Monday, October 22, 2007

chapters one after another

According to the present state of events, I envision the short story to have five chapters, plus the prologue and epilogue. That makes seven parts, some of them only a few lines long.
I feel very neat with having this strcture in mind now.
I have taken written notes of what each chapter would be about.
I have came up with titles for each chapter.
I've started writing Chapter One...
I have recently written pieces that would fit into further chapters...
Do you work in a linear fashion?
I think only a few writers can start writing at Chapter One, first line, finishing it, going onto Chapter Two and going this way until The Last Chapter.
I think most writers write some parts first and match pieces together LATER ON, according to the sequence of events and/or the flow of the story?
I had some other questions to ask, but my two kids keep CONSTANTLY speaking. To each other, to imaginary friends, to the dustbunnies under the table, to the corners of the room...
I can't believe how much can they actually talk.
Distraction.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Little child can't shut up. I was an exception because I was silent but my brother talked instead of me as well:D
kellemes október 23-át

SzélsőFa said...

Maybe we should add up the toal amount of speaking within a family :))))
Van a bátyádnak is blogja, vagy már kibeszélte magát gyerekkorában, hehe?

Charles Gramlich said...

I tend to work mostly straight through a piece, although I will occassionally jot down scenes or bits of scenes further into the story.

I remember my son at the talking age. I think it was about a 3 year period when I was basically unable to complete a whole thought.

Bernita said...

Like Charles I tend to work linear, but frequently write down bits of lines or whole scenes as they come to me.

SzélsőFa said...

Charles,

well, actually, my kids are well past THAT age. I think they are bored with having nothing to do. School's back tomorrow, thanks God!

Bernita AND Charles,
thanks for the information.
Does it mean that writing linear is easier?

Vesper said...

I used to write in a linear way, but not anymore. Now I do a lot of hopping. It has something to do with attention, with impatience, maybe, with the particular mood I'm in...

SzélsőFa said...

Thank you Vesper.
Now it's 2:2 for linear vs. hopping style.

Which style did you find more useful?
Or was it that when you wrote linear, linear was the only solution and when you wrote hopping-wise, hopping is the best way?

Unknown said...

öcsém és nincs neki, mert ő nem írogatos hanem dumálos.

Bernita said...

Don't think there is a "best" way.
It's whatever works for the individual.

SzélsőFa said...

Ropi,

no igen, az mindent megmagyaráz.

Bernita,
that's aboutwhat I think, too. I was just curious. thanks for the opinion.

steve on the slow train said...

It was really hard to write when my children were small. I sympathize with you. (Like you, I wouldn't trade any of my children for a published novel.) Sarah, who probably talked the most of the three, is in graduate school in Maryland (creative writing, naturally) and will be getting married (in India!) in January.

There was a story about some avant-garde author who was asked, "Do you agree that every story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end?" To which he replied, "Yes, but not necessarily in that order."

I'm pretty linear in my writing--put a first draft together and then go back and revise. Of course, the only things I've published or sold have been short nonfiction, and I have only one short mystery story that's almost ready to send out.

SzélsőFa said...

Steve,

I love anecdotes like that :))

Considering you basically write non-fiction, a linear writing based on careful planning seems a really reasonable option.
Was it the same with your mystery story as well?

iLL Man said...

My writing comes off the top off my head. The series I'm working on just now has a sort of theme, but the individual stories are self contained. The first writing I did was a multi-part thing, with un-related side stories. Later on I cut away the side stories and turned the main narrative into one piece. To be honest, I was making it all up as I went. I find on the internet, this is a good technique as it allows you to think of the next move whilst getting feedback from people.

Ewen

SzélsőFa said...

While getting feedback WHILE writing can be inspiring and interesting, I rejected the idea of giving out anything until it 'hatched'.
I tend to go back and polish, sometimes changing lines and complete paragraphs...
I can stick better to the idea when I'm alone with writing I guess.

So that's why there are no exerps here...

Danette Haworth said...

Ha! Charles, you are too funny!

As far as the writing process, sometimes the climax comes to me first; then I have to go back and figure out how it all happened and start from there.

SzélsőFa said...

Hiya Danette,
it's nice to have you over here :)
You see, I laughed at Charles's comment as well :)

Re: climax first.
I find that approach reasonable, too.