1 / 31
Mar 20

For "Damsel in the Red Dress" I just used to pantsing method and I'm actually loving how it goes. I find that the story isn't lacking for depth because I just keep coming up with new nuances to weave into the characters the more that I write it.

But for "Hushabye Prince?" um...literally everything. Don't worry, the story hasn't made it's official debut, there are only minis out rn, and those are good, so we have successfully avoided the garbage dump crisis. But I definitely didn't know enough about the story and characters before I sat down to try to start writing it the first time. My editor literally said he wanted some of the characters to shut up, which wasn't a fun comment lol. But some of the characters self inserted themselves into the plot super clearly, and those character's I'm still in love with, I just had to go back and do a lot more developing of personality depth quirks and backstories, and figure out how to add more tension so the plot would progress better.

Now I'm happy with how it goes.

What about you? Biggest thing you wish you'd done before you actually started writing the story?

  • created

    Mar 19
  • last reply

    Oct 1
  • 30

    replies

  • 924

    views

  • 1

    user

  • 31

    likes

  • 10

    links

Honestly? Arcs. There’s two specific characters im struggling to figure out where they will go, cause even thought I know their personality and backgrounds, I completely forgot what they’re actually gonna do until like. Halfway through storyboarding chapter 2.

I’d say I’m pantsing, but those pants caught on fire a long time ago

aye, it's not an easy process. when you're just learning to write, I highly suggest having a clear plan at the outset or your story will easily become a discouraging endless-seeming process

I wish I could've thought of the ending first. I've heard that it's easier to write backwards. Every story or concept I've made, I always struggled with how to end it. In fact I don't think I've ever gotten far enough in any of my projects to get to that point yet. Even in a simple magical girl story where they obviously defeat the bad guys, there's the "how" and the aftermath.

Coming up with the ending I think is probably one of the hardest parts for everyone, tbh.

Absolutely. I'd really love to have some kind of culmination ready from the get-go but
I. Just. Can't.

@ButterflyEmpress

I think my biggest tip for coming up with a solution, be that be ending a relationship, or defeating a villain is to end as close to the climax as possible, and always to keep the characters personality in mind.

It's easy to want it to be something super dramatic, if it's a romance to make it end in a kiss etc, but try to think about how your characters would resolve an issue and what the most logical place for them to end would be. Are they automatically going to become super happy when the problem ends? Does the primary struggle ending solve all the emotional problems?

And as much as you can, imply the other problems getting resolved (or leave them unresolved) rather than spending too much time dwelling on them after the main problem is dealt with/over.

This is a short story technique, because you can't drag out the ending. You can have a bit of de-escalation, but you don't want a lot, and you also don't want to go out of your way to tie up all the loose ends, it can actually ruin the story.

For my first published story "Rain Dance" the story ends directly after the hurricane when the MC goes outside to see her families farm destroyed. There is no resolution, just a final thought and conclusion.

16 days later

Details of Kattar's back injury, wheelchair struggle and all the stuff about Alicia's mother. Though I've managed to work it out fairly smoothly now, I think I could have foreshadowed the different things better if i'd known more of the details in advance.

28 days later

Me realizing I don't even have full names for several characters at different random moments. Legit had to come up with a surname for Andrew's bff because it's not mentioned in the story so far

18 days later

Not in the series posted here, but another. So, the setting is sci-fi, got some robots with weird characteristics and I never, ever used the word cyborg to describe them even though that's what they basically are.

I wish I had more moments with Iris's bestie, Ramona. She's one of Iris's two human friends from college, and she doesn't get much time to shine in the first book.

Ahh, Andrew only got two mentions in the first book, but he's getting a lot more air time in future

I think it's planning on ahead what would happen, or what would you expect to happen in that chapter. Like a summary of what you wanted to happen. Because on my first draft I just went with the flow and just go with whatever the character "would do".

yeah, i usually plot out each individual chapter, even if it deviates somewhat

14 days later

I still have yet to decide on the first kiss for "A Dozen Morning Glories" lol.

I'm not sure where or IF it goes, and I've planned like literally everything else - but WHERE DOES THE KISS GO? DOES IT GO AT ALL? SHOULD THEY HAVE A FIRST KISS AT ALL? THEY HAVE TO RIGHT? YOU CAN'T WRITE A ROMANCE WITHOUT ONE RIGHT? .

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH

Thank you this has been my TED talk.

That's definitely important. Sometimes adding details on the fly cam be fun, but we definitely always need a basis