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What you think of before writing a book
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Shannon
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Jul 11, 2015 05:46PM
I always think of characters for the book. What do you think of first
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I daydream for a while and sometimes a story or situation reveals it self. The characters and story develops from that point. (But having said that, it's not hard and fast)
For me it starts as a concept. Sometimes a unique character is part of the concept. Or it's like writing a song. Sometimes words come first, sometimes melody (plot) comes first.
I'd have to agree with James. I start with a concept. It may be a situation, or something someone does, or a historical moment. Next an overall plot theme. Then comes the choice of characters that best carry the story.
I think about how much I'd like to stab someone, and then I daydream about someone deserving to be stabbed by me.
I get inspiration from all kinds of different things. News articles, dreams, songs, personal stories, somebody I see walking down the street, a website, and on and on...I put them in my 'story clip file' and leave them there until I need them. Right now there are over 300 ideas in my clip file.
Then when I am ready to write something new, I browse through my file to see what strikes my fancy. Pull a few of them out. See how they work together (a character here, a theme there, a plot twist). Then I start mindmapping, seeing where the connections are, where the holes are. Do I need another character? A subplot? A love triangle?
Then I move on to outlining and research, setting up beats, casting my characters and setting, etc. Create a cover concept and a title.
Then I jump into the first draft!
I am utterly inconsistent. My running joke is I write what the little voices tell me to. I have started off a vague idea, a character concept, a first line that wouldn't leave me alone until I set it down... you get the idea.Sometimes it doesn't seem so much like I tell stories as they pour out of me when I sit down to type.
Can't really put my finger on any one reason for it, but an idea pops in my head where I think, "Hmm, that seems like a neat idea..." and then I try and expand it a little. If ideas aren't popping in my head then it's not worth pursuing much, in my mind. If ideas do pop quickly, then it's worthwhile and I continue expanding. Location, time, characters, etc.
Characters first-- then how to mess them up and make them suffer for their HEA (and how to work in tentacles, if at all possible). ;-)
I think about giving folks entertainment and insight. That's my goal.
I come up with the inciting event –I write mystery/thrillers. Step two is figuring out how to make my antagonist twisted and evil, but I'll give him some rope and allow him to work on that angle.
I have tried many methods, but recently I started doing some playwriting, and I now am in love with just starting a dialogue without knowing where it's going. I like to have two voices talking (arguing, sometimes) and the outline of a plot reveals itself. I've come up with some interesting scenes this way.John
Shannon wrote: "I always think of characters for the book. What do you think of first"The story is almost always triggered by a line of dialogue which seems to be the hook for everything - I drag it in like a net - sometimes it isn't full of old boots.
Honestly? I think of a tagline...like for a poster or movie preview. That hook feeds characters, which feeds tent poles for a story. The connecting wires between the tent poles? I come up with as I go,lol.
For my first book, I thought of an object - an ancient scroll, written by Pontius Pilate himself. What would happen if it was uncovered today, revealing the truth about the trial of Jesus? Then some character names popped into my head, and the next thing you know, I am on the Isle of Capri, looking over Giuseppe Rossini's shoulder as he discovers the ancient, sealed chamber where the scroll was hidden.
Good God! If I had to justify the drivel I write, I doubt that I could get it published on my own blog. I do daydream, Walter Mitty style, about word getting out on my next novel and waking up the next morning to find major publishers camped out on my lawn, rushing toward me with fistfuls of cash as I check my mailbox. Sure, I try to stop the madness."Stop the madness!" I plead. "I'm not interested in your filthy Walmart money, your Colombian cocaine, your nubile call girls. Besides, I'm only at the initial outline stage."
The ladies swoon. The men dash their cellphones upon the sidewalk. Grumbling peppers the air as car doors slam and disappointed editors leave, empty-handed. All of them, except one.
I thought I was still daydreaming. Whoever she was, her beauty demanded attention. Her eyes were a shade of...what was that? Green? If so, they were a green never dreamed of by nature, a green that would make an Irishman look toward his emerald home and cry.
And her hair, wild and fresh and free, set fire to that green, red fire burning at my soul's center. Curls of red, erotic red - then I saw it. Undeniably, she had the red hair and black roots of Franistanian royalty. I dropped to one knee and bowed my head low.
"Your majesty!" I was breathless.
"Arise," she said.
I couldn't. My legs failed me. The Red Queen stood over me and rested her hand on my shoulder.
"Get up," she said. "It is time for you."
I rolled over onto my back and she shook my shoulder. I couldn't open my eyes. I had seen her once and I feared that a second glance would strike me blind.
"Get the hell up! It's time for you to take out the trash." Her dainty hand shook me again with a force that only the Red Queen could command. "Mother was right... shiftless... sleep all day..."
Yeah. Something like that.
I'll be listening to a song or having a conversation when an idea will pop into my head. Then a story will form in my brain.
I'll be listening to a song or having a conversation when an idea will pop into my head. Then a story will form in my brain.
While my process is very similar to many of you, my starting point differs a bit. Sometimes I get a concept in my head when it is straight fiction, but for fantasy, I start with the mythology of the culture. Where is the magic? From there I delve into Geography. With my world creation as a base, then I began creating characters and plot. For me, the world around us has just a big of an impact on character behavior as human interaction. Having the world defined allows me to focus on characters as the story unfolds.
There is no face on earth that is the same, maybe twins are similar but there are still differences. Compositions of music are all different. Numbers can be combined in infinitesimal ways. And so it is with us writers: we all do our own thing and it does not matter how as long as you get your book right and out. Nobody is the same and no book is the same. John
Before I start writing my books I simply start with a prayer and ask the Lords blessings.
For me, plot usually comes first. And then I figure out the characters.It's almost like a movie for me. I come up with the story and then "cast" the characters needed, lol.
I "nurse" the main idea until I feel that I can carry the topic "to term," like a baby delivery. Many ideas get chucked into the mental dust bin.
Interesting, T.D.; it’s exactly the opposite for me! I have a character or a few in my head, and then a single scene appears, fully realized. From there I try to apply logic, teasing out the elements and themes that make the scene and characters resonant for me—how did the scene come about in their lives? What does it lead to? The plot is where the struggle lies for me, to develop events that spin out the story in a retrospectively inevitable arc and express the themes.
So far, I start with a scene popping into my head, then I have to make friends with the main characters who populate that scene. From there, I have to discover the story arc or plot. Usually, I end up building a large number of scenes (which are not yet related) before I realize that it's time to tie these things together with a plot, to determine what this story is telling and where it is going. Not very organized; I may improve on future stories.
I've developed a fairly simple spreadsheet on which I summarize my scenes and chapters, where I can itemize what has been written and post notes about what needs to be written. For me, it is easy to see what yet needs to be done, and also to find where a new detail or scene ought to be located. If anyone would like this spreadsheet, I'd be happy to share it.
Abigail wrote: "Interesting, T.D.; it’s exactly the opposite for me! I have a character or a few in my head, and then a single scene appears, fully realized. From there I try to apply logic, teasing out the elemen..."Interesting process, Abigail! It's always cool to learn the process other writers go through. :)
Plot is what I usually struggle with too. I think that's why I start with it, trying my best to iron as many details as possible before I start writing. Then I go back and place characters, trying to give them traits and personalities that hopefully create some interesting conflict for what's going to happen to them over the course of the story.
Part of the fun for me is knowing what's going to happen to a character, and then seeing how they handle it once I start writing. Of course, there are always times when things don't go according to plan, but that's the joy of writing, lol.
I agree about the fun! Isn't it great (albeit occasionally frustrating) when the characters take the bit in their teeth and run?! It's amazing when they develop enough to take the initiative. I like working with characters like that. In the novel I am currently working on, a new character just drove into the story, picking up my main character who was hitchhiking. Now I'm waiting to see where else this new character pops up in the story.
Stuff happens. I don't have a better explanation. Sometimes something intrigues me, and I come up with a story from that, and sometimes it just appears. I have a random thought about a Halloween story, and next thing you know I'm embarked on magical realism involving a professional stage illusionist in Las Vegas in 1968. A gay, married, semi-closeted one who can do real magic.
Except for the spread sheet, an item that would intimidate me, I agree with just about everything that everyone has said here: Generally, I do hear about something that actually happened in someone's life and it strikes my imagination so much that I can't get it out of my head, and that's the scene that sparks the novel...I also love it when a character appears, who I thought would be a secondary character, and they assert themselves as if to say, "Hey, you may want to follow me instead of letting me walk off into the crowded street scene." When I do, it pays off, and with that newly highlighted character come twists and turns to the plot that I hadn't anticipated.
My spreadsheet only has five columns. For me (a proven electronics dolt to whom computer-ese does not come easily, not having grown up with it), tackling an unfamiliar computer program helps me come to grips with my (usually self-imposed) intimidation. I always save such a thing as a master, then make and save a copy to fool around on. If I screw it up royally, I can always delete it and start over with a new copy of the master. I usually discover all kinds of new tricks I didn't know I could do. (Imagine, if you will, when I discovered how to print an envelope on our computer about six months after we acquired a home computer - I was so proud of myself!)
D.C. wrote: "Stuff happens. I don't have a better explanation. Sometimes something intrigues me, and I come up with a story from that, and sometimes it just appears. I have a random thought about a Halloween st..."Your story sounds awesome, D.C.!
Sally, from envelopes to spreadsheets, I'd say you've come a long way....Wondering, has that new character who drove into the story driven the story somewhere you hadn't anticipated?
Elyce wrote: "Sally, from envelopes to spreadsheets, I'd say you've come a long way....Wondering, has that new character who drove into the story driven the story somewhere you hadn't anticipated?"Not yet - I've been swamped with (paid) work. But the new character has been percolating. Who knows what kind of relationship he will develop with my main characters? I hope to find out...
Yes, that necessary business of paid work. Keep me posted, though, on that driver; I'm curious.
I usually start with a 'what if?'I hear about something or picture a scene and start developing an idea from there. It's always interesting to start digging around with an idea and finding a whole story burried just under it. It's like putting together puzzle pieces, sometimes you have ideas but you don't see that they are connected until you are done.
Most times I'll write down a few notes and a general idea of where I'd like it to go then just let instinct guide from there, but this time (I'm working on a really screwy time travel piece) I've been trying to organize everything ahead of time. Got dozens of pages of notes and even had to draw a graph at one point. Now it's just a matter of hoping that it'll make sense when I'm done.
Sometimes an idea, life experience, a dream, a nightmare, a what if scenario, characters, plot, maybe an outline or summary, research on an idea, imagery, etc.
Elyce wrote: "Yes, that necessary business of paid work. Keep me posted, though, on that driver; I'm curious."I'm curious, too. My story is set in coastal Maine. My main character Rory, whose battery is stolen from his truck while he's out in the woods flagging wetlands as part of his job, walks out to the main road and starts hitching back to town. Joseph Nookoot, a Maliseet (native American to northeastern Maine and Canada's Maritimes), picks him up and they strike up a conversation. Rory recognizes the man's ethnicity, which reminds him of his fourth-grade elementary school teacher, who was also a Maliseet. Rory chuckles to himself as he remembers his little-boy misconceptions of what the American Indian should look like (which his teacher didn't), fed by 1950s Westerns on TV. Eastern Indians don't resemble their Western brethren much in body structure. I think Rory's new friend might well find a firmer foothold in my story. I hope so - I like Nookoot already and I hardly know him.
Sally wrote: "Elyce wrote: "Yes, that necessary business of paid work. Keep me posted, though, on that driver; I'm curious."I'm curious, too. My story is set in coastal Maine. My main character Rory, whose ba..."
Sounds like he just may turn into a full-bodied character in your novel. Don't you agree that that's one of the intriguing things about writing?
Elyce wrote: "Don't you agree that that's one of the intriguing things about writing?"Absolutely!
T.D. wrote: "D.C. wrote: "Stuff happens. I don't have a better explanation. Sometimes something intrigues me, and I come up with a story from that, and sometimes it just appears. I have a random thought about a..."Thanks! So far, it's coming along not too badly (I hope).
D.C. wrote: "... next thing you know I'm embarked on magical realism involving a professional stage illusionist in Las Vegas in 1968. A gay, married, semi-closeted one who can do real magic. "Now, that sounds like it has considerable potential... Keep us posted!
Some stories pick their authors. A few years ago, a short story pestered me all night until I got its skeleton down on paper. Two days later, having filled in factual details, it was done, about 4000 words in length. It's a quirky thing: a ghost flag that lives at the top of the flagpole at Lincoln's Tomb relates Lincoln's biography to the new flag that has just been raised up the pole. It's an odd narrative that is entirely factual, with a folksy, homespun air. I don't know where it came from, but it would not let me be until I got it down.
For my in progress series, I thought of a really great line, which led to a character, which led to a genre, which led to a book idea. But realized I was starting too late in the story, so I had to go back a few books (well, five or so). Now it's a 13 book series all plotted out. LOL
Patricia wrote: "For my in progress series, I thought of a really great line, which led to a character, which led to a genre, which led to a book idea. But realized I was starting too late in the story, so I had to..."Wow! All that from a single line... After all that plotting, have you begun writing them (presumably one at a time)?
Sally wrote: "Wow! All that from a single line... After all that plotting, have you begun writing them (presumably one at a time)?" The first one is coming out in December :)
Prior to beginning the actual writing phase of my one and only novel, I created a problem resolution list similar to those utilized during my 33-year career in management.I listed all of the things that contributed to the downfall of societies throughout history: institutions, philosophies, behavior, etc. and then initiated a one-man problem solving session in my mind; the ultimate goal being to create the perfect social structure. Two months passed before I was prepared to begin actually writing. A manager would be fired for taking so long to create a feasible corrective action plan.
