Tip from Stephen King
From King's excellent book On Writing (highly recommended), he makes two observations that I thought were unique, and they resonated with me:
(1) stories are fossils waiting to be uncovered. They are already out there, buried, and the author's job is to dig them out. This thought is encouraging, because it means anywhere you see earth, there will be a story buried underneath.
With practice, you will get better at excavating them without ruining them. Of course, once you remove the top layer of dirt you will see some stories that are not for you. It's best to leave them for someone else.
(2) he doesn't plot out his stories, rather, he creates interesting and believable characters and lets them tell the story. I love this approach, in fact, I was already using it. I didn't realize it was a "legitimate" way to tell stories.
I find it makes writing fun. I have tried plotting out stories and it's boring. Instead I start with a protagonist, antagonist, setting, and initial conflict, and start typing. I let my story entertain me as I write.
After a while I see a conclusion to my conflict on the horizon, and start guiding my characters toward it. But I let them take their own path.
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Re:Tip from Stephen King
Once again we're on the same page. I have also read On Writing and found it inspirational. Sometimes I plot my stories, but most times I let my characters run the show. I was doing this long before I read On Writing, mostly because I am too lazy to sit down and write a plot outline. Sometimes I am surprised by what my characters do. For example, in my current novel, Lord Haldon has surprised me several times. I never intended for him to be a child rapist, but somehow he took control from me. I'm still debating whether I should rein him in during my next draft. I don't want this novel to be too dark.
To err is human. I am not human.
Re:Tip from Stephen King
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I don't plot, either. I never have been able to. For me, the act of preplanning, of working out details of anykind in advance sucks off the energy to write. I come away from the sessions feeling I've done enough creating, that's it thank you very much, and never get around to writing the actually story. I can only write a story if I start from scratch and let the scenes take me where I need to go. Now, don't get me wrong. Once i start something I take a critical look and decide what the story actually needs, where the characters should go next, that sort of thing. I just can't do any of that in advance.
Re:Tip from Stephen King
I also begin with characters but I find if I don't plan a plot, even a single page with a list of this will happen, then this, then that, so they end up here...I don't go anywhere. I didn't need a story line as badly for my first novel, possibly because it was pent up inside me and kind of burst out, but I also had to do a Whole Bunch!!! of rewrites to put it in shape. Now I find a draft of a plot line is an invaluable tool.
Re:Tip from Stephen King
I'm very much a plotter. Some stories are heavily plotted, in full outline form, and some only have ideas where they should start and end. I find it a great technique to know what I want out of the story, but at the same time, all to often my characters do plenty of strange things that alter this plotting. I let them run free when this happens.
I also find that I tend to heavily plot beginnings of stories, to get me started, and then as the characters and world takes form, they shape a good chunk of their own future. It's kind of like my characters are in a balloon. The dodge around and bounce around within the balloon, enlarging it, deflating it, even stretching it to the limits sometimes, but I never let them burst the darn thing or all that comes out of the lound pop are strange character stories with no shape or meaning.
It's always fascinating and enlightening to compare the style of different writers.
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Life is a lot like caving: Most of the time you grope around in the dark.
Re:Tip from Stephen King
Here's a question for you all. Some of you like to plot, some of you like to let your characters have free reign (or is that rein). But how do you come up with the ideas themselves. What sparks your creativity and takes you down a particular path to begin with?
Greg, I wouldn't worry too much about Haldon turning out to be a rapist. I think that gave the Chapter a real 'kick'. It will be interesting to see how 'dark' you allow the story to become.
Re:Tip from Stephen King
Like I said in another post, I get most of my ideas by saying "What if?". It sounds like you are looking for what happens before that though.
I don't know where my ideas come from. They just appear, sometimes with some coaxing, sometimes unexpectedly. A couple came in dreams that I remembered, for some reason.
The Greeks thought knowledge and artistic talent came from the goddesses of art and poetry -- the Mousas, or Muses. Sounds good to me.
Stephen King has said the most common and most dreaded question people ask him is, "Where do you get your ideas?" He says he usually gives a flippant answer, like "I have the head of a small boy. I keep it on one corner of my desk."
But he confides that he really doesn't know where the ideas come from. Probably no one does, but we can all find ways of appealing to our Muse.
For me, it's doing something different (going for a walk or swim, traveling to another country, etc.). If I'm stuck for an idea to start a story, or for a way to get my characters out of a jam, I sit back and let my mind wander, or get up and do something else.
I'm not a complete idiot -- some parts are missing.
Re:Tip from Stephen King
BTW the actual phrase is "free rein" which Merriam-Webster defines as "unrestricted liberty of action or decision".
I assume that is based on the idea of letting a horse free of its reins. Or it could mean the opposite of pulling back, or "reining in", someone.
That means "free reign" could work as a play on words, especially in the context of someone in power. Unfortunately, people would probably just assume you made a mistake.
I'm not a complete idiot -- some parts are missing.
Re:Tip from Stephen King
Where do ideas come from? Mine mostly come from the characters. I have a head full of characters I think would be interesting to write about. The difficult part is sitting down and deciding what they can get into that will make a story. One of my some day projects deals with a character who had a brief appearance in one of my first novels -- an old man trundling around the solar system in a ship originally bought by his grandfather. It would be interesting to write about him way back when he first moved onto the ship and began learning about it.