(no subject)

[galeni]

Things I've discovered: you have to know your character before even writing by the seat of your pants can work; knowing your lead character is harder than it looks; we're still arguing over her name because what she wants wasn't in usage until long after the story takes place, by about 400 years, so maybe she's from a different story or I'm taking the easy way out in telling this story and she's trying to fix that.

Otherwise things continue as normal, for the new kidless normal.

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

I think like everything else this varies writer to writer. :-) I often don't know my main character for the first couple drafts. Mileage varies, as always.

[galeni.livejournal.com]

But is she consistent through the draft, or do you keep taking new tangents as things develop? I got to a certain point, realized (event) only made sense if (thing) was different, but to make that thing different other things changed, and .... so forth. Or do you write fast enough on a draft that you keep a story in mind consistently?

[janni.livejournal.com]

I take all sorts of tangents, and worry about consistency in later drafts. I'm definitely on the chaotic end of the spectrum for my own process.

[galeni.livejournal.com]

Ah. That makes sense. Hmmmm.

I knew you were out on the edge of the Pantsing-It/Outlining bell curve, which is why I knew you were the person to ask. Thank you.

Hmmm. (This would mean no more getting stymied by research, since I don't know for sure I'll need it anyway and I could follow your example and just keep telling the story and make the details match in a later draft.)

I am trying hard to use the adage that insanity includes repeating the same behaviour and expecting a different result. So I'm trying different things until I find what will work for me. Have nothing to lose at this point.

Thank you!