How do you plan/start a book?!

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Enigma
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Re: How do you plan/start a book?!

Post by Enigma »

Well, I had an idea for a new story the other day. I wrote half a pad of notes and a small plan/synopsis which I'm sure will change. Then I took a scene and started writing it out. Next, I'll pick another scene I want to work on and then go from there. The characters come alive, everything gets put together in the correct order, loose ends are tied up and there you have it.
It has always worked for me.
If I didn't write, I'd never sleep.

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Jo90
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Post by Jo90 »

I either have an idea (usually at about 4am), write it down, then let it sit in the back of my head for a few days and see what comes together when I'm not concentrating on it.

Or when I have the idea, start writing. Stream of conscious-style about the idea. You'd be surprised at what comes out when that happens. Deeper details, characters, maybe another way to look at the story.

I also spend a lot of time looking at a lot of imagery to see what it conjures up. Looking at alternative fashion, Urb-ex photography, old Cold-War plane proto-types. Literally anything that gets the imagination running.

It's a bit of a 'Throwing things a t wall to see what sticks' approach. But it works for me.

NOTE: Most writing I do is comics-based, so this might not work as well for prose.
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Justinne
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Post by Justinne »

I tried to do it the organised way: think of a time and a place for the story; write a synopsys; think of characters and write a few ideas about their personalities and background; think of the message I want to send with my novel; plan the narrative structure. But I find this leads me to more stress and less actual work.

So what I do is that I just write down the ideas, whenever they pop up in my mind. I can't even write them all in the same place - I have a lot of different papers and notebooks. Only then do I start dividing these idead into characters, places and events.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you don't need organization and structure for writing a book; but for me, it only works to organize it AFTER I have the ideas (scenes, fragments of a dialogue, a message, etc). I can't just start with a personality, because I am on the journey with my character, and his/her personality forms along the way, I don't predefine it. Same goes for the plot.
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Post by TD Matzenik »

There have been good suggestions made here. It is work though, and that aspect cannot be avoided. Some times the writing will flow and sometimes you will have to push yourself. Sticking to a scheduled time and place for the work is helpful. I don't think or speak of the work as a book until its bound. To me, its just a story I am working on.
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Post by vortexkd »

Assuming that I already have an idea I want to work on, I just dive straight into writing whatever feels like it'll be fun. Then, after I've got a feel of how I want my characters to be and what direction I want to go with the story, I plan the whole thing out in terms of event flow. I use little boxes to write out scenes and what I aim to achieve in each little scene. Each box is about 40-50 words and I'll usually end up with around 80 of them.
Then I rewrite the story according to the event plan. This way, I can throw in foreshadowing and character development instances easily without having to add them in and try to smooth out the disturbances later.
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Post by Ibanezakame »

I can't ive been told time and time again to do an outline, but I can't
Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.

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Post by Marlinwrites »

Over the last 30 years I have been compelled to write at various times. For some reason I find myself inspired to write. A story wells up inside me and I then have to begin putting it down on paper. Each such occasion lasted for a while and then died but over the years what has happened is that I have lived with a number of stories which have slowly developed and which occasionally have bubbled up to the surface again.
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Post by aaronhattle »

You can spend all the time in the world pre-writing or preparing to write and have accomplished nothing. If you have an idea, start putting it down on paper. *Writing* is the most important and difficult part of writing. It's hard to edit or revise when you don't have any words on the page.
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PeterQ
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Post by PeterQ »

I suggest having your cell phone ready at all times to take pics, which will give you images that you can create ideas from, and to either dictate or write memos to yourself about interesting things you may see or interesting conversations you may overhear. Great ideas are literally all around you every day.
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Post by whybark »

first I write the plot line then I write bios of each character
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Post by Dream Catcher »

No one said you have to start from the beginning~

-- 24 Jan 2014, 05:48 --

Never force yourself to write. Write when the idea comes to you. I usually end up scribbling notes everywhere
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rines
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Post by rines »

A way I've always found helpful to start writing a story when all you have are a jumble of ideas and nowhere to take them dancing, is to make a bubble web just like they used to teach in school.

If you've got characters made up, cool, use them for this as well but if not, write down the idea that seems to be the center of the story in the middle and then make lines out to the bubbles of the other ideas. They don't have to be in any order. once that's done, I would write a few notes for each one simple stuff like who it involves or where it happens or why. When that happens i can start thinking about what order it goes in or if it happens all at once, whatever. start drawing lines (in different colors) to what goes best with what. It's messy but, it usually helps me to get the chaotic part of the thought process out on paper so you can organize it how ever you like while not shuffling through your head. Hope that helped a little :D
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Post by TrishaAnn92 »

For me I just start brainstorming and when I think of something I like I just start typing away. :) When I am away from the computer and an idea hits I will scribble it down and run it through my head and think about it and then write it down.
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Post by trace91 »

Such a great thread. I love all of your ideas and tips. I think I may be ready to pick up my writing again after reading through everyones posts.
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Post by KLyons1 »

I start with an idea, sometimes written down but sometimes just percolating at the back of my brain. Once I've mulled it over enough, it gets to the point that I have a scene to write down. While I'm writing that scene, I start to get ideas about where the story is headed, so I make notes that serve as a very rough outline. From there, I keep going back and forth - I write some more scenes/chapters, which give me more outline ideas, so one keeps feeding the other until I figure out the conclusion.
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