How do you write a story? · 9:15pm Mar 18th, 2012
First off, I would like to thank everyone who's read World of Chaos. It JUST hit 1000 views on a single chapter (prologue... duh). Granted I think I lose a lot of readers betweent then and my latest chapters, but whatever. I'm still excited that it hit the big one triple zero... or something like that. Now on to the real part of the post!
When I write a story, I do it in a very very VERY organized manner, almost to a fault...
1) Check outline I've written: Before I do anything, I make sure that I've outline the chapter I've written, and at least 3-4 chapters in advance. This outline will be decently long for a one-shot, or short (per chapter) for a multi chapter story. For example, Anniversary had a 2.5 page long outline detailing every little moment. However, for World of Chaos, some of the chapters that are in the 4k word length have only about 9 bullet points. As such, my one shots tend to be much closer to what I've written into the outline, while the multi-chapters tend to be more "major moments/quotes", and I let the situation and characters KINDA write themselves. An example is that in World of Chaos, there is a dream sequence (won't give out details in case you wanna read it) that I wrote in. Didn't outline that part in the slightest, but it led into the next part of the chapter very well, which I DID outline.
2) Write the first draft: This obviously takes up the most time, and depending on the length of the chapter, and how motivated I feel, can take a day, or a week. Obviously the longer they are, the longer it takes, but this isn't always the case. One chapter that ended up being only 2500 words took me five times as long as one that had 4000, becaus the 2500 was just that much more painful to write for me. Not much left to say about this part...
3) Review it OUTLOUD: This is a step that is essential to my editor's sanity. Basically, after I've written the story, I let it sit in my computer for a day or two, and then I read it through again. When I do this, when I can, I like to read the chapter out loud, talking the chapter through. Trust me, it makes all the damn difference, and a lot of writers need to learn is a very good idea. Reading it silently, you miss a lot of stuff that would sound weird, times you write the same descriptive word over and over again, or when you call someone the same thing 5 times in a row in that many sentences. Granted you look like a crazy person, but trust me when I say that reading the story out loud helps a lot.
4) Email to editor: At this point, I'll send it to my editor. Mostly, unless I write in notes, its to make sure three things. 1) Grammar is alright. 2) I'm not sounding out of character. 3) I didn't break continuity. Yes, he could look at other things, but I like how he focuses on these three the most, letting me do my thing. I don't like the idea of editors changing around the story a lot, changing plot points, scenes, and etc. Maybe I'm a control freak, but those editors scare me! Anyways, this part takes several days, and could last even longer. During this time, I am usually starting up writing on the next chapter, so at no point am I not working on SOMETHING. After he gets done, he sends it back to me with color coded edits of recommended changes and such.
5) Review edits, and edit: Once I get it back, I read through the chapter, and look at the color coded edits he's done. Then, I open another copy of the chapter without the edits, and I make the changes on it that way. However, I do not make every single edit the way my editor says I should, and sometimes I'll do something different, and sometimes I won't do anything at all! This is something that I'm sure he hates, but whatever, he ain't my keeper! This doesn't actaully take too long.
6) Read again: At this point, I'll read what I have written for a third time, making sure everything flows correctly, words aren't being weird, and I'm not repeating myself again. Yes, the editor and I have both gone through this baby, but we are merely human (for now), and so we make errors. Depending on how many edits I make, I might repeat 4-5, but sometimes, I am satisfied with what I have. Also, in a one-shot, I will repeat 4-5 multiple times, making sure every single thing has been done to death. For example: in World of Chaos, I usually email a chapter once, MAYBE twice to him. Anniversary was emailed about five times to him.
7) (For multi-chapter) Let it sit for a while: To anyone who reads my stories, I'm sure that this news will make them either confused, or mad, but by the time I am done with this chapter, I'll be forced to wait a solid two or three WEEKS at least before posting it. Why you ask? Well, lets say I was working on chapter 10 of World of Chaos. Well, I remember back then, I was JUST posting chapter 4 of that story by the time I had 10 edited and ready. The main reason I write ahead so much is that I am granted the ability of retroactive changes. Example: lets say I make a flying carpet big enough for 6 ponies. Well, lets say that the mane six are flying it, but I introduce 4 new earth ponies. Awkward, so I just go back, and make it 8 ponies it fits or something. Bad example, but you get what I mean. Oh, and before you say "Hey! Don't do that! That provides interesting plot ideas!" I hear ya, but I mean in situations where I don't want to waste time.
8) Final read, and post: Just before I post the story, I do one final reading of the story. This reading is only for spelling and grammar mistakes. I do NOT do any major changes other than this, mainly because its impulsive, and usually isn't as good as what's written already. Then... I POST IT!!!
Well there ya go! That's how I do it! Let me know how you guys write stories? Do you do something like this? Do you wing it without an outline? Do you wanna kill me now that you know I'm sitting on about 4 completed chapters of World of Chaos? Comment!
EDIT: I didn't mention it, but at every point I make significant changes to a story, I make sure to read it out loud. Minor changes like spelling errors, I tend not to.
wow this could really help me with my two storyies. Hope/ or a baby in equestria, and Twilight and Nix(might change the title of that one maybe Nix and the main 6, or Nix: memories of the past.) so far i have been winging it without a plotline.
This is a partial repost from a comment on Midnight Shadow's blog as he asked the same question:
[Well, I can give you my methods but really, I'm way more disorganized than yourself.
I'm ashamed to admit it, but most of the time all my ideas and plot stay in my head. Occasionally, I'll write out a simply outline that I want a story to take, usually nothing more than a few sentences or paragraphs, and then try to fill in the blanks from A to B as best I can. Sometimes this doesn't go well because I often think up a really cool idea but don't write it down. Then, when I get to the part with that idea, it never seems to come out as well as I first imagined it.
However, this also means I don't marry myself to just one way of doing things. If it's not on paper for me to follow, I'm sometimes a little more fluid with my writing and can change things when I need to. Even if it means taking things out that I really thought would work well.
It's definitely not a perfect system. If I were really serious about how my stories went, I would get pre-readers to hack through my chapters until they are a wreck of their former selves and leave me struggling to fix it all back together again with stronger tape. Or something like that.
Every author has a method to their madness and mine often leads me to forget things that I had wanted to say.]
That's what I had on his blog. Reading your methods leaves me cringing at how laid back I am when I write and post. When I finish a new chapter/installment, I generally read through it for grammatical errors and then get it up on the site. I then check any feedback I get for improvements or suggestions and try to address their concerns. Sometimes, reviews will lead me to think of things I wouldn't have otherwise and help tighten up my plot.
That's that. Not perfect by any stretch, but it has served me well so far.
35049 I am glad that I am able to help! Helping others is what I do best (note: that's a lie)
36520 I tried this once in a D&D game (not an actual story), and I have to say while it is interesting, I find the concept of not knowing exactly what you are doing to be very very hard to keep organized. Also, I find it extremely hard to make mysteries in the story that last longer than a chapter or two unless I write them down in detail so that I can always hint at it, but never say it. And like I said, my outline isn't set in stone. There are places where I say things like:
- Rainbow and Applejack walk to the store
- buy cupcakes
- eat cupcakes
However, in the story, I might have them run across Twilight on the way there, have them have some wacky encounter with Pinkie, and the cupcakes turn into the largest muffin in the world. Outline for me only serves as a roadmap on what I KINDA need to do to get where I need to go, and I let the characters move the story (if that makes sense).
And as always, thanks for the comments!
Hello Ugugg93, I've finally gotten around to reading and commenting on your blog. Okay, the former isn't exactly true, I have yet to read your blog as I want to first comment on the subject of 'How do you write a story?' without any of your ideas muddling my own or altering how I describe my own process of writing. I will comment on yours yes but first I will answer the question.
1) I come up with a story idea - Yes, this one is pretty obvious but some authors do just sit down and doodle away without any idea formed and go from there. My ideas tend to just spring to mind, most often in dreams and I let them play out in my head like I'm watching an anime or a cartoon (or sometimes even a game) and start dreaming of how the scene progresses.
2) I ignore my dream - Yes, upon getting a story idea appear in my head I go ahead and forget about it.
3) I begin writing - I proceed to dream about the story idea again, and again, and again and then I snap. It's at this point that I get fed up of it being stuck in my head, sit down at my desk, and begin to write. I try to write down the story, usually writing the introduction, or sometimes even the first chapter before I get stuck.
4) Planning - It is only once I get stuck for the first time that I decide to bullet point my idea down. The reason why I don't simply begin by bullet pointing the events of my story down, noting each event including the beginning, middle, and end, along with any lines or jokes that I remember being rather funny from my dream, is because this is also the stage where I begin to change the story. As I bullet point the story down I think of how I could improve upon my dream, or think of scenes and events that would be important for the story that my dream lacked, as well things that could be found interesting or funny.
5) I write in accordance to the plan - I then go back to writing the story, this time writing the entire story based on the notes I had previously written. I may add something that is not in the plan or change something in the midst of my writing but this is the point where I usually just keep on going until it's almost done.
6) I check the story before completion - An odd thing I do, is that before I reach the conclusion or final moments I check what I have written. This is so I can tell what I need to wrap up with my conclusion and whether anything I have written contradicts the planned ending.
7) I finish the story - Exactly what it says. I reach the end of my story and then proceed to leave it alone.
8) A day to a week later I re-read my story - Once again it is exactly as it says. I re-read my story after at least a day but I try to aim for a time frame of a week, and begin to edit my story in all regards.
9) I upload - Satisfied with editing I then upload the story. The problem is that the uploading system tends to always bugger up my story so I have to go through and sort out all the spacing, bolding, italics, and paragraphs all over again. I may notice the odd oddity and go about correcting it during this process.
10) I do stuff depending on the type of story - In the case of a one-shot I leave the story be, reading all the comments I receive for it. I don't edit the story unless a serious mistake is found, and it is not until a year has passed that I edit the story, fixing mistakes, improving vocabulary and what not.
I realise now that this list only applies for my one-shots as there are some key differences with my writing of multi-chaptered stories. For instance I do not plan out the whole of a multi-chaptered story once I get stuck, I keep a rough idea of it in my head but I actually plan out on paper only the chapter I am writing for. Instead of simply stopping when I finish the first chapter, I then go onto planning out the next chapter, and then writing the next chapter based on that plan. I do not consider uploading any chapters of my story until it is at least halfway completed, and I edit all my uploaded chapters only once my story is completed.
I do not always follow this way of writing a story but it is the way I do things the majority of the time. Now to read about how you write your stories and to comment.
1) A key difference between us then is that I try to write without an outline at first, just to see whether I enjoy the story that I'm thinking about, and to see what I can write without a written plan to follow. I also only outline the chapter that I am working on and not any of the ones afterwards however I do see yours as the overall better way of doing things, and the method that would be better to teach new writers than that of my own.
2) For me there are a lot of processes along the moment of a first draft but that is because I try to go forward without a plan first. As you already have a plan you can follow it to the end without worries.
3) I do know of the importance of reading aloud and with the occasional line, mostly speaking parts, I do, however I know it can prove rather futile in regards to myself. For narration after all, I try to write it like I, and I do fancy myself in having quite the oddity of a speaking manner. For instance and for you see, the line before and the line I write now and think right now are more in tune with that which I speak and I already know it isn’t normal. I would describe my way of speaking to be like either a poet, my words sung or a song spoken, or that of man who makes even the most basic and informal words sound craftier and more intelligent than what he even is. The works of Geoffrey Chaucer, and 'Crime and Punishment' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the characters within their works speak more in a manner that I do, with sentences going on longer than should and diverging often into topics yet reached. Still, in regards to the speaking lines of characters, speaking aloud does indeed help wonders and I see how it does help with spotting repeated errors and the like.
4) This I never do, have never once had an editor or proof-reader. I assume when I get myself into publicised writing that I will have to do this process but until then my editor are all my readers willing to point out my mistakes. I assume it does help a great deal, even if some small mistakes are always left lying around in a chapter.
5) This seems handy but also quite annoying, having to switch pages over and over again in order to edit them. Whatever works best for you though, and having worked as a proof-reader you will be happy to know that we don't expect the writer to make all the changes we suggest, some of the things we suggest are things that work better for us than that of the writer as we all tend to have different writing styles and different ideas of what we think works best.
6) I do believe you may be a little excessive in the amount of times you re-read but it is always good to give it at least one re-read each time you or someone else have edited the story, however small you may think the edit is. Other times it is more efficient to simply re-read a single scene or paragraph, keeping your attention firmly on that if it something you think could do with an improvement or re-wording.
7) I don't mind, in fact I prefer it this way. This means we don't have to wait too long for a new chapter because you already have the next one written up; you simply need to make edits to it. I think it's the best way to go and approve of this method so no mad feelings here.
8) I do agree with you on the impulsive changes, something I have done before and it is true that they don't come out as well. For instance the addition of Pinkie Pie in the second chapter of 'Thank You Cider' was an impulse addition and I still feel it could be better worded. This doesn't bother me too much though as I do look to my readers as my form of editors so it is no problem to me unless they point it out as something to improve upon.
I do believe my responses to your comments could have been more about your methods and less on how they compare to mine or why they don't work for me but oh well, I've commented on each one regardless. Another interesting, discussion generating blog post from you, bravo good chap and cheerio!
Note: If anything I say here comes off as insulting in any degree, I humbly apologize.
56554
You are completely insane with the amount you write, you know that right?
Ok, now that I have that out of my system, I can actually comment on your post itself. I'll actually work backwards, commenting first on how you talked about my style, then yours. Looking at it, it looks very very high school/college term paper style of writing. You know it, the kind of writing that your english teachers told you you should write, meanwhile, you are rolling your eyes, daydreaming, or doodling on your desk. That said, I think that, at least for larger stories, it is the ONLY way that I will ever be able to write. Sounds a little harsh, but, at least with the way that I am writing, there is so many mysteries, plotlines, and character interactions to keep track of, that if I don't write something, I WILL have a major plot hole. I am proud to say that as of right now (as far as I'm aware), I do not have any plot holes in my story, and any points that look like plot holes only appear to be right now, but will be "solved" in all good time. Does this sound like bragging? Probably, but dammit this is my blog, and I can say what I want!
Now, a little disclaimer, I rarely follow my outline to the book, and I always find myself embellishing the scene, changing things up, adding sections, etc. For example, the (POTENTIAL MINOR SPOILERS) most recent scene in my story with Rainbow and Fluttershy, I only wrote 8 bullets for the entire section with those two. The bush scene was added in, the stalking the inn was embellished heavily, and the Quill encounter was competely off the cuff. That said, I did hit every single bullet in my outline (except one which I decided was not a good idea), and it started and stopped where I needed it too. Oh, and if you think this is a one time sort of occurance, the Applejack Pinkie scene just before was only 7 bullets.
As for me reading my story... yeah... I probably read it too much. One shots are by far the worst in this regard, because if I make a mistake in a multi chapter story, I can shrug it off, edit it, and continue on. In a one shot story, if I don't make that good impression in that one (or two) chapter, then I'm toast. That said, I read the chapters until I am sick of them, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing, bad thing, or really neutral in nature. In any case, the only time I (usually) make significant changes to my chapters after I send them to be edited are the first time they are sent back. After that first edit, I rarely make any significant edits to the story, and it mostly just stems around how words flow with each other, repeating the same words, or spelling errors.
For your style, I would literally go insane
. The idea of not having an outline would freak me out, and not editing it as much as I do would kill my nerves. However, I do see the merits in your style, so I can't say it is a bad one, just one that I would never try to partake in.
The one thing thing that you did touch on was coming up with a story, which is something I didn't go in to, and won't go in to in this comment, but I probably will touch on how I brainstorm story ideas in a later post.