Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums > General > Writer's Corner > To the writers of original stories...

[Death By Moogles]

I normally flesh everything out before I start writing. Of course, sometimes I decide to go off in a different direction for a while, and just improvise, but I tend to keep to a steady track. I guess, really, it's like what everyone else has said.

[JerseyMage]

I definately need to see it all before I put it into words. Walk through it in the eyes of the protagonist, beginning to end. If I don't do this and start writing I feel like I don't get the idea across well enough. I'll give someone a draft and they'll be like "I imagined your characters/events like such and such." and I'll be like you're missing some of what I tried to get across. The pitfalls of interpretation!

[Araciel]

a framework with some key parts, usually i don't have an end in mind when i start.

[Mercen-X]

I have about 60+ unfinished stories, all of which are about a quarter in or half done. The story I have the most hope for is a more recent work for which I actually outlined a detailed map to get the ball rolling.

Here's how it looks:

Title: (Maybe a sub-title)

Part 1, Chapter 1,2,3,4,5
Part 2, Chapter 1,2,3,4,5
Part 3, Chapter 1,2,3,4,5
Part 4, Chapter 1,2,3,4,5

After writing the first couple of chapters, it becomes pretty easy to figure out where your story is going for the most part. So what I do is assign light descriptions to each chapter that tell me important things will be happening.
Right now, I'm only on my fourth chapter, but I wrote all of it (each chapter is approximately 4 pages, book-sized) in just under an hour. That's about a chapter every 15 minutes. Of course, I've also got a gist written for the story arc.

It's like: Attack of the Smilie Bunny People: The smilie bunny people arrive from Mars Thrillshill to lay claim to the last of the lost race of earthworm megafighters. However, an average guy is about to take up arms to blow these fluffy bastards back where they came.

See, it's just that easy. And yes, it's good to keep in mind particularly the beginning . . . a pivotal event in the middle . . . and the ultimate end.

[Behold the Void]

I've recently started writing treatments for my stories. They're bullet-point lists of all of the important events that need to happen in the story. It helps a LOT.

[- - - TAURUS - - -]

Originally Posted by Jojee ^

Do you usually have your plot all figured out in your head before you start writing or do you make it up as you go along?

for me, yes, otherwise i can't be as "poetic" or "lyrical" with my material, every so often things fall into place nicely though

[Vivi22]

No I don't; my brain just can't work that way. I'll come up with an idea for how things start out and what the main purpose behind the story is, and I'll usually have the ending well thought out immediately after. From there I just start writing. As ideas start to flow out onto the screen, eventually I may get to the point where I know what has to happen to get me from the beginning to the end, but it is often just vague thoughts of events that have to happen and in what order to bring the characters to the natural conclusion of the story. So I guess everything's eventually a little planned out, but I rarely have more than a page of outline for what will eventually be a few hundred pages of story.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

It really does depend.

There are times when I'm in a NO BOUNDARIES mode when I write whatever just popped into my head. This is usually poetry, or random ramblings about school, perhaps a past journal entry or even a full journal. What they lack in polish they make up for in raw creativity.

Other times I write a full outline and then extrapolate from there.

One time I had this completely random idea while doodling and wrote the story of it all in one sitting. This raw one-draft story was from a basic idea that soon became a story within itself, and the actual story I'd intended may never be written, but I'd love to some day.

One story was born of my frustration in not being able to write, merely an outline and the first few paragraphs, but I returned years later and continued it, then a year later typed and edited it, and that's only 1/3 of the story.

But in all of that I am sure somewhere there is a best-selling novel or indeed series in the making. And some day perhaps you'll all buy it.

*laughs*