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I know this is just a meme, but I have the answer to this, if anyone cares to hear it.
Most people probably think writing is like reading, linear, chapter one, then chapter two, and so on. And some writers do write like this. Stephen King writes like that. He also strongly believes if the story doesn’t hold up, it wasn’t good enough to write. And then he drops it. His bibliography speaks for itself.
It doesn’t have to be like that, though. There are two kinds of writers. Pantsers — as in, they write by the seat of their pants — is the first kind. Then you have plotters. A lot of what they write isn’t for the story. They plot their course in advance. They write a story bible about the characters and setting — this is easier to stick to than the actual story because it’s just notes, no pressure. They also write out an outline, like a table of contents.
The most interesting thing about plotters is, they don’t start the story at the beginning. They write their favorite scenes first, then they connect them. As they write more, divine more context, they rewrite their favorite scenes, shaping them as they go. The connecting parts might only get written once, but those memorable scenes? They keep coming back to them, refining them so they’re just right, so the reader never forgets them.
There are programs designed for plotters. Pantsers can just use Word, Google Docs, or even Notepad/TextEdit or the like. Plotters can use those (Vonnegut used note cards!), but there are dedicated tools. Scrivener is one of them. It lets you write scenes, write about characters, build an outline, and at the end you can put it all together. I think the software is kind of confusing, so I didn’t buy a license, but it has a generous 60 day trial.
I agreed to co-write a show recently so I’ve been writing literally anything, just as you said “pantsing” it and run out of steam within a couple pages. So I’ve tried to outline and just stare at a blank screen with zero focus. My creative process is its own oxymoron where it wants setting and characters so it can make a story but also wants the story so it can create the setting and characters.
I’m at a loss with myself, except I’m going to keep trying
I have not much to add, just that Scrivener is actually decent.
FWIW, it’s spelled “ADHD” these days.
I have so much going on in my life that I can’t even right now but this is amazing info I’m going to store in my brain. Thank you!
write*
I had no idea what “Pantsers” in the last paragraph meant because I skipped to the end, (tanks in underwear?) …so I had to rescan the block for wherever you’d defined it earlier, but still haven’t read the whole thing. 🙃
I wrote a novel-length story once that I published chapter by chapter as I was writing it, and I’m still incredibly proud of that feat. It’s still in its beta stage, I think. There are plot holes and loose ends because I changed my mind about the story multiple times, which makes some foreshadowing in earlier chapters useless, and so on. It’s been in its beta stage for about two years and I doubt I’ll ever revise it, but it was a nice distraction while I was working on my Master’s thesis.
I was starting to think you were in the wrong community until the end there
Don’t worry, just add players. They’ll get you to the same result without trouble.
