On a writing breakthrough...

[slr2moons]

 

I've always admired authors, both fan and professional, who can pull off foreshadowing or a lovely complicated plot setup. Especially the sneaky kinds, that ones that you can only catch upon rereading the story a 2nd time knowing how it ends and thus able to catch the early hints and clues that previously flew over your head. I always figured those authors were very intelligent and had some special secret that let them weave such amazingly intricate stories.

I've also always admired authors who can write magnificent epics--again fanfic or professional--with a huge cast that cover enormous events and might take years to write, but who never lose their focus. Come the ending they are able to wrap it all up and leave me shell-shocked that it's over and desperate for more.

How could these authors do it? What magic talent did they posses that let them plot 700 pages in the future, let them drop those hints back in chapter 2 that come to fruition in chapter 50? As someone who has always written in a linear style, these feats seemed miraculous to me. How could these authors plan so far ahead, how could they set the stage so beautifully? I mean, I've always been too intimidated to try this myself, as I'm always worried I'll do something at the beginning that will trip me up later. Make a mistake, miscalculate something, miss the perfect opportunity to add an important fact in chapter 2 that would make the completely awesome ending B possible. But the important fact didn't occur to me back in chapter 2 and now in chapter 50 I can't go back and fix it. So rather than the completely awesome ending B, I have to stick with the original okay but not too gripping ending A. And to top it all off, I'm a slow and cautious writer. 1,000 words in one day is huge for me. (You can forget me ever managing NaNo!)

But now...I've figured it out. I know how those authors do it, how they write circles around me. I'm sure some of them have the memory and skill to write linear and pull it all off, but I've just tried a new method of writing that will let me do it too.

Here's how it happened: two weeks ago I was attacked by yet another fanfic bunny. I know I know, NOT ANOTHER ONE, right? It was an awesome bunny, and I do plan to keep fanfic around for stress relief purposes only. But I must finish one of my two WIP before I let myself begin another, so I didn't let myself write this bunny. Yet what to do with all these awesome ideas?! My brain wouldn't turn off! More and more kept coming to me, and I had to exorcise them and save them for when I CAN write them out properly!

Thus I began to summarize events. I wrote short paragraphs outlining the story scene by scene. They included action (she hides behind a display and dodges an attack to pop up on the other side and take the baddie by surprise), dialogue (the girls talk about the missing years and R feels sad while M is slightly angry but doesn't reveal it to R), and background notes (10 years have passed and they've all gone on to different lives). In this summary form I plotted out the first three chapters in about two hours total time (taken here and there between pages of work), when that much writing in my usual linear style would take me weeks. When I sat back and read over my summaries, I was amazed at this. Here I had plotted out so quickly what would likely be around 20,000 words when fully written!

And when I decided to go back and change a rather large detail, I didn't have to throw out thousands of words and hours of time to make the change. Instead it was only a few sentences, tweak a few more, and only cost me about 10 minutes total. WHOA. :D

So a few days ago, I was under extreme stress from work (what else is new, right?) and desperately needed to think about something else. I opened one of my two WIPs, the Gaara-OFC story from Naruto, reread what I had done of the next chapter, and decided to write the entire ending like I had plotted out my earlier bunny attack. It had worked so well there, why not try it again?? More summary paragraphs followed, and I actually reached the end of the story as I had envisioned it two years ago, when I began the fic. I tweaked the summary once or twice, went back and added some things that adjusted the ending more to my liking, and jan! There was the rest of DaaGB, just...like...that. Laid out as lovely as you please.

On my next desperate break, I returned to where the summary started and began to write everything out, reading my paragraph about what was to happen and then really making it so. And...it was amazing. The story just flew from me as I used the summary as a guideline. I could write with confidence knowing I wouldn't screw up, knowing the ideas were solid, knowing that the bit of info I included here really would come to fruition 2,000 words later. And now, in the past few days I have written 5,000 words. In my normal, hesitant, linear style, that many would take me months.

WOW. I feel like I've been gifted with an amazing secret! How many times have I heard in author interviews about their outlines and summaries, but for some reason I never decided to try it for myself? How many words and wonderful stories could I have crafted once I began writing again, if I had used this method from the start?? And now that I've discovered it for myself and realized how well it works for me, how many lovely stories will I be able to create??! The idea makes me shiver with delight! Seriously, I'm sitting here with a huge, silly grin on my face. I wanna get started summarizing out my original manga!! *itching to begin*

So, my fellow story weavers, take it from me. If you've never tried this writing style before, give it a shot and see if it works for you, too. Sometimes it really does pay to step outside your usual pattern! Kyaaaaa!!! XD Now if only I didn't have to be responsible and work today. I wanna wriiiiiiiiite!!!!!! *writhe writhe writhe*