One week after the workshop, and I've decided that I LIKE NOT KNOWING HOW THE BOOK I'M WORKING ON WILL END.
This way I don't have to worry about heavy-handed foreshadowing, or trying to manipulate events to make things go according to my plans. I put a collection of well drawn characters into an intriguing situation, and then watch as they figure it out for themselves, page by page, chapter by chapter.
I can see advantages to planning ahead, though. I admire those who can do it. So how many of you like to plan out everything beforehand, and how many just write as you go?
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4 comments:
For me, it depends on the story. Sometimes I want to write something with just the characters, so it's fun to not know the ending... Other times, I find a story in my head that I want to tell, so I already know the ending, and then have to make up characters who would have an interesting perspective on what happens during that story.
So, yeah, for me it depends. :D
for me it's obvious. The good guy wins. With that in mind, I just make the odds a million to one that he won't and then bring out the one. But I like a vague outline of the final battle, otherwise I pull an energizer bunny and keep going and going and going. But if it's too planned out, it loses it's zing for me. so...yes and no. I hope that helped :-)
I always know the beginning and I always know the ending (and which of the characters are there to see it).
What happens in the middle is anyone's guess. And for me, that's part of the fun of writing, because it's almost like reading a novel for the first time.
I guess I write through to the end with a vague notion of what the ending will be as a goal. Then I will go back and revise to make it all hang together. So far in ET2 I know there is a Russian countess, an entomological conference, the tourist attractions in Brighton, a Russian anarchist, a Faberge egg, two impossibly egotistical high society young men who sing music hall ditties, a young woman who fancies herself to be engaged to James, motorcars, intrusive relatives, and a submarine a la Jules Verne. The end will be when Petronella saves the Russian archduke and England and Uncle Augustus saves the countess.
The good new is that I'm making progress. Finished Chapter 7 today. Whew! It was a tough one.
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