Make lists. Sketch out the characters, plot, emotional tone, and so forth -- without slowing down to organize your ideas into sentences and paragraphs.Kennedy, ''Short Stories: 10 Tips'' -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)
I'll admit that I don't always make lists...in fact, truth be told, it's rare that I do. I can definitely see how it can be helpful. The few times I did use this trick, it did help a great deal. Usually, however, I just think through everything...without writing anything down. In this manner, I've found that I can develop the story a great deal before I get started. Whenever I try and write everything down--even if it is just a list--I can not think things through as quickly and effectively. When I simply brainstorm, I sometimes manage to map out the entire story (characters, plot, setting...) before ever putting pen to paper (or hands to keyboard). Even once I begin to write the story, I find myself adding even more layers to it than I originally planned on. My ideas continually change as I realize what works and what doesn't. After I have a pretty good idea of where I want the story to go, I sometimes take notes to help later on.
Comments (2)
It's important to develop your own recipe for what works... my wife is like you, in that she thinks in advance what she wants to write. In grad school, when she had a 20-page paper due, she would sit down about 20 hours before the deadline, churn out a page an hour, and be finished. I have multiple drafts that I revise, edit, and stitch together. Often I don't know exactly where I am going when I sit down to start writing, and I use the process to think through my fingers... but that's not her style.
Posted by Dennis G. Jerz
|
February 19, 2007 9:37 PM
Posted on February 19, 2007 21:37
I often have the same problem with creative process. For some people it works to sit down and map out ideas on paper, but for people like us it can be a tedious, constraining process. Instead of focussing the flow of ideas for me, writing sometimes causes a clog in the flow when I can't get what I'm thinking onto the paper before a new idea springs up. It means that I have to go against the flow of my thoughts to add something in at an earlier time, where in my mind I could simply insert the thought and move on.
I know that listing and brainstorming on paper can help for longer assignments, tedious assignments, and assignments that you just don't want to do, but when it comes to creative writing listing and such just slows me down and pulls me away from the plot I'm already forming in my head. If it gets to be too much for my brain to hold, then I'll scribble down some notes to help me keep track of everything, but otherwise it just seems to be a waste of my time.
(P.S. I'm in STW right now where they emphasis the process of writing, and I had composition last semester, so I'm about processed out. That might be why I'm so vehement that if you don't need to brainstorm you shouldn't have to.)
Posted by HallieGeary | February 20, 2007 9:27 AM
Posted on February 20, 2007 09:27