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Is it difficult for you not to think while writing?
I always worry and second-guess myself and it really gets in the way of getting some good words down.
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Basic Writing questions is not a crit forum. All crits belong in Share Your Work
Do you write in order?
- Thread starter CuddlyClementine
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Is it difficult for you not to think while writing?
I always worry and second-guess myself and it really gets in the way of getting some good words down.
No, not really. Sometimes I just watch the screen while I type or I look over to the side at one of my dogs while I type. Music's playing or it's (semi)quiet in the house (unless they are lying down or sleeping my dogs are always making noise. I have 4). I'm always blown away after I finish and read through what I've written
A window into my out-of-order process
Right now, as I write this post, I'm switching to working on a WIP. Bye for now.
Okay, back. No, not really, but I already decided I would write that when I got back.
Really back. Last night, inspiration struck for the weekly erotica writing challenge. I'll come back and insert the link, but right now I want to get down my ideas while they're fresh. This is the first new project I've started since this thread came up. Before, I couldn't quite remember how my ideas came together. This time you can follow along.
I started out with a concept, which was one I've had on backlog. It came with a vague backstory. I fleshed that out a little more. Then I got a setting. I think I came up with a vague plot structure: at least two or three scenes. I started coming up with little snippets of dialogue and description and a bit of action, one or more of those for each scene. I didn't write any of this down. It was late and I didn't want to get wrapped up in it and be up all night.
I did do a little Internet research on my setting, and found out an escape might be necessary. So I did a little plot thinking on how to escape: through the window? Hiding in the garbage bin? Just falsify authority? I didn't really want to commit to the setting until I was sure I could make it work.
This morning I had some interesting dreams right before I woke up. It was almost five A.M. I lay in bed a little bit, and had a few ideas for my novel WIP. That made me get up, so I could make sure I get them down while they're hot. I wrote those down first. It was just some additional stuff for the chapter I'm rewriting. I had essentially written the same passage before, at a different point in the chapter or novel. Then I started writing down my dreams. I have three windows open right now. The third is the short story. I toggled back and forth. As I'd hit a stall on remembering ideas to write down for the dreams, I'd flip to the story. I wrote the opening. It came out in first person past from the male MC's POV. I wrote down / invented half-remembered dialogue and description for various other scenes scattered throughout the story.
Then it was bath time. I had a bunch more - actually mostly remembered - a bunch more ideas in the bath. Eventually my brain filled up and I mnemonically filed my ideas by remembering the letters PEFC, which spell part of perfect. I remembered a second E too. I also got the idea to write this post, and thought about what I would say and how it would be organized (not much as you can see).
When I got out of the bath, I started this post, then jotted down as much as I could remember of PEEFC, in dialogue or just outline points. I'm not sure I remembered C, although I do have a C topic as a subtopic of P. Maybe that was it.
Anyway, that catches me up to the present. So that's my out-of-order process. Sort of concept first, then important scenes, working down to details. But I'm not a total outliner. I won't have a complete set of cause and effect events written down in an outline before I start writing prose. I'm a semi-pantser. I like to let my characters decide where to go. They might make it so scenes I've started to conceive can't be used any more, but usually not.
I find it hard to believe that anyone doesn't do this to some degree. Is the only difference whether you write it down? I write it down, because I don't want to forget
EDIT: Even while proofreading this post (which I do after I post) another idea for the short story popped up and I had to go jot it down.
Right now, as I write this post, I'm switching to working on a WIP. Bye for now.
Okay, back. No, not really, but I already decided I would write that when I got back.
Really back. Last night, inspiration struck for the weekly erotica writing challenge. I'll come back and insert the link, but right now I want to get down my ideas while they're fresh. This is the first new project I've started since this thread came up. Before, I couldn't quite remember how my ideas came together. This time you can follow along.
I started out with a concept, which was one I've had on backlog. It came with a vague backstory. I fleshed that out a little more. Then I got a setting. I think I came up with a vague plot structure: at least two or three scenes. I started coming up with little snippets of dialogue and description and a bit of action, one or more of those for each scene. I didn't write any of this down. It was late and I didn't want to get wrapped up in it and be up all night.
I did do a little Internet research on my setting, and found out an escape might be necessary. So I did a little plot thinking on how to escape: through the window? Hiding in the garbage bin? Just falsify authority? I didn't really want to commit to the setting until I was sure I could make it work.
This morning I had some interesting dreams right before I woke up. It was almost five A.M. I lay in bed a little bit, and had a few ideas for my novel WIP. That made me get up, so I could make sure I get them down while they're hot. I wrote those down first. It was just some additional stuff for the chapter I'm rewriting. I had essentially written the same passage before, at a different point in the chapter or novel. Then I started writing down my dreams. I have three windows open right now. The third is the short story. I toggled back and forth. As I'd hit a stall on remembering ideas to write down for the dreams, I'd flip to the story. I wrote the opening. It came out in first person past from the male MC's POV. I wrote down / invented half-remembered dialogue and description for various other scenes scattered throughout the story.
Then it was bath time. I had a bunch more - actually mostly remembered - a bunch more ideas in the bath. Eventually my brain filled up and I mnemonically filed my ideas by remembering the letters PEFC, which spell part of perfect. I remembered a second E too. I also got the idea to write this post, and thought about what I would say and how it would be organized (not much as you can see).
When I got out of the bath, I started this post, then jotted down as much as I could remember of PEEFC, in dialogue or just outline points. I'm not sure I remembered C, although I do have a C topic as a subtopic of P. Maybe that was it.
Anyway, that catches me up to the present. So that's my out-of-order process. Sort of concept first, then important scenes, working down to details. But I'm not a total outliner. I won't have a complete set of cause and effect events written down in an outline before I start writing prose. I'm a semi-pantser. I like to let my characters decide where to go. They might make it so scenes I've started to conceive can't be used any more, but usually not.
I find it hard to believe that anyone doesn't do this to some degree. Is the only difference whether you write it down? I write it down, because I don't want to forget
EDIT: Even while proofreading this post (which I do after I post) another idea for the short story popped up and I had to go jot it down.
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