How I Put A Story Together

[Euryleia]

I start putting a story together by getting a wicked idea (usually at 2am) and must make sure to write it down or I will have the devil of a time going back to sleep. Of course, if I do manage to fall asleep without having done so, I will be tormented for the next several days about how the perfect story got away.

From my hastily scrawled notes, I create a Word file for the new idea and roughly draw out the main characters--they won't get names yet but I might already start to hear their voices in my head. I'll put down those conversations and any other brilliant ideas and then put it away to marinate for a few days.

When I come back to it, I usually have a better idea of what kind of story it will be--a short story or a novel, erotica or mainstream, or maybe it is something that isn't ready to be written yet. If it is clamoring to be written, I then write a basic outline of the plot arc. By this, I mean I figure out the set-up, the action, and the resolution.

I have really found that an outline is very helpful as a starting point, especially for the longer stories to make sure that I tie up any loose ends. However, I find I get more use out of a pack of yellow stickies (aka post-it notes) than the outline process I was taught in school. I basically create a storyboard for each of stories I may be working on at any one time.

On my stickies, I put character descriptions down as I write them in the story (hair and eye color, background info like job or parent’s names, their particular kinks, etc) and stick 'em up on the bulletin board. I also put down the main plot points to make sure that I'm keeping the tension high. I can quickly and easily rearrange things as I write and reference back (were her pubes shaved?) as I work.

I try to write something everyday. If the muse isn’t cooperating, I end up hopping around from one story to the next. Instead of having to reread everything I’ve written so far before I can start the days work, I can glance up on the board and see the stickies for each project.

When writing the story itself, I rarely work in a linear fashion. Mainly because I am easily bored, I jump around and write the fun stuff and then have to buckle down and write the nitty gritty transitions and explain how we got from point A to point D and why they don’t have any clothes on.

As I get close to finishing, I start rereading the story, making obvious corrections as I go. These read throughs help me to fine tune the story and resolve any plot holes. Once I finish, I usually put the thing down for a week or better before I start editing. I have to get some distance and perspective first. If I start editing too soon, I might catch the grammar errors but I won’t see the extraneous paragraphs that don’t do anything to move the story forward.

[theladystouch]

Hello, all. Quite an interesting, not to say provocative, thread. I’m afraid I have no chance of holding my own with that part of the conversation, so I’ll just get on with my assignment and try to explain (at least to myself) how I put a story together.

Ideas for stories come out of the blue. I have no idea from what dark crevice of my mind they appear. Once I have an idea, I start writing. I put the idea down on paper, and any character info I can think of.

I don’t use an outline because I never know where my story is going to go. I do use character sheets, but only after I’ve been working with a character for a while. My characters tend to quickly develop their own “voice,” and that allows me to “ask” them about themselves. I am not clinically schizophrenic, I promise, but after I’ve been working with characters for a while, they just start talking to me. I write down what they say, and, voila! I have a story.

This is not always good. Often, they take me places I hadn’t planned on going, did not want to go, and have no idea how the hell I am going to get out of there. Sometimes a solution eventually occurs to me. When that happens, I produce some of my best stories. When it doesn’t, the manuscript sits on the shelf, often for months, until I decide to take another stab at it.

Although I’ve been a technical and business writer for years, I have no formal training in how to write a story, a novel, etc. In fact, some of the terminology I’ve run into on this forum is unfamiliar to me. I just put ideas on paper, make sure the spelling and grammar appear to be correct, read it aloud once, and hope for the best. I am terrible at editing my own work, because I fall in love with my own writing. * Sigh *

While I don’t use an outline, ideas for bits and pieces of the story tend to come to me at odd times, including 2am, so I keep my laptop with me everywhere I go (it’s on the bedside table at night). When an idea or a scene leaps to mind, I just scroll to a new page and start typing. When the rest of the action gets me to that point, I revise as necessary, but those scenes that come to me in toto, and out of the blue, tend to be pretty good and need little revision.

I’m usually at the halfway point of a story before I know what the crisis is going to be, or how it will end. So, that is my willy-nilly way of putting a story together.

Tips and things I’ve learned:

1) Draw from your own experience. It sounds more believable that way.

2) In general, draw characters and surroundings lightly; it allows the reader to “buy-in” to your story by making the hero(ine) and locale into whatever they feel comfortable with.

3) If you don’t like it, don’t write it.

4) This one isn’t a tip so much as something I’ve learned, plus a query. I find writing the crisis part of a story to be very difficult. I always fall in love with my protagonists, and usually hate my antagonists. So when I do awful things to my heros, it hurts. My brain also usually wends its way through some VERY dark corridors as I imagine what is happening. The stuff that ends up on the page is usually much milder than the creepy and icky stuff that slimed up my mind while I was working on it.

My query is this: do other authors have a difficult time writing these hard bits? And, if so, do they have any tips on how to deal with it?

Well, that's my two cents...

Lady C

[Euryleia]

4) This one isn’t a tip so much as something I’ve learned, plus a query. I find writing the crisis part of a story to be very difficult. I always fall in love with my protagonists, and usually hate my antagonists. So when I do awful things to my heros, it hurts. My brain also usually wends its way through some VERY dark corridors as I imagine what is happening. The stuff that ends up on the page is usually much milder than the creepy and icky stuff that slimed up my mind while I was working on it.

My query is this: do other authors have a difficult time writing these hard bits? And, if so, do they have any tips on how to deal with it?

Lady C

Oh, yeah, I certainly have trouble. Especially when I've come to care for my characters. And, sometimes, my fantasies disturb even me.

The best way that I've learned to handle it is to just take a break. Let the ideas marinate for a day or two before I committ unspeakable acts on my heroines (boy characters are icky and they don't count lol). Let the light of day shine on on the creepy stuff and see if it still makes your pulse race.

ER