Hey, @bastardfrog27, you sent me a message about writing and I thought I’d answer it publicly, if...

Hey, @bastardfrog27, you sent me a message about writing and I thought I’d answer it publicly, if that’s cool! Your message went: 

I didn’t know if you had an ask box but I had some questions about writing. I’m trying to write a book and I’m stuck on a prologue. I love your writing. It’s captivating, with details but none of them are unnecessary. I have a mark of 2,500-3,500 words per chapter. I don’t want to give the bare minimum but at the same time I don’t want to add too much detail to the point where it’s boring. So in short: How do I fill that space?

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Here’s my answer! First, sorry this is so slow coming! It’s been an absolutely insane
two weeks and it’s thrown everything for numerous loops. Thank you so much for
your kind words about my writing! I will never pretend to be any sort of guru,
but I can talk about what works for me and what doesn’t, I suppose, so based on
that, here are whatever nuggets of wisdom I have for you: 

-Don’t write for the sake of writing. Wait until you have a
story that needs telling, that needs YOU to be the one to tell it. Wait until
it’s bursting from your fingertips. Otherwise it feels like reinventing the
wheel from scratch. It grinds, rather than flowing freely. By the time you sit
down to write, you should have already watched at least most of it playing out
in your head like a movie. Write because you need to tell the story that’s
already there, wanting to be told.

-Don’t cage your story in with pre-set notions of length.
The only exceptions to this rule, and again, this is just my very subjective
opinion, should be for school assignments that arbitrarily set a required word
count (minimum or maximum!) or writing competitions. Which I personally don’t
believe in. Again, write the story that needs writing. It will tell you how
long it needs to be. In classical music, for a long time it was the form that
dictated how the music should be: a sonata has this many movements, one of
these, one of those, and one of those, etc, and if you can insert some meaning
or emotion into that form, well and good. Then the Romantics came along and
said, WRONG, the form needs to fit the meaning/emotions/story, and if it doesn’t,
then abandon the form! I’m a Romantic on this one. And everything else, too.
Start writing your story and see where it needs to go. -Before you start, you should know how it starts, how it
ends, and at least a few of the major points that happen between those two
things. 

-Stuck on your prologue? Does it NEED a prologue? What needs to be said, and when? This is where keeping a basic outline, just to remind yourself of what the general plan was, can be super helpful. If it takes 200 words to tell your entire story, then that’s how long it should be. If you’re naturally long-winded (like me!) and it takes 65,000 words or 135,000 words to tell your story, then that’s how long it should be. If it needs a prologue, then what is it that the reader needs to experience before that first chapter? IS there something that the reader needs to know first, or can you just plunge right on in? 

-Don’t start a story without knowing the end destination. The story
might deviate from the path on its way there, but if you know where you’re
going, the ending will inform the journey. Don’t overplan, either – that kills
the creative process. It’s a story, not an essay. Even essays should be allowed
room to grow and breathe on their own, at least a little.

-Write in order. Otherwise it comes out chunky and the continuity
suffers. Things like foreshadowing and natural build and flow don’t work.

Again, for everything I’m saying, I’m sure there are dozens
and dozens of writers who would disagree, but I’m saying what works for me,
since you asked me!