TNT2: the process

[azuire]

Hello everyone! Hope you're all getting a plethora of ideas for the Week 1 Topic! Meanwhile, it's Tuesday, and here's another TNT column! Remember, if you have an idea for a discussion, feel free to PM it to us!

Allons-y!

My favourite parts of the writing process are:
a) characterisation. I enjoy giving each character the breath of life, so to speak. Learning strange things about them: how they react under pressure, what their favourite colour is, and if they're prone to putting ketchup on bananas. One of the first questions I ask a character is, 'If you're in a dark alley and someone attacks you, what do you do?'
b) endings. I love that satisfying feeling of finishing a work: I have so many half-baked ones lying around. Especially if it's a long work, that I forgot about and came back to.

So, what are your favourite parts of the writing process? And what are your least favourites, if any?

Share away :-)

Comments

[pipisafoat]

I can't think of a favorite off-hand, but my least favorite is research. It's crazy, though - I love doing the research. But I get too caught up in it and never get around to writing. Alternatively, I don't realize when I start writing that I'll need to research things, and then I try to write past it but it's a plot point, so I start looking it up and get distracted and never return to the story. Yeah. It's ridiculous.

[selkath]

Writing out the thick of the story, and descriptions, I think. I have a tough time with characterization, and I very rarely actually get to any kind of ending: therefore, those are rather hard for me to like!

[pipisafoat]

Endings are typically super-hard for me. I always feel like I'm cutting off in the middle of the scene, but when I try to extend it, it just keeps going and going and going and sort of tapers off into nothingness after a while. I wish I could get that worked out.

[selkath]

Oh, yes. When I write my shorter snippets of writing -- even if I write chapters -- I can never seem to cut off in a way that seems right. There's definitely that too-abrupt or too-winding aspect.

[azuire]

Description is tough for me. I pick my words very carefully and precisely, and I don't like extra hang-ons. I think I'm more of a narrative style writer.

[selkath]

I wish I could figure that out. I always have trouble pushing the plot itself along, and get hung up on lengthy descriptions, because I want to be certain that the reader sees exactly what I have in my mind (even if that's not always possible.)

[lalalaleigha]

I'm in a block with my writing partly because I struggle to write one-offs: I insist on planning out an entire series in my head, an extensive, interweaved universe, and then I never get around to actually writing it out.

I like the planning, the imagining, the creating. But my least favourite part about the writing process is the writing itself -- it never does justice to the marvels that exist in my mind's eye.

(Can I just note how much I like this Tuesdays structure? It works. I enjoy it a lot.)

[pipisafoat]

the writing itself -- it never does justice to the marvels that exist in my mind's eye.

yes. that. exactly that. but I still enjoy it. I just don't (usually) enjoy reading it afterwards. I rarely do anymore. I never understand when people enjoy (most of) my work.

I'm so good at plotting things out in my head. But bad at even remembering to record them at all. In any way.

[azuire]

it never does justice to the marvels that exist in my mind's eye. This. Precisely this.

[so_wordy]

Everything.

I love the insanity that precedes writing. The moment when an idea strikes me and I begin to unwind it in my mind, turning it over and dissecting it. Something small (and completely random) expands into a larger piece. The fact that my brain multi-tasks (ideas strike at strange moments) is a plus.

More often than not I have no idea which direction a story is going to go in until I start writing it. This can be problematic. I'm terrible at planning ahead, but at the same time the actual writing (and discovery) of plot, characters, and other devices, is (though frustrating at times)an adventure.

Most of all I love having completed a project. It gives me a deep sense of satisfaction and renews my belief that writing is what I was meant to do. Of course everything doesn't come out as planned, but that's okay. A win here or there, I'll take it.

Also, it's deeply gratifying when people connect with my work. It makes me realize there are other people out there like me. Hi kindreds!

But that's another story. :)

[pipisafoat]

Something small (and completely random) expands into a larger piece.

OMG THAT. I was playing in a commentfic party a couple weeks ago - commentfic! where plot isn't really required at all! - and made a snap decision to kill off a character, and another snap decision that his fiance was pregnant. It has since expanded into a huuuuuuge universe of its own that I'm slowly writing down. omg. I'm so in love with the characters though. It's so nice when a character - in this case, the baby boy - just sits down with you and says "Okay. It's time to get out of this rut. You're going to write my story. Here's your keyboard, here's your word processing program. Go."

[mercredigirl]

My worst enemy is myself; my most hated aspect is the actual nitty-gritty writing itself. Perfectionist as I am, I will spend forever trying to hammer out something, and then I will become possessed by the spirit of an oracular Plotbunny and end up writing something else completely, in a feverish haste. Months later, I come back to the original draft, think Jeez Louise who wrote this, and get back to that one.

Rinse, lather, and repeat!

(My favourite part is actually sitting down with the final final version, and think, Jeez Louise, this is good, who wrote this?!)

[pipisafoat]

I love your favorite part! There aren't many things I do that with, but boy howdy I love it when it happens.