Thursday, November 4, 2010

My Nasty Little Writing Habit

So I have this nasty little writing habit that often keeps me up at night, trying to piece scenes together.  I am not a plotter; I’m a panster through and through.  However, I tend to wake up in the morning, an idea or dream about a character fresh on my mind, and I write it down.  Sometimes these little blurbs end up being pages long and don’t occur for many unwritten chapters ahead.  I’m then stuck trying to weave them into my story when the time comes.

Does anybody else write this way, or do you adhere to the strict, linear chapter by chapter form of writing?

8 comments:

  1. I have all kinds of little notes attached to my outline. I get a little smidgen of an idea and have to write it down.... or of course it's gone .. but not sure where it fits into story yet.

    Wow, a panster, huh??? I have to have an outline. I have to know what will happen in the end and I always write in chrono order. How's it going? Hope your WIP is going well. Any luck with finding Cedar a home yet?? All the best!

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  2. I tend to write with an outline, but a loose outline. Kind of like if I were planning a trip from "A" to "B", I would know the major route I was taking, but it would be OK if I stopped of in "C" for a bit.

    As for chapters out of order, I've done that. Sometimes the idea is just there and I want to get it down on paper before I lose it. I'll either write it out longhand, or open a new document on the netbook and write. Then, I go back to the scene I was working on.

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  3. I usually write from beginning to end. I do have several notebooks where I write down all my minds ramblings and whatever research I may have conjured up on historical information or dates. I seem to write well into the night as well. But I'm not so sure that's good for me sometimes. I tend to dream about my scenes and that can be scary;)

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  4. That's exactly how I write! I tried to outline once...but I couldn't stick to it. My characters have lives and minds their own. They direct the story.

    And yes, I stay up all night writing scenes in my head. It's horrible!

    Last night I kept telling myself, "Just think of fog, just think of fog." It totally didn't work, the villain in my book just keep peeking his head out of my mental clouds and startling me.

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  5. Ah, this happens to me. Actually, with my first novel I wrote chapter 8 first. Weird huh? But that was the chapter that felt most vivid in my mind and so I had to write it immediately.

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  6. Total panster here. I am all over the place and then have to figure out where it all goes later. I have too many stories and ideas going on at one time too. I just jot things down and then use then when I can.

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  7. PANTSTERS UNITE!!! lol When I get an idea, it's usually the plot I think of. I let it stew for a bit and fill it in with potential characters. Then I sit down and start to write. My mother in-law laughs when she asks me, "What does the MC do next?" and I say, "I have no idea what she'll do!" It's an evolving process of which I usually know the end result as well as the beginning, but nothing in between until it lands on the page.

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  8. I am VERY much a plotter, but I love when tidibits just float in randomly and attach themselves to my brain. It makes my writing seem sort of spontaneous ,lol. So no, you're not the only one.
    Oh and I gave you an award on my blog Friday!

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