GeraldRice Wrote:I was tooling around on the internet and I read a bit about James Patterson. Apparently he has a 3 inch thick folder full of ideas and he collaborates with other writers because he can't write them all. Do you have a folder of stuff you just don't see yourself getting around to? And if so, do you have any plans to do anything with it?I have bits and pieces - ideas, situations, etc. - in notebooks and in a computer file, but no outlines or the like. I have a list of story beats I'm working off for THE DARK AT THE END, but I seem to be avoiding formal outlines lately.
GeraldRice Wrote:I was tooling around on the internet and I read a bit about James Patterson. Apparently he has a 3 inch thick folder full of ideas and he collaborates with other writers because he can't write them all. Do you have a folder of stuff you just don't see yourself getting around to? And if so, do you have any plans to do anything with it?
Bluesman Mike Lindner Wrote:Gerald, I bet you keep a notebook with you at all times. 'Cause anybody who writes gets ideas, phrases, hooks all the time. You don't write them down, you forget them. Which reminds me...
fpw Wrote:I have bits and pieces - ideas, situations, etc. - in notebooks and in a computer file, but no outlines or the like. I have a list of story beats I'm working off for THE DARK AT THE END, but I seem to be avoiding formal outlines lately.
GeraldRice Wrote:I've done that with poetry more than anything else. A really good line and not had a notebook handy. A story idea, or character tends to linger, follow me around and stare at me. Sit at the table while I eat. Keeps my spot in the bed cool. Point its index just inside my peripheral vision while I drive. Whisper nonsense as I'm trying to think of something. I eventually HAVE to write it down. There are ideas I had in my head for years that crept their way into The Ghost Toucher.
GeraldRice Wrote:I didn't know how to outline until last year. I don't know how 'proper' mine are now, but they are effective for me. Mine consists of fleshing out the characters I want to put in my story and then writing paragraphed, abbreviated chunks, that move the story along. I can interchange these chunks as I see fit and as I go a story develops in my mind. I highly doubt it would make much sense to someone who hadn't read the complete story. I even inject pieces of dialogue I want to include in a draft.
The Mad American Wrote:How did you learn? A class or a book or someone show you? Curiousity killed the cat and all that.
GeraldRice Wrote:I guess learned isn't the correct terminology. In theory I knew how to plot, I just didn't have the will to do it/didn't understand the purpose of it. So I just flew by the seat of my pants when I wrote and wound up veering off course at some point. The plot actually kept me on target for a change.Man do I know how that goes!