On writing and development of stories

VBakes

Well, Im in college for game design(or coming up with animated shows. whatever.) and have idea currently in my head upon which Id want to establish a (hopefully) successful franchise. Now I think more about it everyday and have made a lot of progress since the beginning of its conceptualization. Im by now mean a bad in fact thats what Ive excelled in in all my years of schooling. Its just that the scale of what Im trying to get into motion is rather grandiose(albeit a bit escapist), anyway, to the question. I was wondering how all you seasoned vets of writing go about developing your stories, Id like to have a rather complex plot and Id like to know how you brainstorm, where you get ideas, how many of them you keep, and even preferances on genre and content. Thanks for whatever comments I receive.

Epi

I'm going to make a stab in the dark and suggest...

The Workshop sticky thread. Pretty sure its exactly for this kind of question.

Concept

There is also an excellent thread entitled "Where ideas come from"

Munacra

What you're asking is "How do I learn how to write?"

The answer is read, read, read, and write a lot. Exactly that ratio.

By which I mean the act of writing is very personal and the way I write probably won't suit you and the way Epi writes probably isn't the way concept writes and so on. No one writes the same and people will give you a thousand answers which probably wont' do you any good because you have to write like you want to write.

If your require pages of notes, cool. I don't. I do my best work late at night. Maybe you like to do so early in the morning.

If you want to know how to write a good story, I suggest you start reading and writing and posting here for critiques.

VBakes

k guys. thanks, Ill get on that. Look for my stuff (fairly)soon.

shutz

I would also recommend getting into the habit of making a bigger effort at writing in proper English and re-reading yourself to catch typos and missing words every time you write something longer than an instant message for a friend.

After reading your original post, I can see that you seem to have a good grasp of English and its vocabulary, but many of your sentences are missing words, as though you wrote your post quickly without re-reading yourself. By getting into the habit of correcting your mistakes, you won't make as many, and eventually, you'll find that you'll be able to write while making very few mistakes, which makes you more productive, and ensures that your readers will be able to understand you.

Your post shows you are concerned about content, but form is just as important.

I hope you don't see this as me being a dick or a grammar nazi. If your readers can't understand you, they're not going to keep reading.

As for the whole writing process, I'll echo what others have said here: find out what works best for you. One way is to try different methods, such as:
1- write as detailed an outline as you can, so that when you sit down to write, you'll know almost exactly what to write. If you find yourself constantly writing outside of your outline, or constantly changing that outline, you know that method doesn't work for you.
2- write a very basic outline, with just the major plot points. Try to resist the urge to write down all the cool little ideas you have that would fill out that outline (write down those ideas on separate index cards, if you like, and later, while actually writing, you can dig back into that pile when you need a cool idea.) If the lack of detail in your outline leaves you feeling like you don't know where you're going, you probably need a more detailed outline. If you're still having trouble sticking to your outline, then maybe outlines are not the right choice for you.
3- Think of your story's initial situation and the first trigger (what initially sets the story in motion.) Think of the ending you want to reach. Now just start writing, while keeping your ending firmly in mind. Unless you're writing a short story, try not to race to that ending; try to take the scenic route instead. Note that this is how Isaac Asimov used to write fiction, and it worked for him, but it won't necessarily work for you.

There's other variations on this, but if you try these three methods, you're likely to be able to find the right balance.

Edit: I had to go back and correct at least 4 things right after I posted this. We all make mistakes, the important point is to accept this and go back to make the necessary corrections.

ElJeffe

What they all said.

If you're talking about the development of just the story, that is the plot, that's a little different than developing the writing. I see story and writing almost as two separate, although very closely intertwined, things. Writing usually comes easy to me, story not always so much. If I know what's going to happen, or can visualize what something looks like, I can usually write about it and produce something pleasing. Maybe not great the first time out, but pleasing.

As far as how to develop story, I have two different methods. For short stories, I generally browse through the collection of random ideas and concepts I might have, and settle upon which one I'd like to write. I then sort of let that idea percolate for a few days, and just think about it whenever I'm by myself. It'll sort of coalesce on its own, until I have the complete thing sitting in my head. Then I write it up, preferably in a single sitting.

For longer works (or rather, work), I don't bother planning the whole thing out at once. I start with an idea, and I begin writing about it. As the characters and the setting develop, everything else sort of spills out. The major plot points pretty much write themselves - they come out on paper as they more or less had to. In On Writing, King describes the process of writing a story as akin to unearthing a fossil. It's already there, you're just discovering it. This is how it works for me, more or less.

On finer points of story, I generally have a morning routine that stimulates the proverbial creative juices. This lets me figure out what's going to happen next, immediately. The next scene, the next conversation, or whatnot. I start writing, and just go until I no longer know what happens next. On a good day, I'll carry myself well past the scene I consciously planned, as everything just sort of comes out. On a less-good day, I'll get through the scene, or only part way through it, and stop. I can tell when anything I write is going to be shit, and I don't push myself if that's the case.

VBakes

Thanks guys, this is actually very helpful. Ive been writing on paper due to lack of access to a computer. But as soon as I find one I can save and type on Ill post something. Again, thanks.