Comments on: Other writers are crazy

By: Amy Spalding » I work on becoming a better person.

Amy Spalding » I work on becoming a better person. — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:48:17 +0000

[...] am truly in love with this post by Justine Larbalestier, because I get cranky about other writers in the exact same way she [...]

By: Speakeasy » Blog Archive » How Do You Do It?

Speakeasy » Blog Archive » How Do You Do It? — Fri, 23 May 2008 02:04:30 +0000

[...] blog, she’s been ruminating on the different ways writers write. In a post entitled ‘Other Writers Are Crazy’, she marvels at the writers who need to know every kink of their plot before they put pen to paper [...]

By: Trish

Trish — Thu, 22 May 2008 03:35:15 +0000

My editor wants a new beginning to my book, but I can’t think of a new beginning right now. So I started writing just beyond the beginning and I figure I’ll go back when I figure it out.

By the way, I read an ARC of How to Ditch Your Fairy. CUTE!!

By: JGS

JGS — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:35:26 +0000

This is a great thread if only because it has introduced the term ‘pantster’ into the lexicon.

I have heard, apocryphally, that James Ellroy (one of my writing idols) has an 800-page outline for a 600-page book. Now that’s crazy.

I’m still so new at this that I can’t claim to have ‘a’ method, but I started writing individual scenes, got bogged down around 30K, read McKee’s Story, went back and outlined the plot scene-by-scene on 3×5s, and filled in the holes from there. It did make some of the scenes feel a bit like ‘work’ when I was writing them, but I think my overall plot and structure are much stronger for it.

Now I have to go back and cut 15K words out.

By: Sarahlynn Lester

Sarahlynn Lester — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:34:02 +0000

As silly as this is, I really needed to read it today. My current novel is SO FREAKING HARD. Every time I sit down to write it feels like a long, hard, slog. Why is this so much more painful than everything else I’ve ever written?

Now I know why! Instead of doing a rough outline and figuring it out as I go along (as I usually do) I’ve carefully plotted and character-journaled and step-sheeted every step of the way. AFTER ditching my first draft.

This would be funny if it weren’t true. I’ve decided to ditch the rest of my stepsheet and kill off an extra character somewhere along the line, TBD later. Ahh!

By: Kelly McCullough

Kelly McCullough — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:55:30 +0000

Wrote two by the pants method. Outlined the next, outlined the one after in greater detail. Now, start with solid if rough outline, write a third, outline the rest scene by scene, write the last two thirds pretty much straight off the outline with the discovery coming in the details.

By: Mary Elizabeth S.

Mary Elizabeth S. — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:04:29 +0000

For your writer friend whose work in progress is not yet in progress, tell them this:

“If we wait for that moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin.”

I don’t remember who said it, but it’s a pretty strong case for seat-of-the-pants-ing, or at least for getting on with it already.

~Mary

By: Melinda

Melinda — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:00:22 +0000

Another newbie on the comment trail. I definitly write by the seat of my pants. I only get to know my characters along the way. If i plotted it all out before-hand they wouldn’t surprise me and things would be dull, dull, dull. I always know the ending though, otherwise i’d never finish.

I could never bring myself to delete a first draft, even when I’m on the final one. Even though I never refer back to it. It would upset the balance of the universe.

By: Leahr

Leahr — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:39:22 +0000

I’ve never actually commented before, but I thought I’d say:

NanoWrimo!
http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Speaking of different novel-writing methods, how can you leave that one out? The most writing I have ever done all at one time has been in November. Before that, I thought you could only write after months of worldbuilding and outlining.
So I have tried both approaches, to some extent. I still haven’t decided which I like better.

By: Lisa McMann

Lisa McMann — Fri, 16 May 2008 02:02:41 +0000

I am a total pantser. Great blog!

By: PixelFish

PixelFish — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:10:27 +0000

I must be crazy. I’m trying EVERY possible method til I find one that works. The one I am on now is called Write A Lot Til The Story Is Finished. (But it also happens to be somewhere between the Asimov method mentioned in a post above, and the Trollope method from the same post. I have a VAGUE endpoint, and I’ve had about three starting points. One character was a bitch, and then I tried to find out why, and that moved the starting point back about three decades.)

By: atthecross

atthecross — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:42:11 +0000

normally, i am a lot like u, i guess… i start writing, then figure out my plot later. although i ALWAYS know EXACTLY what my first sentence is going to be. or at least the first important sentence. (its usually the protag’s name. easier that way.) this time around, i tried doing plot outlines… which has not yet been worth it, as i simply skipped all the intro and basically started in the middle. and i NEVER have EVER known my ending! heck i still dont know! but i guess different folks, different strokes, right?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:31:43 +0000

Justine – Have you ever seen David in a gypsy dress and espadrilles? I mean, on anyone else it would be against nature and humanity, but David… well, banning me from the blog won’t change reality.

By: Polenth

Polenth — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:27:52 +0000

I write in a random chronological order, and rearrange it into order later. This is without a plan. All those people who write from beginning to end are the strange ones.

By: Ruthanne

Ruthanne — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:03:18 +0000

*laughing* It’s so good to see another author who does NOT plan out every little detail. Oi, vey. (And of course writers are crazy. They spend most of their time living in their heads and talking things out with imaginary characters. We are all categorically nuts!)

By: Lee

Lee — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:09:11 +0000

I’m about 98% pantser. I usually have a general idea of where my characters will end up, but more often than not, they go off on their own without any respect for my feelings. Some nights I’ll even sit down with a certain scene in mind and write something completely different from what I intended. Usually, it’s also better than what I intended.

By: sillybean » Other writers are crazy

sillybean » Other writers are crazy — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:55:44 +0000

[...] Other writers are crazy 1:55 pm comment [...]

By: Kris

Kris — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:44:30 +0000

I can’t plot from beginning to end. I am 80% pantster/20% plotter, I guess. I also tend to have the main characters already figured out to some degree, an idea of where I want to begin + catalyst for the whole thing, and then a basic idea of where I want to end up.

The last time I tried to plot out my chapters. I had the first two kinda thought out…and then a big huge blank…and then the final chapter which was a very simple “and then they get together” (it was a romance).

If I try to plot too much, I lose the enjoyment of discovering the story on my own. I like to be surprised.

What do you want to bet the super-plotters are the type who want to read the end of a book before they buy it or ask you how the movie ends before they watch it?

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:28:54 +0000

Your friend should be consoled by Leviathan’s track record. Paul Auster used the name and ended up with a magnificent novel; Hobbes used it hundreds of years ago and it’s still famous.

It’s only crazy to think we’d all have the same writing method. Brains are individual, as are hearts, experiences, even handwriting. “Individual methods” is the only possible next step in the sequence. Hell, I don’t follow the same method from one story to the next.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:00:45 +0000

I find it much more effective to have a general idea of a story and to just sit down and write. You never know where a story will go once you start writing. If you map it all out beforehand, and you’re not flexible, then the story will sound forced.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:26:06 +0000

I’m inclined to think that writers whose quirks result in the production of actual stories are doing just fine. But writers whose quirks prevent them from producing actual stories are just making excuses.

Personally, I always begin with an outline and it always becomes laughably obsolete around 10,000 words in. You could say this is a good argument for ditching the outline. But actually, the outline is a perfect preliminary conduit for all the stupid mistakes I would have made in the first draft. Believe me, those mistakes are going to be made. Making them in outline form is quicker and less painful to eliminate.

By: Owldaughter

Owldaughter — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:21:19 +0000

I’ve written fiction both ways: via outline (once!), but mostly writing by the seat of the pants. I enjoy the latter more, but I suspect there was less angst attached to the former. Of course, the outlined novel got boring two chapters before the end and I never finished it. It is mildly encouraging, however, to know that there’s a book in a figurative drawer somewhere that I could sit down and finish, if I could get myself back in the proper headspace. The other unfinished novels suffer from I-don’t-know-how-it-ends-itis, the main obstacle I have encountered while writing by the seat of the pants.

All my non-fic is outlined, though. Not that the final product matches the outline. (Case in point: half a week before my last book was due, I realised it needed a new chapter that hadn’t been anywhere on the original outline. This was after I collapsed two into one and rearranged the order of most of the others.) So I guess my non-fic technique is a combination of outline and writing by the seat of the pants.

Great post! I shall have to try deleting the first draft of something someday.

By: cherie priest

cherie priest — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:41:26 +0000

[:: high fives ::] fellow sane writer.
Kat Richardson accuses me of this. She calls it, “Writing by the seat of your pants.” She’s probably right, but my process is more like yours than like an outline. I tend to have a good idea of who the characters are, and a general idea of what’s going to happen to them, but I don’t usually plot anything out in advance.

By: Chris Billett

Chris Billett — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:36:06 +0000

Err… I meant coffee. I mean, no I didn’t. I meant [sic]!

By: Chris Billett

Chris Billett — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:35:13 +0000

“I wrote a short story once where I knew the ending, and it ended up with Scalzi’s disembodied head in a cooler.”

Hey… I had the same. Please tell me it wasn’t a short called “I wrote my best work in a coffe shop you bastard” too?!?

(in other news: great post!)