On Writing

[pensnest]

"Plot is, I think, the good writer's last resort, and the dullard's first choice."

Well, that's what Stephen King says. I've been reading his 'On Writing', and it's very interesting indeed. He has the idea that a story isn't so much made up as discovered, and that strikes me as very true. Sometimes you need plot, but it's a lot harder to write something 'true' when you have to keep to the plot. I don't know how people who do terribly complex stuff with immense amounts of foreshadowing and cleverness manage to do it. It's much easier to have a reasonable idea where things are going, and let the characters take you along. What do you guys feel about writing this way?

Anyway, I've been discovering a story for a couple of weeks now, having put my poor boys into a nasty situation I'm now finding out what they make of it. It's very interesting. I'm creeping towards completion, but I kinda don't want to finish because it's fun. Yesterday, I thought they ought to do something, but as I was writing, I felt it was awfully contrived... anyway, they didn't want to, and today, they've done something much better. You'll see soon, as I'm down for the August challenge on Monday. I hope I will have figured out a title by then.

I never did get round to talking about this year's Remix challenge, for which I was assigned phaballa as my mixee. Naturally I thought at once that it would be ideal to do the dark, sexy, serious version of now that's what I call a motherfucking oedipus complex. I knew exactly what I wanted to write... and I couldn't. Couldn't do it at all. In the end, rather than being sane and going to check out her other stories, I ended up doing the "so tell me about your mother" remix with batshit insane Justin telling his shrink how it was all everybody else's fault. I enjoyed writing it, but. hmm. I feel a bit guilty, as it means (presumably) that whoever gets phaballa next year won't be able to have a go at it then.

Getting her revenge for last year, topaz119, and what a gorgeous job she made of it, putting my "AJ as Lance's sex slave" story into a New Orleans period setting, and YUM! It's wonderful.

I still haven't read all the remix stories, sigh, but I hope to get some feedback sent to the very worthy authors really soon. The first few I did manage to read were excellent, yet again showing how this challenge attracts authors who enjoy the craft of writing.

Comments

[topaz119.livejournal.com]

I don't know how people who do terribly complex stuff with immense amounts of foreshadowing and cleverness manage to do it.

They write in multiple drafts and put the foreshadowing and stuff in after they've figured out where the characters are going in the first draft?

[pensnest]

I think so. Scary. I hate revising in that quantity/depth, and it's particularly tiresome with the kind/length of story that most needs it, too. I tend to find that what I've written *becomes* 'what happened', so it's very hard to pick it up and shake it into better shape.

Dammit, I need a writing icon!

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

a combination of that and your subconscious doing it for you - I find that kind of stuff really hard to write on purpose, but when I'm not stressing on it, sometimes the threads are just *there* when I need them later. (not that I write _that_ long)

[pensnest]

Yes. Usually I know what is going to happen in a story, if not necessarily *how*, and I write with an awareness of whatever it is, so - with luck - some of it at least does end up in there. Occasionally, this even means that random stuff I tossed in early turns out to be exactly what I need later!