Okay… simmer down… let me explain before you call me a pompous ass… there will be plenty of time for that later…
I was listening to NPR, the National Public Radio… I know, I’m old… on the way to pick up Mollie from school, and they were interviewing Stephen King about his book called Joyland. It is a murder mystery set in an amusement park with some paranormal elements.
Now you may recall that I told you that for my science fiction novels I used a very specific style of writing. I didn’t plan ahead. I didn’t have any idea where I was going next. I started off with a one main character and I just let the story take me where it wanted to go. When I needed a new character, I just created one. When it seemed like things were slowing down, I added something crazy. I got my hero into sticky situations with no idea how I was going to get him out.
I like to write this way. I am doing it now. I just sit down and start typing and get swept along by the words. It feels more organic, more natural to me. I know many authors figure out the end of their stories first, and work out most of the plot line before starting. The thing about that is that it can make the story seem as if many of the details were just thrown on to the framework to flesh it out. And characters seem like they are just playing a part in a movie. Life doesn’t work like that, so why should writing?
I was pleased to hear Stephen King say pretty much the same thing. He says he just sat down and started with one character… a kid in a wheelchair… and then went from there. He didn’t even know who the killer was until he got to that part. He also said that he found some writing to feel a little prefabricated.
My favorite quote was when he said that when he was writing a story, he felt like an archeologist, as if he were digging through the dirt and dust looking for the things that needed to be unearthed and brought to light. Because when I was writing the first four books of the series, I sometimes felt that way. I didn’t want to write a story about finding treasure. I wanted to go on an adventure and find treasure. And I wanted all of you to come with me.
Pouring My Art Out 
This is how I write. I am co-writing with a girl now and we have no idea what is going to happen. It is exciting. You are better than Stephen King…he got predictable…and I happen to love him.
Now you really are making me blush.
When I write I generally have a vague idea where I want to go with the story, but I don’t have it all planned out. Maybe I write like Stephen King too?
More like STEPHEN PRINCE…
I never know what’s going to end up on the blank screen. Same with comments on blog posts 😉
I had a sneaking suspicion…
I figured you would…
Well you were right.
I usually am…
So you say.
To quote Cool Hand Luke, “I’ve never planned a thing in my life”.
What we have here is a non-failure to communicate!
I do the same thing….I have no idea where my book is going, but it will be exciting when I get to the end and look back on my journey!
Life is an adventure… your book might as well be too!
I never have any idea where I’m going or where I’ll end up with a blog post. Like you, I just write.
I sort of thought that about you… a lot of times… HA!!! Oh, wait… you said ‘in a blog post’… sorry…
ahaha! pft
I will take that as a laugh.
okay
with a small sneeze at the end…
Hey… does wepoets have any more of my poems lined up in the queue? And are we ready to try posting my tiki post with all the words and pictures? Or maybe even on of my song videos? And should I be asking you this stuff on your other blog? And why is the sky blue?
ahaha! Kirsten and Twindaddy take care of submission and scheduling. Ask TD if there’s anything coming up that’s yours. or you can check the wePoets calendar. It’s scheduled into Nov. now.
You can send pics…do you want to do a debut writer thing with your tiki”s? We need debut writers.
It has lots of photos and lots of words… I have already done debut writers haven’t I?
what would you prefer? Photo’s without many words be under Gallery Sunday. Photo’s with words hmm…could be a wildcard Sat. or debut writer.
You know we have a 600 word limit right?
I better check it out first… shouldn’t be that many… wildcard me!!!
We could, are you submitting? We have a limit of 10 photo’s too.
well forget it then…
lol
I could cut it in two…
the limit is 10 at a time on one post
Do it as two posts…
yes we can do that and then you get showcased twice 😉
Hey now!!!
to check the calendar do I have to click on each blue entry???
it would help
it would help
ok
Great post and I agree with you about letting it happen organically. Wow you’ve written four books, that’s amazing and I’ll have to go check them out! I feel like I can tell when someone has outlined their book and make their characters follow suit. I agree that it makes it read as if they were acting out parts. I always felt John Grisham’s books read that way. They’re too mechanical. Same with Alex Haley and lots of cozy mysteries too.
I don’t want to name names… but that isn’t to say that I don’t agree with you completely…
Oh go ahead and name names. I think Alex Haley died years ago and John Grisham isn’t going to read this as he is way too busy writing an outline for his next book.
Hey! No calling my bluffs!
Ha! Well at least they are answering my calls.
HA!!! indeed.
Have your read his book on writing? If not, you should. It is a quick, easy read, but very inspirational.
Okay… but now I wonder how he wrote his book on how to write…
Cool. I like to do both. I love stream-of-consciousness writing. Trent Lewin secret, but everything I post on WordPress is one-time through start with one word, add another, and see where it goes. Most stuff I write for other purposes is generally structured in outline form at least, but with pretty big boundaries to allow movement and modification as I go through. To me, the trick has always been to try and make sure the structured stuff never feels that way; you can really take away a lot of the art if you start imposing structure. But it can really help sometimes, just knowing where you are going.
I just can’t help feeling proud of the way my novels took on their own form. I rambled off on tangents and got myself stuck, but I invented characters that were so necessary in later parts of the story.
It takes a pretty good imagination to write a story into a corner, but a bigger one to get out of it.
Those were some of my favorite parts… wait till the next three books come out… I got me in to some pretty crazy corners, and sometimes it would take a few days to figure out how to get out of them.
Hey, there are worse ways to write.
I do those too…