Hello everyone.
I'm often curious about the process that other writers go through. I read Stephen King's
On Writing and learned his ways (which I've adapted to my own process).
I'm always wondering about outlinging vs. grabbing a concept and going with it. I know King just gets an idea and starts writing. Crichton, however, knows exactly what is going to happen before he starts, and forces his characters to stick to the plotline.
Does anyone know how Mr. Butcher works? Or, Mr. Butcher, if you happen to read this, do you know how you work?
It's just a curiosity of mine to find out how the great ones operate.
I don't outline or pre-plot or anything. No character outlines, nothing. I get a few ideas in my head, often beginning with a flash of a scene or something like that, then I grow the concept of the story around it. Like a pearl growing around a grain of sand.
I like working this way to a point. However, it forces me to work in bursts. Once I catch up to myself, I have to stop and develop the story further before I can move ahead. This becomes frustrating, because in the times when I'm trying to develop the current story, I often hit on ideas for other stories.
And no matter what, a fresh story is always appealing.
So, in return for my freeform, open-type method, I have finished nothing but a 5k word short story. Several other things in progress and haunting the back of my mind, but my goal of finishing a novel is as yet unrealized.
Well, anyway, if anyone has any insight to Jim's method, I'd be interested to know.
Thanks everyone!
B. L. Garver