Writerpedia discussion
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i have this funny idea...
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I always do a timeline and a placeline, so I know what should be happening, when and where. Since I often write in 1st perosn POV, it is very handy to know that the protagonist would have knowledge of event A, but cannot possibly yet know about event B.
I usually go the opposite way. I get a general idea then let it take me whereever my mind chooses. Sometimes the story goes in a direction I never saw coming. Weird, that it comes from me, yet I never saw it coming. I am always amazed at that aspect of writing. It goes to show you that the mind is mysterious in infinite ways.
I'm a blend of the two styles. I use a timeline and have a basic outline, but I know just what you mean, Jim: sometimes the characters tell me things I didn't know were going to happen. In my second book, "Backyard Bones" there are several red herrings and plot twists. I left the decision open as to which of two characters,a husband and wife with a shared alibi that, when it is ultimately broken, could leave either one free to be the killer, figuring I'd decide when I had to.
When I got there, I decided neither of them did it, that the murderer should really have been another character. I went back to places where I intended to add clues about my now chosen murderer only to find I had already put them in.
Writing these things is as much fun as reading them is.
Nancy
So today i was having fun taping a whole bunch of sketches and drawings ive done over the past few years along with a couple posters. It was very entertaining. Then, just now as im scanning through all the topics on writerpedia, i thought of something, and i wanted to know if any of you have done, want to do, or have made a giant time line poster to plan out the beginning, middle and end of your book. Because i am in the very early stages of this book, ideas are swimming somewhere in the back of my head and only a fourth of them are scribbled down somewhere (probably on the back of a receipt or etched into my desk, lol). I thought it would be a good idea because i could see all my ideas at once and maybe that would help me clear up the middle. I mean, i guess you could say i know whats going to happen in the end, but i have no clue how to get there. Have any of you ever done, thought, or want to do something like this?