The Wood Beyond The World Forum How do we write?

This is sort of a companion thread to How do we read?

What I'm getting at is big picture and small.

When in your life did you know you wanted to write fiction?

When and how did you get started on current projects?

Where did your ideas for your stories originate, how did they develop?

What are your strategies when writing and revising?


I'll start with my own answers.

I've told stories all my life -- elaborate make-believes for my own amusement as a child, occasionally shared with friends, but usually solitary.
Before I learned to read I drew story-telling pictures.
When I learned to read I began writing my own stories immediately. The first were modeled on favorite picture books about furry little animals such as mice, who lived ilke human beings, and princesses and dragons and the like. They were illustrated. I moved to realism as a pre-teen -- fulfilling fantasies about horses and travel and romance. I usually drew portraits of my main characters, but didn't really illustrate the stories. In junior high I became more interested in poetry, and churned out reams of it -- I think some of it was probably quite good, but it's all long lost.
I tried to start a fantasy saga a couple of times, under the influence of LotR, but abandoned it when I realized I had neither the skill nor the experience to handle it. I did maintain a short-story cycle about political intrigue in a fantasy realm for quite a while -- that's been lost too.
Late in high school I suffered from clinical depression for nearly two years, and pretty much stopped writing. Then I went to college and acquired a live-in boyfriend and pretty much forgot about writing. I figured the starving writer in the garret thing was just too cliche for me to pursue. I was going for an academic career when I met my present husband, and writing nothing but formal papers, letters to friends, letters to the editor. I got married, had babies, couldn't keep up with school, worked part time as a substitute teacher, then worked full time at a major book retailer. Still writing nothing except very rare letters. When the internet came into our home I began posting to my husband's online chat group, and eventually returned to graduate studies, online. I discovered I could still crank out a pretty damn good paper to a deadline, and it kind of got me thinking. Working at a book store got me thinking too. I wanted to write again, but aside from keeping a journal and returning, occasionally, to poetry, I had nothing to write about.

I was suffering through my 16th winter in Louisiana, pining for the far north where I was raised, dismissing the notion of writing anything like a memoir, when an idea came to me of a northern kingdom, enmeshed in political intrigue, with some reindeer-herding shamans mixed up in it somehow. At first I wanted to write something for young persons like my sons, but as I began to flesh out the ideas, it became apparent that I was interested in more mature themes and situations. That's how True Minds got going, and all the rest has flowed from it -- more specifically, flowed from the characters.

I found very quickly that the characters and their interactions were my best guides in developing my stories. They became present to me the way my childhood imaginary friends had been present. Every story and every plot turn in every story has had its source in conversations between characters. I think my most assured writing occurs in passages of dialogue -- which I conceive or perceive or receive pretty much whole, like scenes in a movie, with all the actions and interactions of the characters playing out in sync with the dialogue.

(It's time to walk the dog, and I think I'll leave the strategies question for later -- partly because I really don't have any strategies.)

Well besides being an avid reader and imagination user from the time I was small, from the very beginning I'd always loved fantasy. I'd make up pretend worlds that my friends and I could play in. I just loved the idea of being unbound by earthly limitations, going to a place where literally anything was possible.

I honestly can not remember when I first wanted to be a writer. As soon as I was able to write coherently (around 3rd grade) I immediately began writing little stories, basically just my everyday fantasy dreams in written form. Ever since then I just couldn't put the pencil down.

It's hard to say what's inspired the stories I've written and am writing...I think my inspirations come from strange sources. For instance, I got the idea for The Frozen Crown (the tale of which Winds is just the first installment) when one sunny evening I suddenly thought about our shadows, how they always follow us no matter where we go, the idea that darkness is always with us and a part of us, and what would happen if somehow that darkness could be taken away, what would happen to us. Music always place a huge role, though, mostly non-verbal music like symphonic/classical stuff. What I mean is that when I hear a particular song it sounds like the soundtrack to the fantasy movie playing in my head. In fact, the inspiration for the story of Winds of Change itself came from a symphonic song called "Watchman, Tell Us of the Night", which, if anyone wants to, can be heard at www.soundclick.com (go to the search bar in the top right corner, select "songs" and type in the name, hit search, then listen away).

Winds (and its counterpart, Visions of Destiny) are the first novel-length works I've been working on, the others have been short stories. At first I thought it would be a good idea to try to revise and edit Winds part by part (part 1, part 2 etc.) before moving onto the next part, but i think that was a huge mistake since now I'm stuck on revising millions of tiny details in part 1 while only 1 chapter of part 2 stands finished. it's hard for me to just continue writing all new stuff when I know that what's already written still needs so much work.

When in your life did you know you wanted to write fiction?

I've always wanted to write fiction, and quite simply I just did it whenever I felt like it, tho I never considered it a career. I use to write stories all the time, especially when I was little. We had a book competition every year in our school where we had to design write and make our own books. I never won anything, but I used to enjoy it all the same.

Sine then I've started various stories, just for fun, that burned out not even a quarter way through.

I didn't know I wanted to write seriously until about nearly two years ago when I my eyes were opened up to the vast, exciting Fantasy literature world by Trudi Canavan's Black Magician series. I'm even considering writing my current one for children actually but don't want to put anything in a bracket until its finished.

When and how did you get started on current projects?

About a year and a half ago. I didn't start writing anything for a loooong time until I had trained on a couple courses about writing and researched into a variety of techniques. I hate being bad the things I love to do - I prefer to be at least 'okay'! so I felt that before I try writing my idea, I had to understand enough so that I don't hate what I see. I might've put me off.

Where did your ideas for your stories originate, how did they develop?

Once I knew I wanted to write I began buying and reading as many books and information I could on various fantasical topics, legends and myths. Then I moved onto Writing books that would help me improve my descriptive writing, as I feared that that was my weakness, as well as plot and generally writing. Then I began buying books by various authors who interested me. I did this for about 6 months.

At first I didnt know what I wanted to write about. So I just collected ideas I would have while doing the above and jot them down in a lovely little parchment imitated notebook. This included dreams, tiny details I'd notice while out and about, plus random ideas for characters, setting or plot.

I did this for about 6 months until one day, I looked through it and fragmented a plot ideas came to me and I began to write them down. As well the current project there are two others in the background.

What are your strategies when writing and revising?

Hmmm... I begin writing the general structure for the chapter and everytime I a natural pause comes on I would go back, reread and correct, add, delete, redraft. Everytime I open the document I would read whatever I have done so far, correct, add, delete, redraft and then add more. And so and and so forth until the chapter is done. Then I read it about twice a day (I can't read it too often to see the mistakes that stand out) and do the same until I cant go further. This is why it takes me a long time to post anything! If I'm not happy with it, no one will see it.


Scribble

Ahhh, I have been asked these questions many times and it seems that each time I answer them, the answers are pretty much the same.

When in your life did you know you wanted to write fiction?

Not sure I ever knew I wanted to write fiction persay, just that I enjoyed writing. I think the first serious thing I wrote, (serious to me), was a semi-biography of my time in the Navy. I called it sailors have more fun. From a journal I kept. But I also made it fictional so that I would not get into trouble. I still have it in a trunk of writings, somewhere, along with my romance, detective, war, post apoloclyptic and such.

The next big thing I wrote was after reading all the Burrows books of the John Carter on Mars series. The 11th book was done by his editor/publisher after his death. They took two pulp fiction pieces he did and wove them together to create the last book in the series. I was outraged, the writing style was different. It was not his voice and I thought I could do better. So I wrote a 12th book, concentrating on his unnamed children, using his world. It was not called fanfic back then...it was called copyright infringement. lol. Or that is what the Burrows Foundation lawyers informed me when I sent it to the Foundation just to see what they thought. lol. I was told politely that while I captured Burrows essence, if I tried to use any of this they would tie me up in courts for years and I would be poor for the rest of my life...or so the lawyer talk implied. Got that letter too laying around somewhere.

It was not until Ms Ann McCaffery replied to a letter I sent to her on how to break into writting.

Nick,

Writing, one T, go back to school,

Signed, ....

The b***h I though, a simple little mistake...but no...she was right. So, I went back to school to get my degree in Archetictural Engineering and Construction Management. I also took journalism classes and some creative writing courses. I was married with one kid by time I got my associates degree, and instead of going for my masters, I went to work to support the family. (I have never regretted that decision). I kept writing all those years, but nothing serious. Until my current project.

When and how did you get started on current projects?

Before 911, I had the rough drafts of my current work all laid out, took almost 20 years of part time writing, but it was very...very rough. Then after 911, as I sat on the side of the road and watched the pentagon burn, something inside me said...life is too short. I started to get more serious about my writing, and by the end of 2002, Book 1 was picked up by an agent, and sent to various houses. It did not sell, and only later did I learn that the agent knew it had issues, but that she felt the storyline in and of itself was good and the publishers would work with me. Wrong. So, with the help of reading some excellant books in the past couple of years, and with the help of my online friends, I am polishing it up and think that compared to what I first submitted...this is gold.

Where did your ideas for your stories originate, how did they develop?

Believe it or not, many of the idea's for this particular work is from a two year campaign of D&D that I designed and kept notes on. I was a DM, and we had a very hard core group of older players, all of them history majors and all involved in the SCA, so the games use to run 36-48 hrs at a stretch. I had to keep notes because we all got to drunk or stoned to remember what the hell we were doing. Some sessions would have 20 players and multiple DM's. It was not a campaign for newbee's or those not capable to thinking. Years later, I ran across the notes while trying to think of a storyline in the fantasy fiction genre...especially after reading all of the Thomas Convenant series by Donaldson. I wanted to do something on that scale, on the scale of Tolkien, but without all the high literature. For the average readers. Me. lol.

What are your strategies when writing and revising?

As far as writing, in my early years, I use to go back and constantly edit before finishing a chapter. I would write 6-9 hundred words and then edit, rearrange, etc. In doing this, I would grow bored with a story and then start something else. Have a whole trunkfull of unfinished idea's. I never threw any of them away.

Not until I wrote the Burrows stuff did I find a topic that I loved and wanted to see finished. And in finishing this first full manuscript, did I see the logic of writing it all out and getting the full draft out, without worrying about the editing of the story. In doing so, I discovered what works for me, because I needed to get the whole story out before it could be totally revealed to me. I start with an idea, develope the characters, Know where I want it to go and how it will end, but everything else is left open. In other words, I allow the characters to show me the story, with only a little nudging by me where needed. Once finished, then I went back and edit and revise.

I have to add all the little details like scenary and such, but my characters know the story better than I do. Especially my current project which has 3 books already done and in various stages of progression. The current Book 1, is undergoing its 10th, revision/edit and each one of those revisions is saved in its own files so I can go back and see my progression. The past two years have been very noticeable because my learning curve is gaining and my understand of how to write to an audience if finally understood.

My first agent discussed this book with me and I told her that it has gone through so many transitions in 20 years that its not the same story. She said 20 years ago she would not have agreed to represent me because the story would not have been as mature as the version she read. Well, if she read todays version...she just might wet her panties...lol Did I just say that? I hold no disappoint in her, she gave me lots of valuable advice. She started her career in Fantasy Fiction and while she had not represented Fantasy in years, she took me on for old times sakes before she retired. Still, I wish she would have been more forceful about the issues she knew I had. Confidence by an agent, that they can sell is good, but a writer with issues is not good for the writer or agent. Still even the rejection letters were very positive on the storyline and world. Just too many issues. In other words, my grammar and punctuation sucked, my POV was all over the place and the Passive style of storytelling was no longer what most of the publishers were looking for. OLD SCHOOL. Or so the rejection letters implied. But that kind of comment can very telling if the writer listens.

Ok...theres my story...anyone else?