How do you begin your writing process?
 

Assuming that everyone visiting this forum is a writer in some way, shape, or form, I think it would be an interesting discussion to have, regarding the general writing process. Whether you write movie scripts, fiction, non-fiction, or draw comics, we all have a certain writing process that we follow. So, what's yours? How do you cure that itch to write something that isn't roleplaying (because I know for me that I use roleplaying sometimes as a way to cure the writing itch)? Do you do some free-writing and continue on with it once you hit on something good? Do you throw some old characters into new situations? Do you revised an old piece and make it into something better?

For me, I try to start with some free-writing, depending on what's going on in my head. I keep going with it whether it makes sense or not, whether characters have names or not, whether I feel like there's any real plot or not. Just to get the scenes and scenarios out of my head. Sometimes I find a rare nugget of plot in my free-writing and can use it to start an actual story, sometimes it just stops and gets preserved as is.

How's it go for you?

I usually start with a random idea, well question really. One that I start thinking of a bunch of different senarios for. Right now I'm finishing writing a book that started with me wondering what would happen if a kid moved and had to go to their rival school.

Other than that I can get ideas from dreams or just things that go on in my life. I usually don't free writing because if I do that I would never have any amound of writing done.

If I'm working on a book, like I am now, and I come up with other ideas I'll write those down so I don't forget them later.

Once I have a story idea though, I sit down and write out how the story is going to play out, that gives me the number of chapters I'm going to work with. From there I get the whole story playing through my head so I write up my characters. It's just a matter of getting the story done after that.

When I first started by breaking down the chapters I had to write a few of them first. Then I had the problem where I had really cool ideas for what I wanted to happen but couldn't remember them.

I plan on breaking my characters down even more once I finish my first draft, at least for this book. That way I can add more depth to the story.

I base a lot of my characters off of people I know too, not just one person, but a few people to get the characteristics I want. It's easy for me to see how people react to them because I see those people often. I dunno, that might be weird XP

It started with drama though when I had to play a male football coach. I combined the loud, almost rude nature of my school's football coach with the absentminded, obliviousness of my softball coach.

I tend to start out in the very beginning with an extremely simple one-liner idea. The first plot I come up with sucks a big one, but through the process of talking with others it grows and grows and grows.

i started out writing stuff without any real idea what the characters should be like. i wanted them to grow with me and my writing skills so i left them as it is. my story "Parallel Duality" starts out with a first person point of view, with the protagonist stating what he thinks, see or feel. at around the 3rd arc, it shifted to 3rd person as everything that happens no longer affects just the protagonist and his friends but everyone in their realm. that way, i gave the story a bit of a change in it's pace and freshen things up.

if you guys wanna read a part of it, i posted it here. just try to search for it. ^ ^

I'm working on a story as part of a team right now, so we try to get together as a group as often as we can (which is difficult, coordinating the lives of five adults with very different schedules and obligations) to discuss things. It all started as an idea from one of the other team members, and he wrote a loose character background for the six main characters and a loose first chapter. Then we expanded on the idea. Since it's a group effort, we wrote out a detailed profile and background for the six main characters and anyone else that popped up in the story, as well as writing a basic outline for how the plot is going to go. This way, we're all on the same page when we write out whatever sections we work on.

And sometimes, we work in a pretty random way. *giggle* I try to get into the heads of the characters and let them write themselves out, so sometimes I end up writing for the first chapter and sometimes I end up in an entirely different book and sometimes I just write something that'll never be in the story but the idea got stuck in my head anyway so I just ran with it. *sigh* I try to write out whatever random scenes pop into my head and let the characters dictate how it works out, and I feel that this helps me get to know them better and write them in a more believable way. One of the other team members does the same thing, though, so it works out sometimes. The two of us end up with a lot of "side stories" that help us through our writer's blocks, which range the spectrum from two characters grocery shopping and having an epic battle over whether or not to buy celery to two characters who constantly argue with each other fighting until they end up ripping each other's clothes off and doing unspeakable things on the floor of a dojo. (*blush* Yeah... like I said, I just run with whatever randomly pops into my head!)

So my writing process is a little random at times, since often I don't even end up writing something that'll fit in the story. However, I really get into my characters' heads that way. I get to know their flaws and faults and how they would act in all types of different situations, which I feel helps me to write them better once I do finally get around to actually writing parts of the story. *giggle*

well, i plan to keep what's happening behind the scenes a little secret up until around the later parts of the story, so arc one sees through Threece's eyes, and arc two, at what's happening around Aika. the whole thing changes at the third arc. something fresh for the readers. i plan to bring out most of the twists later, to make everything more exciting. plus, this is my first book. xD

For me I start brainstorming. I have this one clue to..something, and so I expand from there, let my imagination pull me around for awhile. Most of the time I don't use my original idea because I've come up with something completely different but better in my opinion.

Right now I'm taking four different worlds (well, it'd be five now) and mushing them together because I could never work out how I wanted to write them separately and I didn't want to just throw the ideas away. I haven't actually started working on it because I'm lazy but there's definitely a potential there.

The way I usually start is just letting my mind wander. I really don't brainstorm because then I would want to stay with my planned out plot. Stores usually have some flow, but I just write whatever I want to happen next and go over and connect the pieces when I'm editing and revising my work. I have an active imagination so yea. (I've been busy with essays tho at the moment...:( I'm always looking for ways I can better my writing tho, like all artists with his/her chosen medium. :)

it makes me sad how my work don't get that many views. maybe it isn't that interesting. ain't getting feedbacks either. Dx