Do you create or dictate?
By Dday50627
@Dday50627 (359)
United States
April 26, 2009 10:33am CST
there is a difference in how one writes a novel or any type of story. Some authors will wirte an outline and lay out their books plot. they will seek a beginning, a middle and an ending and work the book around it. For some authors, this works well.
Others, like myself, are as excited and intrigued by their story as it unfolds as the readers are. I sit and type. I have no idea what will happen from day to day and when I am finished for the day, i don't think about the story at all. What happens in the next chapter or three or four is as unknown to me as it is to the person reading the novel. I have always written that way and also do not go back and make any major changes from the original. How it came out is how it happened to my mind. I become the novel when I am writing it and therefore live each moment which gives way to the rality in my novels.
Which way do you write and why????
5 people like this
9 responses
@Spook619 (335)
•
26 Apr 09
I don't think I've ever seen someone describe how I work as acurately as you did just then. when I was at school I never understood my English teachers obsession with writing a "story plan" I find it limits creativity as you know there are things you have to get to. Sometimes I might have an idea which I think "that's be really great... in about 4 paragraphs" so I note it and then get to it, but I never write a proper plan. I scare myself because of the content in some of my pieces, when I write I'm often in the first person because I'm living the book as I write it.
1 person likes this
@Dday50627 (359)
• United States
27 Apr 09
you do write as i do and I think that it is exciting to not know what is waiting on the next page.I love the feelings that pound my heart at times when I am typing and suddenly a character does something to cauyse me to sit up and say
Oh yes, I love this." Ande sometimes, well, they just shock me. I Love writing and i love being absorbed by a book, which is whatn you would be if you read my novels. ;) Thank you again for your words. Always, Darrel
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
26 Apr 09
Wow Dday, you seem to live in the world of your own when you write.
I have read some writers say that their characters "become alive" and become uncontrollable, even to the writer. I guess this happen to you.
I have not writen any novel yet, only a few short children stories. And I control the sequence. Even though without a physical outline, but mentally I see the end before I start writing.
1 person likes this
@Dday50627 (359)
• United States
27 Apr 09
thank you for reading and responding. Yes, my characters often do things I am shocked by and I have even considered erasing and redoing but then, that would take the reality and spontaneuos moment away and the novel would then become less than i wanted. So, I leave it, shake my head and go on with the book.
@xParanoiax (6987)
• United States
26 Apr 09
I create, I can't dictate. I'll lay out a book, but hardly will it ever work out that I lay it out in an orderly fashion, because the story has to come to me, it has to tell me what it wants...and my brain doesn't care about order. The story can change itself and I'm often helpless to refuse it, xD
I'm not the story, but the story does reflect my mind at the time.
@Dday50627 (359)
• United States
27 Apr 09
you said it perfectly in that how we feel, our novels are foten a reflection of our mood at the time of writing. It is so easy to get excited or angry or whatever emotions are when we are writing. order??? whats that? lol thank you for reading and your wonderful responce.
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
26 Apr 09
I am one of those writers who plans the beginnning, the middle and the ending, before I start writing the story. When I get an idea I always write it down straight away, because I am afraid that I will forget it, and I am also afraid that I will forget the beginning and the ending if I don't write it down. I like to have a plan or an outline before I start writing, but the funny thing is I don't really use my plan and my notes. When I start writing I forget about my notes and the story often turns out completely different from my plans 
@Dday50627 (359)
• United States
27 Apr 09
many great authors do follow a guideline and it works for them. Nora roberts writes as I do, open and abstract but also follows your way as she always knows where she is so that she can go back and see where she has been. I do write little things like names down so I dont have to look back. It seems to work for me...
@tzaddi (395)
• Philippines
27 Apr 09
well i write when i feel like writing and when i write, i seem to not use any draft scratches because i don't erase or replace anything that i already wrote..but i tend to rephrase my sentences..but that's all..and i think it works for me..ü
and i write somewhere quiet and peaceful so that natural energy can flow through me..ü it helps a lot..ü
@Dday50627 (359)
• United States
27 Apr 09
i normally have music in the background when I write but a lot of author do need silence to write. Sounds often enhance what I am writing and take me to the emotions that I need to feel when writing certain things.
@sambilay (171)
• Philippines
27 Apr 09
well the way writing a novel really has no basis or any formula. It comes out from your mind. what i am doing is think of a situation and make a conclusion first. I will make the message very obvious so that the readers can get what i mean.even at the very beginning, they know the meaning of the story. sometimes i do reverse.
@Dday50627 (359)
• United States
27 Apr 09
i wonder though if they already have a full understanding or knowledge of where the story will end, what is their reason or incentive to go on any further than your opening chapter????
@nekonyanta (892)
• Philippines
27 Apr 09
Hi there. Well, granted that I haven't written anything of sufficient length to actually be considered a novel, I've written my share of multi-chapter stories and I'd say that my writing style is quite similar to yours in that I don't usually plan ahead when writing my stories. I find it easier to just go with the flow when writing drafts and then revise it after one or two read-throughs.
@ada547612 (203)
• China
27 Apr 09
Fiction should be more or less out of the framework, so that you will not write partial title of the novel. However, it can not be too boring. Must be complicated plot that left suspense, this will attract many people. However, the best life, this will resonate.
