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

[TyphoonThaReapa]

Originally Posted by NeoCracker ^

Aren't I a big wig too? *sniffles*

But yeah, of course we all have varied methods.

I usually end up redoing the same damn thing so much in my current Game STory that my main characters are hardly similar to when I started.

Though as it is now I throughly enjoy the changes. I think I'm on the fourth, fifth version of my main character.

Hmmm, your story sounds totally different from mine. Over the pass 6 years I've been writing stories, well one in particular, I've haven't had changes occurred to any of my characters that haven't already been planned. But as for storyline events, I've changed it up at least twice since then. Looks like they're a lot of big wigs on this site huh?

[Jon Thompson]

I know I'm a big wig.

[Ouch!]

If I try to write by the seat of my pants, I end up realizing that I want certain things to happen which require me to go back and change what I've already written. Often the changes are significant enough that I need to rewrite everything.

I now write (fairly) explicit outlines for my writing, especially when the story looks like it's going to be a long one. I devote about a paragraph to each chapter. There is certainly going to be a fair bit of improvisation when actually writing the chapters, but I've got some pretty good guidelines. The outlines help solve the problem of the rewrites. I'm much more comfortable going back and changing around an outline. It's a lot easier than wiping a couple thousand words of text to accommodate a new idea.

[Goldenboko]

Originally Posted by TyphoonThaReapa ^

Looks like they're a lot of big wigs on this site huh?

No just three

[eiko guy]

Im a secret big wig

[TyphoonThaReapa]

Honestly, I wouldn't call myself a big wig by a long shot. However, I believe that my abilities to assemble storyline, characters, events, climaxes, and other elements of a basic or well thought out story with or without effort is more than enough for me to continue what I enjoy doing regardless of criticism. Not that anyone is criticizing each other.

[Polaris]

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?

I have the main plot and the characters everytime I start writting, the ending, however depends a lot with the mood and how the story flowed. Even though with a short-story once I just started with one character and from that character I decide which would be the plot. But it's rare!

[Ouch!]

Originally Posted by Polaris ^

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? ;)

I have the main plot and the characters everytime I start writting, the ending, however depends a lot with the mood and how the story flowed. :) Even though with a short-story once I just started with one character and from that character I decide which would be the plot. But it's rare!:rolleyes2

I can't imagine not having an ending in mind. That'd be like the ultimate "you have no direction whatsoever, do you?"