fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3009 ]

[ SECRET POST #3009 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3009 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

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02.

[Peggy Carter]

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03.

[Robin Hobb]

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04.

[Fossil Fighters: Frontier]

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05.

[Katie Holmes/Jamie Foxx]

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06.

[Infinite Jest]

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07.

(Harry Potter)

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08.

[Hellsing]

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09.

[Grimm]

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10.

[CLC/CrystaL Clear]

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11.

[Stargate Universe]

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12.

[Doctor Who]

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13.

[Robin Hood (BBC)]

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14.

[Tales from the Borderlands]

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15.

[Great British Bake Off]

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16.

[The Cure]

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17.

[Top Gear]

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18.

[The X-Files]

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19.

[Ron Perlman/Hannibal Chau, Pacific Rim]

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20.

(One Direction, Zayn Malik)

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21.

[Doctor Who]

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22.

[bokura no negai]

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23.

[Gunnerkrigg Court]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 071 secrets from Secret Submission Post #430.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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I keep running into advice that says you must know your ending before you start writing, even if it's just a vague idea.

I actually keep the ending a complete mystery when I start. I like figuring it out as I write and I see all the little changes to my original planning that add up and lead the story in a direction I wasn't expecting. I'm usually really happy with how well it all comes together.

Do you outline your ending before you start writing?

I never actually get myself to outline an ending if I don't know it when I begin. I usually wait until it comes to me, especially since sometimes endings can change based on how your characters end up evolving while you're writing. I find it does help if you have a rough idea of an ending though, since it can help guide you on what happens next in the story. I sometimes do get stumped on writing the next scene if I don't have an ending in mind.

I do sometimes have a vague idea of the ending, like if there's a villain I at least know that he's going down, and sometimes it can help, but sometimes it feels like a challenge to figure out how the hell I'm going to get there from where I'm standing.

I do. It helps me immensely to know where I'm going so I don't go off on tangents and so I can foreshadow the ending appropriately. I mean, that still leaves a lot of room to make changes. As I go along, I do reevaluate what is or isn't needed but I definitely try to nail down an ending early on so I know exactly what kind of story I'm trying to tell and so I can actually finish the story because I could just keep going forever if I didn't tighten up everything.

But, then, I do tend to write very long stories so it's easy to get lost amid the details for me. Outlining really helped me start finishing the stories I was writing.

The length thing is interesting. My stories tend to be short; the longest I've ever written was only about 90k. I keep wanting to write something longer though, so maybe I'll find out if that changes my planning style.

Yeah, if you're writing short stuff, then outlining might not seem so necessary. But I'm verbose my nature; I've been struggling lately to write anything short because I'm sick of getting stuck in these super long stories that take months and months to finish. They're the stories I want to tell though. Outlining has helped a bit in that regard as it helps me combine sections and get the most out of every scene I do so that I don't waste any energy on superfluous stuff. It also helps to have a definitive outcome to work towards so I can look at a section and see if it's necessary or not.

I think for me it's that I'm an exploratory sort of writer. First drafts are when I throw everything on the page just because it sounds interesting and take off in a direction I wasn't planning on because it seems like it might work. Then with the second draft, I create a much more strict outline where I cut out the stuff that doesn't work and make the necessary changes. Maybe it's not the best way to go about it (though they say all first drafts will need major work, so who knows), but my first drafts that are all about discovery are too much fun for me to give up.

I think I do a lot of that in my head. And, for me, my outline can often be a first draft. Some of them are pages in length where I throw out all my ideas and see where things go from there. But then I redo the outline a few times until I'm ready to write. I think it's easier for me to throw away concepts and look at them dispassionately when they're just ideas and I haven't spent hours trying to make a scene work.

I'm reading a book right now about time and writing where the author promotes a theory that you shouldn't sit down to write until you have something to write (and indeed you should make yourself wait a bit to get you anxious to write) but you also need to give yourself a lot of time to think about your writing. I'm not explaining it well at all and I haven't finished the book yet but I think it's pretty spot on for how I write.

But, I know everyone does stuff differently. That's the beauty of writing.

What book is that? I love reading writing books. It's fascinating to see all the different ways people approach this stuff, plus sometimes there's some good advice in there.

I agree! I love writing books. I have a ton I get at used book sales. I find there's always something interesting in all of them.

The one I'm reading now is called "A Writer's Time: Making the Time to Write" by Kenneth Atchity.

It's a little odd because he talks about a continent (your pragmatic side) and islands (your creative side) and I'm not entirely sure where he's going. But it's definitely a different kind of book since he's focused on how to use time efficiently. I'm not agreeing with everything but some of his advice has really gotten me to think about how I'm using my time so that's neat.

I'm not sure it's worth getting new though.

Sounds interesting. I might see if I can pick it up somewhere.

Also, I love used book sales too!

I'm exactly like this too. I need something to 'aim' for when I write, and like you say, I want everything to tie up nicely. Of course I try to be careful and make sure that throughout the process the ending continues to fit with where the story's gone... (for example, in my webcomic plot, which has undergone many big changes, the ending has also been tweaked and changed. The base idea is the same, but I want to make sure it doesn't feel tacked-on).

I am rather proud that my 300k monster that was written over a whole bunch of years, I planned the ending way at the beginning, the ending hasn't changed, and it still fits.

It can help sometimes. I have written out an ending scene for my project before I forgot it.

That's another thing that I don't follow. People talk about always writing things down so you don't forget them, but I sometimes go a week or two before finally writing down a sudden burst of inspiration I had. These things seem to stick in my mind just fine.

I suppose its a difference with different people. I daydream and brainstorm a lot, so ideas can get lost sometimes. With some ideas I don't have written down I have to repeat to myself. Or talking with friends about it helps me.

I daydream and brainstorm a lot too. It's practically a separate hobby from actually writing for me because I know I'll never get around to writing most of this but I have fun coming up with these ideas anyway. But my brain just seems to hold on to all these random details without too much trouble.

Ahh well I suppose it's a thing with my brain, I'me easily distracted

I usually have several vague scenarios for how my story may end when I start out, but nothing really plotted out (I don't really plot out anything beforehand though)

However the story often turns in a completely different direction, and the ending ends up being something I didn't think about at all before starting.

That's basically what I do. I just love being surprised as I'm writing.

Dunno if this could count, but for my WIP I vaguely have an idea as to what the country my story revolves around would be in by it's ending.

It would have a monarchy, be democratic, multicultural, and be partly split with a vaguely royalist south and a devolved-but-kinda-royalist north ala. Scotland.

Now I have to write the journey for the characters and the land.

I love the idea of building that kind of history but I always end up getting overwhelmed when I try to sit down and do it.

Yeah, it can be a bit of a handful, particularly if you want to include the whole world in your writing as well.

For my WIP, I just decide to focus on that particular region/characters and screw the rest of the world. It also helps that my WIP has a timespan of almost 150 years to work things out, so any mistakes I made can be corrected by "oh, that historical accident has been worked out now!". Also, the long time-frame gives me ideas on how to be creative along the way with the land and the protagonist's family.

why yes, my fic is a generational saga.

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