What's your writing process? What have you learned?

@TheLemmaLlama any pronouns
Thu, 27 Jan 2022 23:09:14 +0000

@TheLemmaLlama wrote:

I have a broad outline, listing each arc and the general direction each arc is headed. This is more or less set in stone by now in that I haven't felt compelled to make major changes for a while

I have a finer outline for each arc, listing the scenes. This is still in flux; I'm still shifting scenes in and out, figuring out how to most efficiently fit in the climactic moments and necessary information leading up to them in a sensical way without getting bloated. Sometimes I changes major scenes as well, deciding a better way to hit home the point of the arc.

Then I have the scenes themselves. I write down scenes whenever they come to me, regardless of whether they fit my current outline, and I may or may not use them. If I really like them, I try to give them a provisional slot in my outline if it fits. Otherwise I still keep them around in case I want to make an afterstory or something

I've also technically started my comic, so the first few scenes are already fleshed out. I imagine I'd have to actually deliberately sit down and write the next scenes if my drawing catch up to the finalized part of the script. I miiiight get stuck with something suboptimal as I haven't nailed down the rest of the story yet, but I feel like if I never started drawing until I did that, I'd never end up getting anything done XD

I'm not far in so I wouldn't claim to have learnt anything profound, but I guess having at least an arc-by-arc vision of your story will make you feel more motivated to stick with your story and hit those climaxes. I've abandoned many stories in the past where I had no idea where my story was going, and I realised loving your characters and world isn't always enough :'D