Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Repost: How do you go about writing a book?

I'm not asking the general, cookie cutter process for writing a book. I want to know about YOUR process. Do you usually get the character's purpose or personality in mind first? Do you picture the setting or the action first? Where in the story do you usually start? How many times do you usually revise your story?



Tell me about it :)



Reposting to, hopefully, get more answers.Repost: How do you go about writing a book?
i just write. Whatever comes to me I write and then i'm like, hey, that can happen next, and so one thing leads on to anotherRepost: How do you go about writing a book?
Good question. I'm writing a story at the moment, actually!



To start off, I don't even think about writing a story, a plot just comes to my mind- just an overall plot. Sadly, though, I never really think about the specific details throughout the story and the ending. Next, I write down the main characters and their traits, such as age, family, height, hair/eye color, weight, race, hobbies, etc, so I can later describe them in my story. I try to come up with a catchy prologue or beginning, and it just develops from there.



What about you? :)Repost: How do you go about writing a book?
Make sure things actually HAPPEN in the book to move it along. Things that cause change and make the reader interested. Start the book off with some sort of drama point, like a lie or misunderstanding, as that creates drama and interest. By the end of the book, resolve the lie or misunderstanding, as this makes for a satisfying ending.Repost: How do you go about writing a book?
I think about what kind of book I wanna make first. I usually start with a horror topic about murders or whatever. Then I start creating my characters. I do the names last. I start with what they do, where they go, what their problem is and then I work on their features. then I start typing:





Chapter One



blah blah blah





not part of story --%26gt; (then I just start typing an innocent day until things become bloody and intense.)Repost: How do you go about writing a book?
Well usually a story starts as a dream for me. If not that, then it starts off as a bored and dull moment of my life, when I just happen to have my mac in front of me. Sometimes I randomly start writing, (very often when I am half asleep and have no idea what I am doing)

After this I will save it and go to sleep. When I wake in the morning, I will re-read, and notice that when I am half asleep I am totally useless. (I think this every time :p) So after that, I try to make it so it will seam somewhat sane. Once revision is done and over with (For now) I continue writing since I normally only have a couple pages or even paragraphs done. Very long time after, I notice that I have some direction of where this project is going. I start falling into my writing habits. I try to get my story interesting, so it is not just someones daily routine. I add some cliff hangers at the end of a chapter and than think of what is going to occur sometime in the near or far future of my soon to be novel.

After about three chapters, I stop. Then I make charts for all my now and near coming characts. These charts show and explain: Physical Appearence, History, Role that they Play, Personality, Character Traits etc... I do that for ALL of my characters (Even the minor characters....when they show up to be a significance). Once that is done, I do a little research on the names, to make sure that the ones that I have chosen are the ones that I love.

As soon as that is over I re-write three chapters (Add detail, better descriptions, enhancse clues on personality etc) Then I write and write and write, amking usre to add drama. When I finally get towards the last couple chapter (That is if I am going for a happy ending) I will close everything together, making sure to reach everyones happy ending. Post to finishing my first draft, I print the draft out, staple it, then re-read everything, outline words I could change and structures I could improve. Once this is done I retype, then repeat twice more. Once this is over I hand it to some of my close family memebers (Luckily for me I know a published author) who point out bad or undeatailed or just plain old not good flaws to my novel. I then retype, after, look over once more. If I finally approve of my novel, I consider it finished!



Boom! It hits me. I am a author! (Even if it is not published.) :) I hope this answers :)Repost: How do you go about writing a book?
I write mainly fantasy and science fiction, and my stories tend to be plot-driven. I spend some time developing the setting and outlining my plot. The two tend to feed off one another - if I think of a cool idea for the setting, I need to find a natural way to put that across in the story. Likewise, if I need a complication in the plot or a way for the characters to overcome some obstacle, I might tweak the setting or come up with some cool gadget or spell that allows that to happen.



The notes for the setting will be 10k to 20k words. The outline for the complete story is around 2k words.



I don't spend a huge amount of time thinking about characters - which might be a mistake, because they tend not to be very three-dimensional. I create characters as I go along, as I need someone to perform a role in the plot.



I write the first draft in one go, not stopping to revise. (If you try to revise as you go along, you'll almost certainly never finish.) I write from beginning to end, as much as I can. Sometimes I'll skip ahead a few chapters if I'm stuck with the current one. Sometimes I realise that I've jumped over too much time in the story and write another chapter or two to fill in the gap.



I always start with a scene featuring the main character. I try to start with something exciting, to grab the reader's attention. If I can't do that, I try to start where something changes for the character - not necessarily something major, but something connected to what the rest of the story is about.



My most recent completed story went through three major drafts before it got to the point where I was happy with it. The one before that, about seven. I'm hoping that as I get better at writing, and better understand my own writing process, I'll need fewer drafts, because I'll be getting more of it right first time.



If you want to see some of the results, you can read the first third of my most recent finished novel here:



http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bRepost: How do you go about writing a book?
I think I start off with my two main characters.

I was creating a plot for fun in my head while writing a fanfic.

I had these two characters and a bit of a plot. But I kept making situations where I could just have these two characters interact, not caring about the plot at all.



The actual plot...I have no idea how it was formed. I always remember my two characters bonding in some sort of fashion. The rest, I don't tend to remember.



And then one day, out of the blue, it all hits me. I have to write. My subconscious guides me through the first few chapters. I'll have this entire plot set-up. I won't know where I got the plot from, but I can trace back where I got the character's from (at least the main ones).



I start...where my subconscious thinks I need to start. I can't plan my start. I never have.



I haven't gone to revise ane original stories yet, so I can't say.



=)Repost: How do you go about writing a book?
It seems that everytime I write a story the process is different. The one I am currently working on actually started when I had a dream. There was this girl in my dream and I kept staring at her. Then I asked her what her name was and she said, Wren Whitley in her shy, awkward way. After that I asked her to tell me her story and she told me all about her past. After that I woke up and wrote everything down. Then I decided I wanted to know more about her so I decided I would write a story about her and create the rest of her life for her. I'm hoping to make it much happier than the part she told me.



Answer Mine? Please %26amp; Thank You! :D

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;Repost: How do you go about writing a book?
You want to start with a story; actually, you have to start with a story, otherwise your story will be boring.

We all know what a story is. A story tells us something we don't know. A story tells us something interesting.

So the answer to your question is you have to know a good story from beginning to end before you go about writing a book.

My process involves knowing almost everything about the story before writing anything.