It's time for a new idea and I truly don't know what to write. Brainstorming is my favourite part of this writing process, and at this point, everything is on the table. I'm committed to absolutely nothing, not even genre, so I'm really going where my best idea takes me.
I like to plan in advance, have a strong sense of the major plot points, but usually I jump into a book too soon, a mistake I'm hoping not to repeat.
So my usual process is, I brainstorm a general plot, the beginning, the end, the internal and external conflicts and then, when I should be thinking more of developing the relationships between the characters or how the character arc plays out, I get impatient to start and I write the first chapter and go from there. Once the first chapter is written, I'm pretty much committed to the idea and I rarely back off from there.
I know people, who are committed to the idea almost from it's inception, and others who can write three chapters and still back away from an idea.
But by the time I start the first chapter, I'm so excited about the prospect of the story that I get caught up. It's nice, it's a place for me that has little doubt, and that's about the only part of the writing process that lacks doubt.
Anyone gotten farther into a book and turned to another idea?
3 comments:
I've abandoned several books midway. And substantially changed the book or the character midway, too. Neither is ideal. I dream of the day when I figure this all out.
I've had to do some pretty big rejigging on a detailed synopsis - which isn't easy, but way way easier to switch direction on synopsis than on chapters. I'm with you, once I start putting the character in the world the vision starts to get cemented.
I love brainstorming...have I told you about this Jack and Jill idea...
I'm fully committed once the ink is on the contract. Until then, I can walk away at any minute. Which isn't to say that those books don't still haunt me a little. There's one about a woman who's just had a miscarriage living on a cul de sac . . . And another about a woman who goes home to take care of a sister who's on bed rest for a difficult pregnancy. And a third about a woman who comes home to find her husband wearing her underwear.
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