah, some day I'll write something suited for here.

[cutlerfan]

I usually start with one scene and work around it. I have a good idea what the scene will be before I write it but not actually outlined. If I were writing a book I would use an outline. For short fiction I think about where the scene starts and where it ends and fill in the middle. My scenes usually start with muscle growth or a transformation of some kind.

[Jaypat]

No two stories of mine have ever been written exactly the same way, but a lot of the time I start with a growth gimmick. Then I come up with characters and situations appropriate to the gimmick, and lastly follows the plot.

I have many ideas on my hard drive that have solid growth gimmicks, good characters and for which I have written a vignette or two. But I haven’t found a plot capable of sustaining and nurturing them into a full fledge story.

At one point, during the plot faze, I stop and figure out the most obvious way the story can go. Most of the time I choose to go a different direction, just to make the story more interesting. But sometimes I do go the obvious direction if I think it’ll work better for the story.

But once I pass the plot hurdle (which means I have a beginning, a middle and an end in mind) and I start writing, I usually let the characters dictate exactly how the story proceeds. Sometimes it’s a serious story and sometimes it’s a light humorous one, and sometimes it changes during the writing process.

For instance: while writing the second chapter of Second Puberty, I decided to go out on a limb and try a little humor. If you notice, the first chapter is a serious MG story and has no humor in it at all. I had never read a humorous MG story before and had no idea how it would be received. As it turned out, it went over very well and from that point on the story practically wrote itself. It was, in fact, a conglomeration of the best MG story ideas that have been rattling around in my head since I was a kid.

I don’t think I’ve ever written a story that has come as easily. Most of them don’t.

The Bet also started out as a serious story, but I got about half way through the first chapter and noticed the story was just lying there flat. I started rereading what I’d written and came to the part where the main character describes himself and his two friends as “testaments to averageness.” Then I realized that was my problem and I remade the main character into Brandon, who is anything but average, and the story took on new life.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is the creative process is really difficult to pin down. For everybody it’s different. And for every story it's different. You just have to find what works for you and go with it. But with that in mind, it certainly doesn’t hurt to ask other people what works for them.

[FuzzyKB]

Originally Posted by MuscleHintz

To writers for this forum:

Do you typically write an outline first? A plot summary? Make a visual idea in your head? Do you create a clear intro, climax, and resolution? Do you prefer to make a rough draft of your story on paper before you start? Or do you just put down your pen and start typing?

I do not submit stories at this location simply because the rules have changed multiple times and there are way too many problems. Things my alter-ego (Wordshop) has done can be found on Metabods and on O's sites.

Every author does this differently and the current postings indicate some of those differences. Because of my background in writing I tend to write and use extensive outlines of a complete story. I then may alter the outline as need arises.

Currently I am doing a very long serialized story, the purpose of this is to try something really different with an MGS that I have not seen. When that story is completed it will probably be the equivalent of about 250 pages in length. This story does have sex, but the focus is more on the lives of the individuals and what might happen if this fantasy were in fact real. What would be the differences in people and how would they cope with the down side of our mutual fantasies. I also tend to present the problems as well as the advantages. There is some mild erotic comedy in the guy who wanted to get "big" and then no longer fits easily in the new Smart Car that his favorite Niece brings over. This is a reality and additionally illustrates the change.

This kind of story has it's place just as much as the short and to the point j/o relief special.

My favorite author of all time was FanTCman/FanTCdude. Some stories I liked better than others as we all do, but his writing style made his characters more real than the average.

The next thing to consider that has incredible eroticism is to get inside the head of the people being transformed. What are they feeling, what are the sensations that they experience, what do they feel as their clothing gets tighter, or other things change? Even the bad side of this has erotic points and few remember this. This all changes based on the circumstances of the transformation.

If the "transformee" is not aware that he is growing and was not willing or informed of what is happening you have all the mental gymnastics that take place under that circumstance. Will the "transformee" accept his changes, will he be afraid of those changes, will he be ashamed and try to hide that transformation? All of these things are options.

Then you have the mental and visual experiences of those observing the transformation. What are they feeling, there are a variety of responses on this as well.

There are only so many ways to initiate a transformation. It can be medical/chemical, it can be magic, it can be nanotechnology, it can be alien encounter and it can be just plain hard work.

Wordshop has tried all of the above and had various different feelings about the results of them.

Writing in spurts is common to all who do it simply because of the presence of the "muse" and the personal time commitment.

Wordshop writes a certain percentage and then "we" let that work sit on the computer for a period of a couple of weeks at minimum or longer if possible. The longer you let it sit, the greater the chances are that proofreading will catch the errors. You can be caught up in your own writing and not see things when you are committing your words to the screen.

Hope that this helps any and all who want it. . . . .