Quote Originally Posted by Ruby
Welcome, back.

A new thread for this assignment is fine. The question is asked to help both you and others understand the many different ways we each go about crafting our stories. You've provided excellent food for thought.

Do you like to outline your stories before you begin? Why or why not?

Do you find that your characters run away with your story(ies) and take it in places you didn't imagine? Why or why not?

Do you use character outlines/synopsis/bios? Why or why not?

What tools and techniques have you found that help you best? If yes, please feel free to share them with the rest of the class, by telling us about them and showing us where we can find them.

Answering these questions is your next assignment - along with getting started on the assigned readings.

Please answer the questions in this thread.

Take your time and work on what you need to in your life first.

All the best,

Ruby

PS

I'll ask Rabbit to move this thread into the Writer's Area - Level 3.
Thanks for making this assignment an interesting challenge. I'll answer those questions as the answers come to mind.

I usually have a broad, vague mental outline for my story ideas when I first come up with them. It's rarely written down, though it is sometimes. It's just a general concept, with the details covered as I write the actual story. I find that I don't like to restrict myself or my characters too much by trying to force a conclusion or too many things that don't fit my inspiration at the time that I write. Which leads to the next question...

I have certainly had characters go off in directions that I didn't plan, especially once I stopped fighting them to force them to comply with any skeletal, tentative plans that don't seem to fit them. For instance, I had a story that initially was going to go faster with incest, but the father in the story wanted to put up more of a fight than I intended at first. He wanted to try to avoid knocking up his daughter, so she could go to college. It was the daughter that wanted his baby, since she was in love with him. So, rather than fight them, I let the dad try to hold off while he could. Despite his lecherous ways, he was not ready for an incest love child just yet.

I hope that helps explain that better.

Again, with characters, the basic outline/bio is not set in stone for me until I have written the story itself. Even then, there are occasional changes. I might know that Ted is a cop with a dominant persona and his mother Vanessa is a natural sub who would naturally serve him given the chance, but I don't work try to write that out until I actually write the story. Much of it is minimal planning and maximum improvisation, if that makes any sense to you.

My general technique is to simply go with the natural flow, after mentally piecing together the basic plot. Much of the beginning is known to me from the outset, but the exact body and conclusion are frequently mysteries at first. I also make a point of getting input and trying to do at least some research before writing a story that requires such things. My albino story, still in progress, is such a case. A close friend of mine gave me some good advice, for which I am grateful to her.

Oh, and I look forward to the reading assignments.