How do YOU plan your stories?

[meg_evonne]

Recent writer workshop weekend:

John Irving begins with a 'crystalizing scene', which is the huge ah ha ending. I found it amusing to hear JB say ghost story was hard because he didn't have that, these are John Irvings words, crystalizing final climax. I'd guess that if I had that super incredible image in your head as my final goal post then  I could wing it. Someone on these boards years ago said the same thing and they shared one. Pretty incredible final scene. I still remember it and wonder if the author finished it. Won't share the specifics, but it involved a one legged woman and a shotgun.  :-)  see? You are drawn to it already, right?

[Nickeris86]

this will sound weird but i act out scenes of my stories when i am alone, usually in the car on my way to work. i also jot down my insane thoughts in my note books, each story has their own individual journal.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I usually start with a couple of scenes that do that crystallising thing, but they're not always climactic - the structural pins for me writing the thing, as it were, can often be small asides in the middle of a but where the plot is doing something completely different, though they do generally tend to also include major hinge points in the plot.

[comprex]

this will sound weird but i act out scenes of my stories when i am alone, usually in the car on my way to work. i also jot down my insane thoughts in my note books, each story has their own individual journal.

*Imagines evil cackling scramble to find the notebook where -exactly- that idea was written*

Hold on

It's here somewhere

I wrote that only the week before last

I know I have it

Yeah, I know the conversation is past it but AHA!  here it is!

Well, OK, not quite exactly that idea, but if you squint just right...   

[meg_evonne]

I usually start with a couple of scenes that do that crystallising thing, but they're not always climactic - the structural pins for me writing the thing, as it were, can often be small asides in the middle of a but where the plot is doing something completely different, though they do generally tend to also include major hinge points in the plot.

Longest sentence so far in author craft, I suspect. And yes, it is clear as to your meaning.  Hugs!

[comprex]

Longest sentence so far in author craft, I suspect.

Are you sure you included the ones where neuro did the Dumas pastiche?

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

*Imagines evil cackling scramble to find the notebook where -exactly- that idea was written*

Hold on

It's here somewhere

I wrote that only the week before last

I know I have it

Yeah, I know the conversation is past it but AHA!  here it is!

Well, OK, not quite exactly that idea, but if you squint just right...   

This only works if you let the notebook in question out of your possession.

[AdamPepper]

I need to have a beginning and an ending before I sit down and start writing.  The middle is totally negotiable...

[Bearracuda]

I find that by default, I come up with a concept and build the story around it.  Then when I need characters, I'll figure out what exactly I need them to do, then assign them a passion and a motivation that will put them in the right place at the right time.  I'll take that passion and that motivation and build additional character traits around it.  Then I drop my character into the world I've got set up, and let them run around.  Generally from there they tend to do the rest of the character development for me.

As for story, I'll start setting up a timeline.  Once I have a pivotal bad guy or 2, and a pivotal good guy or 2, I start imagining confrontations between them that involve serious consequences.  When I have a good idea of what I want these confrontations to be, I'll drop them on the timeline as "checkpoints."  Ironically enough, this is an excellent method for wading through the Big Swampy Middle.  My only problem is that usually I can't figure out how I want the climax to go.  Guess I need to work on that "story question" jim was talkin' about.

[newtinmpls]

Depends... the first actual "whole" novel I wrote was based on an RPG campaign. It was a lot of adapting, a lot of combining scenes and short stories and finally one summer I took 9 days off of work and sat down, eight hours a day, and wrote to fill the whole thing in.

Novel #2 was a NaNoWriMo novel. Started on Nov 1 with an idea for an opening scene, wrote that up in a couple pages, stopped when I got out what was in my head, and each day I could see/wrote down "a little more" Was able to finish it in the month. Not great art, but it has a plot and a reasonable amount of coherency.

Novel #3 was a 3-day novel (gonna do that again this year), I knew I only had so many hours, so I took time off work, and wrote out an outline beforehand. Made sure I got enough sleep, and wrote ... maybe 10-12 hours (in chunks) each day and did get it done.

So I guess it depends. Whatever way or ways work - go for it. Maybe a few will.

[Mishell]

I am horrible at finding things on big sites like this - can someone point me to the blog mentioned in the first post?

As for my plan, I've adapted it from the various screenwriting books/seminars that I have been to.  I have five major "turning points" in the story and know at around what word count they should appear.  The rest I've been planning on a very basic level day-to-day by looking at the larger structure, looking at where I am in the word count, and writing what seems the most urgent thing that needs to happen en route to the next turning point.

[Haru]

I am horrible at finding things on big sites like this - can someone point me to the blog mentioned in the first post?

This is it:
http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/

[Aminar]

Since I started writing about 9 months ago I've found that planning too much doesn't work for me.  I tend to write a scene and as I go the next part of the story follows a logical path.  I know the ending I want, and how to get there, but I just recently decided to add a whole new POV character because it fit and let me play more with the world than I could before.

[Snowleopard]

I get an idea and usually where I want the story to end up.
And then I start writing.  I can get tripped up because I don't have my middle fully laid out.
I often have just incidents that I want to incorporate in the middle but not how they need to be strung together.

[ragnrok]

I try planning, but it rarely works out.  For the most part I just wing it and then come back and do necessary revisions every month or so.