How Do You Begin Writing?

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Re: How Do You Begin Writing?

    Originally posted by Centos View Post
    I think I just do most of this in my head. Sometimes I'll jot down a paragraph or two if I'm not going to be able to get to it for a while.
    I mostly write it down because I get paranoid I'll forget it, really. At least at that brainstorming level.

    It's also a focus technique - if I'm trying to work on one thing and get an idea for another, I have to write the idea down so it'll stop cluttering up my brain.

    Comment


    • #17
      Re: How Do You Begin Writing?

      I never come up with the logline until after the first draft. Mostly cuz I suck at loglines...

      Comment


      • #18
        Re: How Do You Begin Writing?

        if you go out on a late summer afternoon into the mountains to cut wood, and run into problems, which is likely, your truck gets stuck, saws break down, your phone says you're out in the wilderness and it is thus fickle at best as a friend, etc, but somehow around dark you and your buddies not only get a load of wood on your truck but get it back to your house, you've just lived something written a whole bunch of times in stories. the next day you split and stack the wood, and a few months from now when the power goes out, that wood in your fireplace sure is pretty to gaze at as it warms your bare feet.

        the whole writing endeavor has always sort of flowed that way, to me.

        caught an incredible sunset this evening. lit up the sky in orange. looked like sherbet. came in to alert family units about it and to tune out the noise of the tv news, caught this on the radio-

        'i think i could stay with you for a while, maybe longer, if i do.'

        hope i didn't screw up typing that. anyway, PURE PRAIRIE LEAGUE, from-

        "AMIE."

        i think most writers probably begin writing when they wake up, etc.

        and hope the story will stay a while, maybe longer, while you try to grab and keep hold of it.
        Last edited by AnconRanger; 09-21-2016, 07:54 PM.

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: How Do You Begin Writing?

          Originally posted by AnconRanger View Post
          and hope the story will stay a while, maybe longer, while you try to grab and keep hold of it.
          I used to get most of my story ideas when I listened to music in the car. Now, for whatever reason, I usually get them when I take a shower. Maybe it's because I don't listen to music as much as I used to. Come to think of it, I used to listen to music when I was by myself in my car -- now there's usually one my kids or my wife with me. So I guess what I need is a quiet place and a chance to put my brain in neutral for awhile. The shower seems to do it.
          STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: How Do You Begin Writing?

            Originally posted by AnconRanger View Post
            if you go out on a late summer afternoon into the mountains to cut wood, and run into problems, which is likely, your truck gets stuck, saws break down, your phone says you're out in the wilderness and it is thus fickle at best as a friend, etc, but somehow around dark you and your buddies not only get a load of wood on your truck but get it back to your house, you've just lived something written a whole bunch of times in stories. the next day you split and stack the wood, and a few months from now when the power goes out, that wood in your fireplace sure is pretty to gaze at as it warms your bare feet.

            the whole writing endeavor has always sort of flowed that way, to me.

            caught an incredible sunset this evening. lit up the sky in orange. looked like sherbet. came in to alert family units about it and to tune out the noise of the tv news, caught this on the radio-

            'i think i could stay with you for a while, maybe longer, if i do.'

            hope i didn't screw up typing that. anyway, PURE PRAIRIE LEAGUE, from-

            "AMIE."

            i think most writers probably begin writing when they wake up, etc.

            and hope the story will stay a while, maybe longer, while you try to grab and keep hold of it.
            I've installed phones for about thirty years. A couple of times I got a call out to what must have once been a regional headquarters for John Deere. One end of the building had two stories of offices, a large auditorium and a cafeteria. I'm guessing it probably had 4 or 500 hundred office workers at one time. Attached to that was a massive warehouse, that probably cover two city blocks. Much of the office furniture was still in place and most of the desks still had paper work on them, like the workers just got up and left one day.

            The phone equipment was on the 2nd floor of the office area, with cross-connections for around 700 phones.

            They had no more than ten people who still worked there, way on the far side of the warehouse. They built a small building, in the warehouse, with four offices in it and a small break room. They had a tiny part of the warehouse fenced off with chain link, and even that was almost empty.

            The creepy thing about it was the intercom system and background music still worked for the whole building, but it was really low volume and kind of whispery. It echoed in the, huge, unused, mostly-dark part of the warehouse. It still worked in auditorium and cafeteria and bathrooms and hallways in the office part of the building.

            There was this hallway that went from the main lobby to the warehouse, which was probably 200 yards long and mostly dark since no one was replacing the burnt out lights anymore.

            Since the tiny, little "inhabited" building on the other end of the warehouse still used the big telephone switch I had to walk back and forth in that hallway. On two different occasions I went to that building to make telephone changes.

            Both times, the barely-audible, whispery music in the almost dark hallway, was Simply Red's "Holding Back the Years" which repeated "I'll keep holding on, I'll keep holding on, I'll keep holding on, I'll keep holding on" about a million freakin' times.

            It creeped the hell out of me. It was like the building was trying to stay alive.
            "I just couldn't live in a world without me."

            Comment


            • #21
              Re: How Do You Begin Writing?

              Originally posted by StoryWriter View Post
              I've installed phones for about thirty years. A couple of times I got a call out to what must have once been a regional headquarters for John Deere. One end of the building had two stories of offices, a large auditorium and a cafeteria. I'm guessing it probably had 4 or 500 hundred office workers at one time. Attached to that was a massive warehouse, that probably cover two city blocks. Much of the office furniture was still in place and most of the desks still had paper work on them, like the workers just got up and left one day.

              The phone equipment was on the 2nd floor of the office area, with cross-connections for around 700 phones.

              They had no more than ten people who still worked there, way on the far side of the warehouse. They built a small building, in the warehouse, with four offices in it and a small break room. They had a tiny part of the warehouse fenced off with chain link, and even that was almost empty.

              The creepy thing about it was the intercom system and background music still worked for the whole building, but it was really low volume and kind of whispery. It echoed in the, huge, unused, mostly-dark part of the warehouse. It still worked in auditorium and cafeteria and bathrooms and hallways in the office part of the building.

              There was this hallway that went from the main lobby to the warehouse, which was probably 200 yards long and mostly dark since no one was replacing the burnt out lights anymore.

              Since the tiny, little "inhabited" building on the other end of the warehouse still used the big telephone switch I had to walk back and forth in that hallway. On two different occasions I went to that building to make telephone changes.

              Both times, the barely-audible, whispery music in the almost dark hallway, was Simply Red's "Holding Back the Years" which repeated "I'll keep holding on, I'll keep holding on, I'll keep holding on, I'll keep holding on" about a million freakin' times.

              It creeped the hell out of me. It was like the building was trying to stay alive.
              Cool. No story starter there ... not at all.
              STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: How Do You Begin Writing?

                I talk it out loud with actors I know.

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: How Do You Begin Writing?

                  Originally posted by redturtle View Post
                  I talk it out loud with actors I know.
                  I talk it out loud with the characters in my scripts. And they talk to each other. And they yell at each other, every now and then.

                  One time I was at a red light, windows down doing both the man's and the woman's dialogue, of a script I was working on -- really going at it -- when I noticed that the people in all the cars around me were staring at me.

                  But since it was downtown Portland, OR -- chances are that wasn't the weirdest thing they saw that day.
                  "I just couldn't live in a world without me."

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: How Do You Begin Writing?

                    Originally posted by StoryWriter View Post
                    I talk it out loud with the characters in my scripts. And they talk to each other. And they yell at each other, every now and then.

                    One time I was at a red light, windows down doing both the man's and the woman's dialogue, of a script I was working on -- really going at it -- when I noticed that the people in all the cars around me were staring at me.

                    But since it was downtown Portland, OR -- chances are that wasn't the weirdest thing they saw that day.
                    haha you're in good company then, because that's what Quentin Tarantino supposedly does with his own writing, and perhaps why his writing, particularly his dialogue, is so kinetic.

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: How Do You Begin Writing?

                      Originally posted by StoryWriter View Post
                      I talk it out loud with the characters in my scripts. And they talk to each other. And they yell at each other, every now and then.

                      One time I was at a red light, windows down doing both the man's and the woman's dialogue, of a script I was working on -- really going at it -- when I noticed that the people in all the cars around me were staring at me.

                      But since it was downtown Portland, OR -- chances are that wasn't the weirdest thing they saw that day.
                      Recently I heard/read (don't recall which) that Aaron Sorkin does this dialogue enactment in his car on his commute. One day a friend of his gave Sorkin a gift of a headset microphone. Sorkin couldn't help but ask why that gift. The friend said he'd seen Sorkin in traffic at a stop light raving and ranting to himself ("writing" dialogue) and told him that he appeared to be a madman, asking him to wear the headset so that at least he would appear to be talking to someone.

                      That technique and a digital voice recorder would seem to be the order of the day for ironing out character dialogue.
                      Last edited by Clint Hill; 09-23-2016, 05:48 PM.
                      “Nothing is what rocks dream about” ― Aristotle

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Re: How Do You Begin Writing?

                        that headquarters story is something!

                        if i happened to be a more courageous person, or a less busy one, etc, a dozen years ago i would have entered a two-story 'cottage' on the coast of maine that i was interested in. pulling up to the house, and the overgrown yard, and seeing the holes and damage to the clapboards, i inquired why the house had gotten in such bad shape. as best as i can recall, i was told something along the lines of, 'nobody has lived there for years. the last owners one evening left and never came back. the dinner table was set and food and drinks were on it...but it was like everybody just left. left the lights on and everything.'

                        i nodded. 'let's go look at the next house,' i said.

                        should have gone inside. inside was a story. outside was probably a poor guess of one.
                        Last edited by AnconRanger; 09-23-2016, 07:10 PM.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: How Do You Begin Writing?

                          one other thought. i'd guess many of us began writing stories with sheets of construction paper and crayons. draw a stick man on a horse, the man is smiling, the horse is smiling, the sky is blue, the sun is kind and yellow, the clouds look just like the trees except the trees are green, not white, etc. perhaps the man or horse says something. and there is a bird in one of the trees. mean looking bird. big frigging bird. looks like your aunt millie. same eyes. same ugly beak.

                          the man and the horse are both going somewhere with that bird that resembles aunt millie in her worst way looking down on them.

                          following them.

                          might have a story.

                          might not...
                          Last edited by AnconRanger; 09-25-2016, 07:05 PM.

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Re: How Do You Begin Writing?

                            Originally posted by AnconRanger View Post
                            one other thought. i'd guess many of us began writing stories with sheets of construction paper and crayons. draw a stick man on a horse, the man is smiling, the horse is smiling, the sky is blue, the sun is kind and yellow, the clouds look just like the trees except the trees are green, not white, etc. perhaps the man or horse says something. and there is a bird in one of the trees. mean looking bird. big frigging bird. looks like your aunt millie. same eyes. same ugly beak.

                            the man and the horse are both going somewhere with that bird that resembles aunt millie in her worst way looking down on them.

                            following them.

                            might have a story.

                            might not...
                            And some of us made up stories even before the crayons and construction paper.
                            "I just couldn't live in a world without me."

                            Comment

                            Working...
                            X