Your creative process of writing.

[dumpster]

On 15/07/2020 at 11:40, Gambit said:

Does anybody have any tips on starting a novel? I have a couple of ideas floating around my head, it's mostly mapped out in my brain, but the opening paragraph completely alludes me. I can't seem to put anything down that in my mind doesn't sound completely cliche. I want something that "pops", but gah, it's hard.

Start typing.  Load up your word processor and type out 1 liner plot points for everything you have had swirling around in your head.  Then start writing your first scene at the top of the page with all your bullet point ideas below.  When you are writing, any ideas that pop into your head can be quickly added to your list.  Above the cursor you have your novel and below you have the ideas. As you write, you'll have your head so full of stuff that better ideas might replace those you originally had, so write those down too.  At some point you'll see connections in your random list. You might want to go back to what you have already written and add some details or change something, so that your next new idea makes sense when you include it. Need your main character to throw an egg at someone?  Go back to the earlier scene and add a bit where someone shouts, "if you're going out, pick up some eggs". If you want someone to be run over, go back to the paragraph where you describe the place, add a line that says the taxi drivers all drive too fast and carelessly, then when your character gets hit by a car 30 pages later make it a taxi and people will think you are a clever writer. 

 

I think of The Sixth Sense movie with the twist ending. M. Night Shyamalan would have started with a piece of paper that says "the kid sees dead people. The doctor helps him.  Turns out the doctor is one of the dead people all along".  He would think about how this will work in real life and realise that if the doctor doesn't know he's dead, then all the dead people shouldn't know. So why is the Doctor dead? Someone shot him.  Who? And so on.  Once you have the rough idea you decide where to start. We need to see Bruce Willis as the doctor, we need to see his lovely lifestyle, we need someone to shoot him.  Who?  And you start writing that first scene.  Every time you get an idea of a clue for the audience, you scribble it down. 

 

Back to the Future 2 is a good example as well.  They came up with the idea of a sequel that takes place at the same time as the original film.  But the last scene of the original says they have to go back to the future because something happens to their kids. Also Jennifer gets in the car so they need to do something with her.  So you start of with

They go to the future

They solve the problem with the kids

Something happens there that makes them need to go to 1955 

And then you start thinking up the ideas that join that framework together. What if they do whatever they do in the future, think they succeeded but then go back to 1985 and it's all changed?  Then go to 1955 to fix whatever caused it.  Etc. 

 

Writing down every idea so you don't forget them, and filling in the holes when they fit. You are kind of making it up as you go along, but you did have the outline before you started and when you get a flash of inspiration you can put that in wherever you see fit.  You'll re-write it all multiple times anyway before it is finished.

 

[Mikes]

What do we do when we have an unexpected day off? We write.

 

[Mikes]

I don't think there's another place to post this, and I've been told I need to talk about my wins a bit more, so I'm starting small on this corner of the forum.

 

Last June I sold my first novel.

 

It's to a publisher in NSW I've been working with for some time, providing short stories for children's anthologies, which is a nice break from the horror, dark sci fi/fantasy I usually write, and has gotten me emails from children who were effected by the stories, which is frankly the best payment there could be. Effected in a good way, I should point out.

 

Anyway, they asked if I had anything long form, and I did at the time but it wasn't what they wanted, so I quickly oultined an idea I'd had in m head for a while and they said they wanted it, and they did. 

 

I'm bringing this up now as even though publication isn't until March next year I've just received the first round of edits. I've done the best I can to try and forget about it while I write the next one, so this was a pleasant surprise in my inbox this morning. It's round one for a 115,000 words, so my next few weekends are booked up, but I couldn't be happier.

[Monkeyboy]

@Mikes Is your novel published now? How did it go?

[Mikes]

Yep, came put in march. It spent around a week in the top ten best sellers on Booktopia - one of Australia's main online book retailers- which wasn't bad for a first time novel from a small press. The Aus Standing Orders company who buy books for school libraries also put in a  in order, which is great and also means I'll be getting public lensing right payments from thaton a year or two afterwards.

 

Downside is reviews are few, which is again to be expected from a small press book, but the editor tells me it got more than the usual, which is good.

 

 

[dumpster]

Just re-reading this thread after its big bump. Something I found really useful recently was something you're all probably going to hate me for recommending (!)  But the directors commentary track for The IT Crowd on DVD are really good.  The box set is in every charity shop.  Series 1 - 3 are the usual sort of thing but series 4 is Graham Linehan explaining the process of writing a sitcom, over all six episodes.  There's really valuable stuff there, and whatever you think of his beliefs about the trans community, he does know what he's talking about when it comes to writing. I really benefitted from listening to it.

 

 

 

[Mikes]

On 12/06/2022 at 19:51, dumpster said:

Just re-reading this thread after its big bump. Something I found really useful recently was something you're all probably going to hate me for recommending.  But the directors commentary track for The IT Crowd on DVD are really good.  The box set is is every charity shop.  Series 1 - 3 are the usual sort of thing but series 4 is Graham Linehan explaining the process of writing a sitcom, over all six episodes.  There's really valuable stuff there, and whatever you think of his beliefs about the trans community, he does know what he's talking about when it comes to writing.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for that. A quick google showed it's on youtube:

 

 

[Mikes]

I've listened to the whole thing now and it's super useful.  Thanks, @dumpster! Such a shame Lineham ended up going down the route he did.

[Monkeyboy]

With my writing tools I've flip-flopped between Scrivener and Ulysses over the last few years. I've finally ditched Scrivener because, as great as it is, these days it's feeling a bit bloated and messy for my working methods. As for Ulysses, I love its minimalist approach and universal library method of storing files: it's nice to have everything I've ever written or will write in one spot. I know the argument would be "why not just create a folder for your writing?" but it's somehow not the same. I wish I could explain why.

 

However, Ulysses is overpriced for what it is. It's not really worth the yearly sub. I've since found another app called Craft Docs: https://www.craft.do/

 

I love it. It's Mac only, and a bit of a Notion rip-off, but it's great to work with. The website has a bit of a focus on using it to share and collaborate on documents, but you don't have to bother with any of that if you store your stuff in icloud or on your hard drive. It has the universal library aspect of Ulysses but looks a bit prettier whilst still not giving you too many options, allowing you to focus on the writing.

 

What I love the most is the backlinking. You can link to another document and any document you go to will show you which documents are linked to it. It's not something I thought I ever needed, but it's really helped tying all my thoughts together as I write.

 

It's sub only, and as expensive as Ulysses but worth it I think. Recommend any writer give it a go.

 

Craft aren't paying me for this advert btw!! 😅