Your Writing Process, And/Or Problems with Same Options

[Kazaera]

I'll honestly admit that I've never been fussed about using the term "earth" in reference to the ground even when the planet is called something else - I've always felt it more likely that the former use gave rise to the latter, and that it might be in place even with the world being called Nirn. But everyone has their own limits for these things (ask me about my amateur fantasy linguistics in Tolkien fanfic some time...) and I can see why you'd prefer to avoid the term. "Groundquake" is definitely a natural-sounding alternative!

[mALX]

That is a great term. Works well with ES. Though I have seen the word "earth" in ES.

I have seen it used in dialogue in TES games too; and it was kind of jolting at first. I mean technically it means soil; and maybe our planet was named that afterward because it is made up of a soil covering, who knows. But it did feel to me kind of like one of the writers/developers slipped up on it when I saw/heard it in game.

[PhonAntiPhon]

That is a great term. Works well with ES. Though I have seen the word "earth" in ES.

I have seen it used in dialogue in TES games too; and it was kind of jolting at first. I mean technically it means soil; and maybe our planet was named that afterward because it is made up of a soil covering, who knows. But it did feel to me kind of like one of the writers/developers slipped up on it when I saw/heard it in game.

I see your point, and it is interesting to consider; the Earth as the name of the Planet would have been derived from the earth, of which the portions inhabited by us were made. It's a very literal thing but I don't think it's a problem when applied to other planets - (which is basically what Nirn is) - because a thing - like a chair, or a door.

I agree that Nirnians wouldn't necessarily call it that but I would suggest that a translation of their word for it, in a Thesaurus, would include the word "earth" as the thing that the ground is composed of - earthy ground, muddy ground...
Us applying the meaning "Earth" and thinking it's jarring is because we live on a planet called that because the bit we live on is made of that, and we're quite literal in how we name things, as I said earlier... (I reckon) - you know, the earth on Mars is still earth, even if it's not "Earth"...

personally I don't think it's too much of a problem as long as it's clear what the context is, but I do agree that "groundquake" is quite cool.

[Darkness Eternal]

Hey guys. Not sure if I asked this before but how many of you guys actually write an entire story before posting t here? And how many of you write and post as you go along?

[Acadian]

Buffy's Book 1 was write as I go. Toward the end I was able to get a couple dozen episodes ahead. I learned a great deal from SubRosa during that time - including a very fun collaboration that we did together. One thing I noted and admired from her was the idea of fully drafting a book before even beginning to post it. I did indeed adapt this from her after Book 1. Buffy's book of short stories only began posting a story when it was fully drafted. Book 2, likewise, was fully drafted before I even announced it.

I find fully drafting a book before publicly committing to posting it works better for me for the following reasons:
- I find it more relaxing. No worries about 'producing' when the whole book is already drafted.
- I can focus my efforts on refining, fine tuning and editing during the lengthy posting process.
- By knowing where the book is going, I can ensure that all the bits and pieces flow toward my intended 'ending'.

[mALX]

Hey guys. Not sure if I asked this before but how many of you guys actually write an entire story before posting t here? And how many of you write and post as you go along?

I used to write several chapters at a time, and while posting them start writing the next clump of chapters. I never did a full book first, because then if I got a bad critique and needed to rewrite = not that much to fix.

[ghastley]

Don't ask me. I can't write a story without creating it as a mod first.

[Renee]

Hey guys. Not sure if I asked this before but how many of you guys actually write an entire story before posting t here? And how many of you write and post as you go along?

My gosh, never would I write an entire story first. I'm too disorganized. Good question though.

I always write as I go. With some characters, like Kahreem (my Redguard thief) I'd actually write as I'm gaming, and post straight here to Chorrol as I'm gaming & writing. I do it this way because I was able to capture the moment better, especially humor-wise. I also would write in present tense most of the time with him.

With most of my other characters, I'll write after the gaming is done, but I'll write to Notepad instead of straight into the forums. And then I'll let it sit a few days before I go back and edit. These sorts of stories are generally told in the past tense.

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 15 2018, 05:04 PM

[BretonBlood]

Hey guys. Not sure if I asked this before but how many of you guys actually write an entire story before posting t here? And how many of you write and post as you go along?

Well when I originally wrote Jak's story it was on the Bethesda forums and it was in mini updates every week or so, so I did it as I went. then I brought the story to this forum and turned it into chapters, but the story itself was already written. And I must say I enjoyed that much more, because then I didn't have the pressure of having to write a chapter or part of the story every week.

[ghastley]

Don't ask me. I can't write a story without creating it as a mod first.

And if you think about it, that means that I do write the whole thing first. Not just the story the way I want it to go, but also the ways other people could play it. Sometimes that gives me new ideas, and the story gets written twice, taking different paths. I've done that with Kothet and Clark making opposite choices - each with good reason, although those were in vanilla quests, not my own.

You only need an outline with the important events, but some things just have to be planned in advance, like finding all the stones of Barenziah in Clark's story. I had to figure out who'd find them and in what order, or I could have had him go through a location which someone else was supposed to have cleared.

[treydog]

As can be seen by the looooong period between updates- I write (or not) as I go. Which leads to the problem of this last one taking way too long. That is especially true since I wrote the ending at about the same time as the opening...

Appearances to the contrary, I actually do know where the story is going- I think some of the current heel-dragging is because I can see the end in sight and don't want to be "finished." Sigh.

But- back to the original point, my process is to play, pause the game and make notes (especially in-game dialogue), and continue in that vein until I reach a good "stopping place." Then more description, internal dialogue, etc. gets added to the hand-written draft, and that draft is transcribed to word processorese (and edited and polished some more).

[Burnt Sierra]

A few days ago, I was reading a transcript of a lecture given by Zadie Smith:

http://irmadriessen.nl/publicaties/that-cr...ng-zadie-smith/

And then the next day I saw this thread had been updated.

Weird.

Are you a macro planner or a micro manager? In the context of this question, one would outline and plan first, one would post as they go.

Both are equally valid. Which one is going to keep you interested, keep it fun, keep you writing? Part of the fun of writing on forums is the (almost ish) instant feedback, which makes the experience of writing feel less solitary and lonely.

Oh, and hi all...

[mALX]

A few days ago, I was reading a transcript of a lecture given by Zadie Smith:

http://irmadriessen.nl/publicaties/that-cr...ng-zadie-smith/

And then the next day I saw this thread had been updated.

Weird.

Are you a macro planner or a micro manager? In the context of this question, one would outline and plan first, one would post as they go.

Both are equally valid. Which one is going to keep you interested, keep it fun, keep you writing? Part of the fun of writing on forums is the (almost ish) instant feedback, which makes the experience of writing feel less solitary and lonely.

Oh, and hi all...

BURNT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!








This post has been edited by mALX: Mar 16 2018, 07:23 PM

[Kazaera]

Write and post, although I generally have a few chapters' worth of buffer. This used to be unintentional, but has proven quite handy in recent times - if I change my mind about what's going to happen in a way that invalidates something I've already written, I'd rather not have to go back and edit already posted material. That's most likely to happen with the most recent material, so it's best to sit on that until the following plot is also clear.

(will I ever not be bitter about the fact that it took me three tries to write chapter 15 and I ended up throwing out something like 15k words in the process, no I will not.)

What *is* the case is that I'm prone to leave some really minor blanks up to the point where I need to post the material, which has come back to bite me and my readers a few times when I don't have the energy to clean up the update and end up delaying it for ages because I can't be bothered to fix an INSERTNAMEHERE. Not that this is happening right now or anything. *sidelong glance*

Writing the whole thing beforehand is *cough* not exactly realistic *cough* seriously, have you seen since when I've been posting Adryn, I started actually writing her about five years before that, and I've still barely scratched the surface of the plot. I do have the entire plot of Adryn: Morrowind sketched out in my head including a pretty detailed picture of a number of pivotal scenes along the way, but it's prone to change both on the vague-sketch level (I frequently end up ruminating over and rearranging bits of plot we're not going to reach for years at my current pace) and at the "so I started writing this and it doesn't work and wants to be something completely different instead, what now??" level (chapter fifteen. Sob.) That also means I've learned the hard way not to skip ahead in my writing by more than a chapter or two absolute maximum - even if I have an amazing idea for how this one meeting in Adryn: Tribunal will go, it'll probably change so significantly that anything I write for it now I'd have to scrap later.

[Darkness Eternal]

edit: Ran into some trouble with the multiquoting. Had to edit this out.


Acadian: Good points there, Acadian. I do find that posting regularly without producing chapters can give me a bit of a strenuous responsibility, and I've noticed the overall quality of my work was improved when I had chapters already written out. Fine tuning and editing as you've said is a must, and as time goes on I probably will try doing this just to see.



mAlx: Hm. That's what I did at first with my first book. I had tons of chapters already written, and focused more on trying to make dialogue as smooth as it could've been. I just didn't refine them. I do remember them being more fleshed out. So I assume you prefer posting as you go with a few chapters created?


Renee:



Hmm. Good strategy. I don't know if I could multitask and game and write at the same time, though it is an interesting alternative and way of producing something.

I write mostly in past tense too.


BretonBlood:

I remember asking you something about your writing methods back in the Bethesda forums many years ago. I was present when you started posting stories there. Much easier when you already have a story created in another forum. That's cool.

And if you think about it, that means that I do write the whole thing first. Not just the story the way I want it to go, but also the ways other people could play it. Sometimes that gives me new ideas, and the story gets written twice, taking different paths. I've done that with Kothet and Clark making opposite choices - each with good reason, although those were in vanilla quests, not my own.

You only need an outline with the important events, but some things just have to be planned in advance, like finding all the stones of Barenziah in Clark's story. I had to figure out who'd find them and in what order, or I could have had him go through a location which someone else was supposed to have cleared.

I see. This also sparked an interest in me and curiosity as to if I should repost a story already posted here in the forums and edit things out, or just scrape the old one and completely write a new one and borrow ideas from the old one. I like the outlining of important events. Seems like a great start!

As can be seen by the looooong period between updates- I write (or not) as I go. Which leads to the problem of this last one taking way too long. That is especially true since I wrote the ending at about the same time as the opening...

Appearances to the contrary, I actually do know where the story is going- I think some of the current heel-dragging is because I can see the end in sight and don't want to be "finished." Sigh.

But- back to the original point, my process is to play, pause the game and make notes (especially in-game dialogue), and continue in that vein until I reach a good "stopping place." Then more description, internal dialogue, etc. gets added to the hand-written draft, and that draft is transcribed to word processorese (and edited and polished some more).

I can relate to that. There are stories here that I should've finished a long time ago and yet I feel as if they're dragging on.

Hmm. I see. Usually when it comes to dialogue and lore I'll search up the Uesp wiki and the Imperial library for info, and since I don't write ingame quests in my stories I've never had the trouble of playing quests and writing about them. But that does create some ingenuity as Renee has done.

A few days ago, I was reading a transcript of a lecture given by Zadie Smith:

http://irmadriessen.nl/publicaties/that-cr...ng-zadie-smith/

And then the next day I saw this thread had been updated.

Weird.

Are you a macro planner or a micro manager? In the context of this question, one would outline and plan first, one would post as they go.

Both are equally valid. Which one is going to keep you interested, keep it fun, keep you writing? Part of the fun of writing on forums is the (almost ish) instant feedback, which makes the experience of writing feel less solitary and lonely.

Oh, and hi all...

A little of both, but I'm now leaning toward the latter. I use to outline and post chapters created, but now I have a general idea of how the story is going to end or proceed, but I haven't wrote out the chapters yet.

I'll take both ideas into consideration.

Write and post, although I generally have a few chapters' worth of buffer. This used to be unintentional, but has proven quite handy in recent times - if I change my mind about what's going to happen in a way that invalidates something I've already written, I'd rather not have to go back and edit already posted material. That's most likely to happen with the most recent material, so it's best to sit on that until the following plot is also clear.

(will I ever not be bitter about the fact that it took me three tries to write chapter 15 and I ended up throwing out something like 15k words in the process, no I will not.)

What *is* the case is that I'm prone to leave some really minor blanks up to the point where I need to post the material, which has come back to bite me and my readers a few times when I don't have the energy to clean up the update and end up delaying it for ages because I can't be bothered to fix an INSERTNAMEHERE. Not that this is happening right now or anything. *sidelong glance*

Writing the whole thing beforehand is *cough* not exactly realistic *cough* seriously, have you seen since when I've been posting Adryn, I started actually writing her about five years before that, and I've still barely scratched the surface of the plot. I do have the entire plot of Adryn: Morrowind sketched out in my head including a pretty detailed picture of a number of pivotal scenes along the way, but it's prone to change both on the vague-sketch level (I frequently end up ruminating over and rearranging bits of plot we're not going to reach for years at my current pace) and at the "so I started writing this and it doesn't work and wants to be something completely different instead, what now??" level (chapter fifteen. Sob.) That also means I've learned the hard way not to skip ahead in my writing by more than a chapter or two absolute maximum - even if I have an amazing idea for how this one meeting in Adryn: Tribunal will go, it'll probably change so significantly that anything I write for it now I'd have to scrap later.

Haha. I've deleted tons of chapters before because I have felt they sucked. Not bitter about it . . . well, maybe a little hehe.

I have seen Adryn's story here and read a few chapters, and my you've been in this for a long time! I see what you mean. At times I want to go back and rewrite things but sadly its been already posted and I don't want to go through the hassle of changing what's been done, which ties in with waiting a bit before posting it.

Decisions lol.

There's a story in mind that was meant to span decades and even centuries(in story) but I was so intimidated by the aspect that I stopped writing it due to the concern of wanting to go back and rewriting and editing to the point where its all a big pile of crap.

This post has been edited by Darkness Eternal: Mar 27 2018, 02:22 AM

[Grits]

Hi folks. I’m having trouble making a decision, and I’d like some advice.

In Jerric’s Story the protagonists are presently split off in three directions. I plan to switch between Jerric and Lildereth + Darnand parts in roughly chronological order, since they are all contributing in ways that aren’t well served by a quick recap.

The issue is Abiene. I have a standalone story in her first-person point of view that only barely has anything to do with the main story, but is a big deal to her. I could just have her summarize what has happened and how she’s changed as a result in Jerric’s Story and post her side story later. Or I could put it in Jerric’s Story where it fits chronologically as a chapter-length interlude.

What do you think I should do?

[Acadian]

Abiene is a big part of Jerric's world. I think you should consider putting her episode into his story where it chronologically fits. We're not on a clock or page limit regarding the scale of the overall story and I think hearing from Abiene would enrichen the story overall even if what she has to share doesn't fully fit the rest of the story.

[ghastley]

If it's going to have an effect on the other story, make it part of it.

If it will be inconsequential to the other narrative, leave it separate.

Can Abiene be inconsequential to Jerric?

[SubRosa]

I think you should definitely write the Abiene tale, and give it all the attention it deserves - 1,000 words, 10,000 words, or 100,000 words. Don't skimp. Give it all it should have.

Depending on how it fits in with Jerric's Story, either make it part of that, or do it as a standalone piece. If it is important to JS, then I say put it in. If it really has little or no bearing, go standalone.

[treydog]

Agreed with all the above. Your words are too wonderful for them to not be written. Write the Abiene story as it works for you. Once that is done, if it seems to fit or to need to be incorporated, you have the talent to do so.