#prewriting

[bettsfic]

Hi!

I was wondering how do you elevate or better flesh out a very vague premise (e.g. A man falls in love with his boss). But there are many ways to take vague ideas like this and it’s hard to make it more.

there are really only two paths: the easy, long road; and the hard, fast road. on extremely rare occasion you may hit the jackpot and find an easy, fast road, but in my experience that is like winning the lottery.

the easy, long road:

you write the idea down somewhere. you let it incubate for a really long time. you have faith in the universe that all the pieces will begin to click into place until you go, "i've got it," and start writing.

i call that moment "ignition." when your vague "what am i even trying to write" idea clicks into "wait wait wait, i'm onto something here" and your brain starts churning out ideas for scenes and plot points.

there can be a lot of false starts, where you try to shoehorn your vague idea into another vague idea and see if they make a less vague idea, but sometimes that doesn't work. you may also start working on something else and realize you're unconsciously writing that vague idea you had 3 years ago. but overall it's a passive process. you have to wait for specificity to find you.

the hard, short road:

you write the idea down somewhere. you stare at it until you get a headache, and then you take some ibuprofen and stare at it some more. using the "ignition" metaphor, this is like your car not starting so you just keep turning the engine until it either starts or you flood it.

if you brute force your vague idea, you can potentially ruin it for yourself, but if you're motivated to take this path, i think your first step is to get out a notebook and start brainstorming. if the premise is "a man falls in love with his boss," write a list of industries where they might work. then circle a few of them and start researching those industries to see if you can find a nugget of information that clicks with your idea until you get some kind of conflict churning.

if you can't find anything, you make more lists. list out potential endings, plot points, inciting incidences. character traits and arcs. countries, cities. for every item of every list, make a list of possibilities. if this, then this and this. if that, then that and that. and you go on and on and on until you maybe have enough to get some words down.

an example:

my sister, a copywriter, started doing social media for a welding school. she told me she was learning a lot about welding and that i should write a story about a welding teacher. this school specifically is one of the best in the country, and my sister said something to the effect of, "people come from all over the country to live in this shithole town for six months. that seems like an interesting story."

in my A4 rhodia, on december 19, 2023, i wrote,

story of welding teacher at best welding school in the country

lonely ISTP casey affleck kinda guy (that was my sister's idea; she meant it in a derogatory way)

being taken care of by his grandmother?

all i had was "welder" kind of in the back of my head. fast forward to earlier this month, watching season 3 of the Bad Batch and having a lot of feelings about Crosshair's shakey hands (i've also developed a tremor in my hands).

and then i thought, a welder whose hands begin shaking. that's a conflict, that's an inciting incident. his whole career might be in jeopardy.

i wrote this paragraph:

He'd never admitted to his wife that he wanted kids. They didn’t have any, though, for the same reason he never became a farmer—he didn’t want to raise something just to see it slaughtered. Who knew what kind of war the country would cook up in eighteen years? Turn of the century, sending kids out to god knows where, just the right number of years from Vietnam that everyone would’ve forgotten it, the way that by Vietnam they’d forgotten Korea.

i managed to weave this general idea into the bigger plot of a novel i started a long time ago, and it reignited my interest in that project, and now i'm feeling really good that this 200k monstrosity i thought i would just throw away now might have some potential, more importantly some focus, all because of a vague idea i wrote down months ago.

#writing advice #prewriting #plotting #idea generation

[ambrossart]

I finally got the DWM timeline all sorted out again 👼

#my life's about to be so much easier #prewriting #fic writing #writing tools #aeon timeline #dwm #dancing with myself #ambrossart

[ahb-writes]

Writing Problem: The Novel Suffers From Arbitrary Complexity

Problem: The Novel Suffers From Arbitrary Complexity

Solution: More spectacle isn't always better. Larger and relentlessly diverse casts aren't necessarily more dynamic or more representative. More gore doesn't exactly make the violence more believable. More tears won't always pull readers into a deeper emotional connection.

Balance in everything, whether in drawing lots for which characters live or die, or assembling the combination of goals and threats the cast must surmount to reach the end.

Sometimes, it helps to weave from the simple toward the complex: If you understand what is essential to the story, and the role of each character in the story, then you can expand outward, deliberately, and unfold more detail from a central theme or narrative device. (If the author does it the other way around, and weaves from the complex toward the simple, then plot holes form, characters lose their purpose, and the story's conclusion feels less and less tethered to the inciting incident that supposedly pulled in readers at the outset.)

Writing Resources:

5 Ways to Make Mundane Scene More Interesting (Writing Questions Answered)

Feeling Overwhelmed by Plot Points (Writing Questions Answered)

What Is Prewriting? Preparing to Write With Purpose (Now Novel)

How to Write the Perfect Plot (in Two Easy Steps) (Helping Writers Become Authors)

Writing Description: Encourage Readers to Infer More Than They Realize (ahbwrites)

Reasons to Kill Your Characters (Coffee Bean Writing)

How to Absolutely Wreck Your Audience With a Character Death (lunewell)

Coming Up With a Plot (From Scratch) (September C. Fawkes)

❯ ❯ Adapted from the writing masterpost series: 19 Things That Are Wrong With Your Novel (and How to Fix Them)

#writeblr #writing problem #writing tips #writing advice #fiction writing #novel writing #complex story #writeprob #prewriting #plotting #character death #plotting from scratch #reasons to kill your character #balance in everything #central theme #feeling overwhelmed by plot points

[nataywrites]

Freewriting, pre-writing for week 4 assignment.

This is going to be very disjointed, reader, because it is the pre-writing for my assignment next week. Feel free to weigh in and tell me what you think. The topic is: "What is 1 key moment that affected you on your educational journey?"

For a long time, I thought that school and I just didn't have a good relationship. I always had trouble. Too many classes at once. Too much homework. Too much going from here to there. When the workload inevitably built up to an unbearable amount, I dropped all of it and escaped into video games or other activities. I didn't know that I am autistic and that burnout is a real thing. I thought it was because I was lazy or unable to do the things asked of me. I never thought that, maybe, there were other ways to approach my education, that maybe I needed a different style of learning and doing school work.

When I was younger, I knew only that I needed to be successful and go to school. It was pushed so much, and my poor, floundering younger self searched and changed her mind so much. I went to tech college three separate times and not one of those programs seemed to fit. I had to take more than three classes at a time and the workload was heavy. While I did well in some classes, it proved to be too much once again. I decided that school wasn't for me. While that assumption was incorrect, it did help me seek a new definition of success. One that is affirming and helpful. Success isn't just a career and a picket fence. It can be happiness, a vibrant social life, a family, mastery of craft hobbies, or anything a person can dream of. Success is relative. This idea, as well as encountering neurodivergence and mental illness in the lives of people I care about, lead me to look at my own mental conditions. I discovered that my experiences are valid, that what I encountered in mainstream education was not a result of laziness, but a result of faulty teaching practices and a lack of understanding of autism and how it manifests in girls and women. I am one of the invisible autistic women, "high functioning" (I hate that term, as if the only value of a person is their ability to do a task), good at masking my symptoms, and seemingly "normal." I have the benefit of accommodations due to my conditions, accommodations that were not afforded to me as a "normal" middle and high school student.

In April, I was at church during Fellowship Hour, and I had the pleasure of speaking with another woman and congregant. She is in school at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, seeking her Bachelor's degree so she can become a teacher. I had a sudden feeling of meaning, as if a door had opened onto a vision of me, seeking further education. That very day, after church, I applied to the University of Phoenix and selected the English program as my Major. Ever since then, I have been passionately studying my choice of degree. With UoP, I only have to commit to one full-time course at a time. They are five weeks in length, which will equate to about 10 completed courses in a year, at 3 credits each. I only have to worry about the homework from one class. It's all online, so I don't have to worry about the social anxiety I experience in a physical classroom. After applying for accommodation, I now have extra grace if my conditions flare up and cause issues. Because of this different format, I have been able to flourish as a student. I am currently a straight-A student, and my previous classwork at the technical college has taken a year of work off my bachelor's degree. I'm not bad at learning. I just needed a different way of learning.

#prewriting #free writing

[callipraxia]

Eughhhh, I miss writing about the apocalypse. At least when I was writing about the apocalypse, sure it was depressing, but at least I could get away with having a probably-statistically-unlikely number of the leads fall on the asexual spectrum, and could regularly distract the assorted narrators-of-other-sexualities with matters like “reality just glitched again,” or “I’m pretty sure my entire family is dead,” or “great, I’ve become a captive audience to what may or may not be an avatar of Quetzalcoatl,” or whatever….

Tracey, Quattro, I love you guys. I really want to figure out what to do with the idea of a “sequel to canon set during the school year” thing featuring y’all and various people finding out about y’all. Why must you…be so difficult about this one thing I really feel incompetent to write, not to mention (though the phenomena are possibly related) uncomfy with the idea of writing?

*grumbles*

#gravity falls fic #gravity falls characters #writer problems #plotting #prewriting #outline #asexual writer #asexual writer problems #grumblings

[x-sapphicpirate-x]

Update

I have four fairly fleshed out oc’s.

I have a chapter by chapter breakdown of my story mostly finished minus a few details.

I have made myself emotional working on the ending TWICE now. I am NOT okay. This one is gonna be a heart breaker.

Also, should I reveal my oc’s now or after I’ve released the first chapter?

#fallout 4 fic #fallout 4 fan fic #fallout fan fiction #queer fan fiction #queer fallout #writer #writing #prewriting #tragedy #a03 writer #a03

[themontessoriacademyofarlington]

Toddler - Imbucare

Look at that focus! Imbucare, an Italian word which means "to put inside," was used by Maria Montessori to label works with that action in mind. These works foster hand-eye coordination, concentration, and refine a student's fine motor skills.

#focus #order #concentration #coordination #independence #hand-eye coordination #fine motor skills #prewriting #pincer grasp #tam #montessori #private school #arlingtontx #arlington #texas #infant #nido #toddler #early childhood #preschool #kindergarten #elementary #education #private education #nontraditional #the montessori academy of arlington

[authorkarajorgensen]

February 2024 Wrap-Up Post

This week's blog is our February wrap-up, complete with mini book reviews, behind the scenes stuff, and writing updates.

February managed to come and go so fast, but I finally feel like I’m hitting my stride this year. The semester is in full swing, I shoveled snow a few times, and I’m finally working in earnest on book 3 of the Reanimator Mysteries series. Let’s recap the goals I had for February and see how it went. Put together the elliptical and use it Do the bulk of the historical research for The Reanimator…

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#admin stuff #behind the scenes #book 3 #books #mini book review #prewriting #reading #the reanimator mysteries #writing

[merrybond]

Should you write before you write?

Writing before you write? Why? The obvious answer is to get your thoughts together, but there are other reasons as well. Here are five you might want to consider: Whether you’re a pantser or plotter, we all need to rally our thoughts. We’re human; our thought tend to fly in a hundred different directions at once. Even as I’m writing this, I’m thinking about my book which released yesterday, the…

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#method writing #prewriting #writing #writing craft

[rozmorris]

Could you draft a novel in a month? Here’s how to nail NaNoWriMo

This post was originally written for the Writers & Artists Yearbook blog. I included it in a Nanowrimo roundup post and got a note to tell me the link was dead. So here it is, live and kicking. November is National Novel-Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo. If you haven’t come across it before, it’s a worldwide cyber-event where writers tie themselves to their keyboards and aim to bash out 50,000 words…

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#first draft #how to plan a novel #NaNoWriMo #National Novel-Writing Month #outlining #pantsing #Planning #planning a novel #prewriting #research #write a novel in 30 days

[abby-writes-novels]

Trying super hard to save myself an angsty rewriting process by doing A LOT of pre-writing and world building before diving into the first draft of my upcoming fantasy novel.

Yesterday, I sat down in Excel and created a template to print out to help me sort out character relationships. I've only filled out one so far, but it worked great! Taught me some things about the individual characters and how I need to tweak their individual profiles. 10 out of 10 recommend! -------

Image description: Character Relationship Sheet with the following fields: Character 1 Name, Gender, Pronouns, Age Character 2 Name Gender, Pronouns Age How did they meet? How long have they known each other? 1's initial reaction to 2? 2's initial reaction to 1? How they view their relationship: How others view their relationship: They agree on: They disagree about: 1 (dis)likes 2 because: 2 (dis)likes 1 because: Their relationship is: Trusting or Suspicious | Harmonious or Clashing | Healthy or Co-dependent | Open or Closed | Supportive or Competitive | Caring or Indifferent | Giving or Transactional Other Notes:

#writer #writers of tumblr #writers life #prewriting #character design #character development #novel #novel writing #character inspiration #character info #character relationships

[evaristo-velez]

Prewriting

Life is the best prewriting. Thank you.

Jesting aside, I find there are many opportunities to get ideas. Pre-writing should be a formalized process, to an extent, but it can be done at any time!

Dialectical in nature, sure, but I am going somewhere. Right over

Here. What do you like in a movie? Have you thought about what makes it work that way?

When you reread a book, are you applying an analytical lens?

Writers are curious people, or I like to think. Use that! Look at media with analytical eyes every so often, try and find what is done well.

Stories are our job. Find good examples, find bad examples! Look through and get down to what is the mechanism behind the tale.

#prewriting #creative writing #writing #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #jwp

[ambrossart]

So many events in such a short period of time.

That's right, I blacked out the spoilers in case anyone tries to get sneaky 😏

#behind the scenes #fic writing #prewriting #fic notes #fic timeline #i like timelines #they're a godsend #paper men #ambrossart

[agentellafiles]

Let's Go Behind The Scenes....

...with author Nicole Comforto

Q. Any pre-writing practices?

A. You mean besides get the kids to school, eat breakfast, exercise, make a cup of tea, and head upstairs to my home office? 

I do like to make an outline of each chapter before I create it in StoryLoom. I have a huge document where I keep track of all the past choices readers have made and what happens in each chapter so I can keep all the threads going. And I also work with an editor on the main story arcs in advance to get some helpful feedback!

_

Whoa! That is some dedication. Go check out the fruits of those labours with Agent Ella on StoryLoom, complete and (currently) free!

#bts #behind the scenes #agent ella #storyloom #editing #prewriting #writing #writing practice #outline #original story #choices #arcs #agent ella files #secret agent #sims #online games #adventure #choose your own adventure #grandmother #spy #women #stories about women

[yubamar]

Thanks for the kind words! ★★★★★ "Tablette décriture de très bonne qualité !" Elen #etsy #backtoschool #easter #alphabettracing #shapestracingboard #tracingboard #prewriting #uppercaselowercase #woodenletters #prewritingline https://etsy.me/3vZMz86 https://www.instagram.com/p/CdBpX9cMQK0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#etsy #backtoschool #easter #alphabettracing #shapestracingboard #tracingboard #prewriting #uppercaselowercase #woodenletters #prewritingline

[rad-roche]

session 0 for the fallout tabletop i'm gming (or... ehe.... overseeing... oho) with The Girls is this sunday. character creation, rules n such. now i'll be frank with you, this is going to present a challenge for me. i've only played a tabletop one time and i was killed brutally by a bear after the barbarian threw me at it to see if the bear would kill me. also i'm awful with numbers. have short-term memory problems. long-term memory problems. let's not even get into how my mid-term memory is. but what i do have is a google doc, multiple people strapped to a chair and a truly unearned level of storytelling confidence. i can't do this so badly somebody dies, so eh, it'll be fine. unless somebody does die, of course. i'll see where the night takes me

#text post #fallout ttrpg #plan is prewrite couple of paragraphs for places/people and absolutely wing everything else #might post my notes after if there's interest #it's just dmt/dww descriptions but Small and Lots #none of us have done 2d20 so the pressure is off: none of us know what the hell is going on