![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Tell me, how do you write...
Feb. 13th, 2005 04:04 pmWe're all familiar with the problem: the basic idea is there, it only needs to be wrapped in words. And as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tartanshell pointed out so rightly, this is often difficult or bording on impossible. Even if you manage to write down your brilliant ideas, they seem bland and stupid as soon as you see them on paper, and words turn out to not be your friend.
So what about your own writing keeps you going? I don't mean stuff like the craving for feedback, or impeding deadlines or the fact that you promised someone a fic. Obviously, we write because we enjoy writing. And I'd like to know what is it that you, dear authors, like about your own fics and how you go on about creating them. I'm particularly interested in your writing processes. Do you have a plot all worked out and write down concepts, or do you write instinctively? I knowmaeglinyedi once said that she's always got the last sentence of the fic ready before she starts writing, which I find quite impressive, as the last sentence is what I almost always struggle with a lot.
As to me, I think that I'm a very dialogue-based author. I often have dialogue snippets ready long before the fic, I enjoy writing dialogues and dialogues are also what I feel most confident about - as opposed to introspections and descriptions, my feeling for which is rather wobbly. The final dialogue between Remus and Bill in Genesis, for example, was written in one of the first stages of the process. Because I tend to focus on dialogues, I often have a) no plot to speak of and b) my characters drink ridiculous amounts of water so that I can intersperse the dialogue with pretences of action - as illustrated in the aforementioned ( cock and tongue talk )
So, my fics aren't plotty, my characters are wordy (which doesn't mean that they actually communicate matters of importance!), and I even announced Panic as PWPBWLOD - Porn Without Plot But With Lots Of Dialogue.
But - to come back to my original question - I usually make the effort to create a framework around my dialogues, which is how I manage to continue writing. Because the dialogues are all there in my head and need to be let out.
They're talking to me.
tartanshell pointed out so rightly, this is often difficult or bording on impossible. Even if you manage to write down your brilliant ideas, they seem bland and stupid as soon as you see them on paper, and words turn out to not be your friend. So what about your own writing keeps you going? I don't mean stuff like the craving for feedback, or impeding deadlines or the fact that you promised someone a fic. Obviously, we write because we enjoy writing. And I'd like to know what is it that you, dear authors, like about your own fics and how you go on about creating them. I'm particularly interested in your writing processes. Do you have a plot all worked out and write down concepts, or do you write instinctively? I know
maeglinyedi once said that she's always got the last sentence of the fic ready before she starts writing, which I find quite impressive, as the last sentence is what I almost always struggle with a lot.As to me, I think that I'm a very dialogue-based author. I often have dialogue snippets ready long before the fic, I enjoy writing dialogues and dialogues are also what I feel most confident about - as opposed to introspections and descriptions, my feeling for which is rather wobbly. The final dialogue between Remus and Bill in Genesis, for example, was written in one of the first stages of the process. Because I tend to focus on dialogues, I often have a) no plot to speak of and b) my characters drink ridiculous amounts of water so that I can intersperse the dialogue with pretences of action - as illustrated in the aforementioned ( cock and tongue talk )
So, my fics aren't plotty, my characters are wordy (which doesn't mean that they actually communicate matters of importance!), and I even announced Panic as PWPBWLOD - Porn Without Plot But With Lots Of Dialogue.
But - to come back to my original question - I usually make the effort to create a framework around my dialogues, which is how I manage to continue writing. Because the dialogues are all there in my head and need to be let out.
They're talking to me.
