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Post by JeiC on Sept 7, 2004 17:56:22 GMT -5
*hangs her head and walks away* I've been writing for longer than that and I still haven't gotten it. Got too hooked into writing songfics I guess.
But isn't it a little difficult not knowing the ending? Or do you make a tentative end point like "this is where I would like to end" and see where your mind takes you?
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Post by kanshu on Sept 9, 2004 10:10:50 GMT -5
Well, as I said earlier... keep a plot. Not in the way of doggily clinging to what you initially started out with, but in the meaning of: "If you make a change in the plot, see how it affects the story from A to Z". It means rewriting the entire plot and check through all possible consequences, raise new questions, find the loop holes. A positive side effect is that you'll end up with lots of laid out "side plans". Writing with an open ending works just fine, as long as you have "milestones" on the way. You know what things have to happen, but what path you take to those events isn't mapped out yet. That one requires some attention and disciplin, but it can be a very relaxing form of writing, too. If you don't want to end up stuck, taking notes is inevitable, though.
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Post by kitsuneoni on Sept 11, 2004 11:06:51 GMT -5
I was thinking back to this thread today when I got a review for Lividi saying "please, don't make the next chapter the last one! write 20 more chapters! "
I stared at my screen in disbelief. I had told the readers that the next chapter was the last, and yet people wanted me to continue on?!
Gah... I'm the author, I get to decide. But anyway, it annoys me that some readers encourage it. I mean, I know how it feels to arrive near the end of a good story and wish it'd continue, but still...
Sorry, needed to rant a little. Just wanted to point out that it's not only authors that have to realize that stories need to end, but readers as well! You can't have your cake and eat it, after all.
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Post by Salmastryon on Sept 11, 2004 12:03:16 GMT -5
Hmm... This is actually a problem that a lot of authors get locked into. Their readers keep demanding more and more about the same characters. One way to at least avoid the neverending story while giving in to this is to still end the story, but write a sequel.
I understand your frustration though. Some readers just don't understand that perhaps the author wants to move on and write about something else.
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Post by Me-Nuriko on Sept 11, 2004 12:55:42 GMT -5
If a reader ask me to continue a story I have finished, I don't get irritated. I thinks it flattering someone likes what I'm writing so much. But of course I can't continue the story. What I have ended, I have ended. Perhaps I someday can write a sequel, but it's a big maybe.
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Post by JeiC on Sept 11, 2004 14:39:17 GMT -5
I get that since I tend to write one-shots. It's flattering, but at the same time I wonder if maybe I didn't tie the end off well enough for people and so on and so forth.
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Post by Ganheim on Nov 15, 2004 17:05:12 GMT -5
The old saying, "No battle plan serves the first encounter," applies to writing too. I can't think of anything I've written that followed my original outline exactly. Characters are sneak creatures and like to do their own thing. I quite agree. Certainly, major changes don't (and shouldn't) happen to everybody, but when you really get into writing, sometimes the story takes a life of its own. I was working on three or four original fictions up until I started Life of the Silver Tear. When I started that one, it just took off. I'll admit, I don't have an end for the series, but I do have quite a few of those mile-markers that I know I need to reach and that's a good start. I've been pretty lucky for this round of Crossing the Rubicon. My first version of it, I just sat down and started writing whatever popped into my head. It was going all over the place, because I kept on adding in what I thought would be really neat plot twists, the vast majority of which never showed up. This time, I sat down and wrote a rough outline with each chapter having several scenes, each scene having a short sentence or so on what needed to happen. The important thing is that when you decide new scene needs to be added or an old scene needs to be changed is to change your outline. Then take a look at it and make sure the outline still makes sense. You might have to go back and rewrite something in order to make everything work. Indeed. Just yesterday I decided to change Koukatsu's character in Crossing the Rubicon, and I did need to go back and change the outline, but it wasn't too much of an overhaul - then I needed to go into the master document and change appropriate sections of the scene. As for things dragging out, Ask yourself if the new sections you are adding are really important to the current story. Would they perhaps be more appropriate in a sequel or side story? I haven't had much of a problem with this - though my first run through Crossing the Rubicon was a blessing, because I already know what needs to happen by the ending of the story, and I already know that I want a sequel.
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Post by D-chan on Nov 15, 2004 21:32:24 GMT -5
*blinku* One way I've solved this problem is by writing my entire epic out before posting it. (Perfect World is a recent exception because I was mostly done with it, had the majority of the rest outlined, and I wanted to make sure no one else took the idea. Me? Paranoid? Never. XD; )
I don't usually have problems with plot changes, so much as I do have them in actually finishing the stories. ^^; But I find it really is a good idea to have at least a rough outline done. That way I always have ideas, and if I find a new one that better suits the story, I won't have a problem tossing the old one away, or adjusting it so it takes place in a different part of the stories.
But yes, unending stories that lose track of the original plot can be... weird. x.x And sometimes annoying. It takes some real talent and thought to write like that and be able to pull it off.
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Post by Me-Nuriko on Nov 16, 2004 4:56:45 GMT -5
I know I have said it before, but I do as D-chan and finish my stories before I start posting them. Right now I'm very glad I'm doing so, because I have 13 pages of a FAKE fic that needs finishing, and it has been 13 pages for quite a long while . If I had posted the first chapters I would feel very embarrassed now. I promise, I won't post it until it's finished. (If it ever will be. )
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Post by Salmastryon on Nov 19, 2004 12:45:15 GMT -5
For hindsight I have the first major section written and in editing. As it gets presentable, I put the chapters out. But, that is only because I know that nothing that happens in the other 4 parts will change the first part. part 2 won't come out until I finish writting part 4, because which part is part 2 or 3 will depend on how they end up. Thinking back on it I suppose I should have held back longer before put the first chapter of part 1 up. I hadn't really thought about the readers.
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Post by slizziechan on Jan 16, 2005 12:22:00 GMT -5
What is the best way to end a story?
Why, kill everybody off, or end with a major emotional event... leave your fans hanging around for a sequal.
did I help any?
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