oh god I hope the html works: Tell me about your writing!

[coyotesuspect]

A while ago, I read this article about Agatha Christie's writing style. It's an interesting article, worth the read, and the meat of it is that Agatha Christie was a messy, disorganized writer. But what really struck me about it was that 1) my method of writing is just like Agatha Christie's and 2) the writer of the article is completely and utterly befuddled by this.

An excerpt:

 

What, then, could be more shocking than to discover that the dame was no lady? Agatha didn't sit at a pristine desk neatly typing her novels, Chapter 1 followed by Chapter 2, and so on, before donning gloves and descending at 6 p.m. for a sherry

Her less-than-refined writerly day began with finding her notebook, which surely she'd left right there. Then, having found a notebook (not the one she'd used yesterday), and staring in stunned amazement at the illegible chicken scratchings therein, she would finally settle down to jab at elusive characters and oil creaky plots. Most astonishing, Curran discovers that for all her assured skewering of human character in a finished novel, sometimes when Christie started her books, even she didn't know who the murderer was.

This is exactly how I write. I hobble stories together. I have multiple notebooks, and a single notebook can contain no less than: notes for three different classes, to do lists, contact info, lists of things I like, doodles, and bits and pieces of innumerable fics. I often lose- and then find- these notebooks. And they'll go in and out of rotation. A notebook I wrote in for three weeks will be put to the side for two months before I eventually rediscover it and start writing in it again.

A single fic itself can be scattered across several notebooks, on several pieces of loose sheaf paper, on napkins, and on word documents on my computer. If I'm short paper but have a pen, I'll even write something on my hand before I can move it somewhere more permanent. And I've even drawn scenes before to help figure out how they work. I've gotten a little better at centralizing what I'm writing into one notebook and/or word document. But my immediate impulse is always to scatter everything.

Even now that I'm beginning to keep the physical location for my fics more...in order, I still have no fucking clue what's going on in a fic. With rare exception, I cannot write the beginning first and the ending last. I write the ending first, or I write a scene in the middle first. Or maybe I write the opening scene first, and then skip 3000 words to write two lines of untagged dialogue and then skip another 1000 words to write out the skeleton of another scene. (Character x does this. Then character y does this. X reacts by doing this.)

Even when I know the end scene, I rarely know how to get there. I wrote a casefic recently where the ghost in question was a hoax. I was 3/4ths through writing the story before I'd figured that out, and then adjusted the rest of the story accordingly. cherie_morte , when she read the story, knew the ghost was a hoax as soon as it was brought up. I never outline either; outlining a fic is the surest way to kill my desire to write it. Half the fun of writing is the adventure, is not knowing what's going to happen along the way.

Writing a story- hell, even writing an essay- is like doing a jigsaw puzzle for me. I have all the pieces, but it takes me awhile to figure out how the all fit together. And then boom- it all works. Once I have all the scenes down, I have to figure out the bridges that hold them together. Finishing a fic isn't a satisfying moment of Ah, well, that was the last scene. Excellent. It's an epiphany, a Holy shit. I. I think I'm done? And generally, the last scene I write is one that falls somewhere in the middle.

But not everyone writes like this. To some people, like the author of the article, it is, apparently, completely alien. So my question to you, f'list, is, how do you write? Do you write scene by scene?  Do you outline? Do you use some kind of wonderful organizational system? Do you rely too much on inspiration, or do you just sit down and hammer your way through something? What works for you? I'm curious.

---

This post brought to by a conversation with cherie_morte and scorpiod1 . We were also discussing who tops: John or Uriel, so just be glad I didn't make a post about that.

Girlchesters thank you for your time.

Comments

[cacklesthewitch.livejournal.com]

I am a very unorganized writer as well! I have bits and pieces of fic on my computer and in notebooks (which I have to hide so people don't read them... and then I forget where I put them and either go nuts looking for them, or simply foget and discover them weeks or months later, which is part of the reason I never finish any fics!). I recently started outlining fics - and haven't finished any of them yet. So maybe there's something to just writing and seeing where it takes you.

We were also discussing who tops: John or Uriel, so just be glad I didn't make a post about that.

Thank you for that. Sincerely.

[coyotesuspect.livejournal.com]

Your icon is perfect. :D

And yes! A kindred spirit. I knew I couldn't be the only one; I was really taken aback by how shocked the writer of the article was.

You are welcome! :D

[familiardevil.livejournal.com]

I remember you talking about that article! (also, HI GIRLCHESTERS)

John tops.

[coyotesuspect.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna be honest here, I was hoping for a little more insight into your writing process.

Always and forever.

[scorpiod1.livejournal.com]

Generally, for short fics (i.e. every fic I wrote before my big bang), I write like you write. I rarely put stuff on napkins or notebooks (though I do have notebooks around with me nearly at all times for when a random bit of inspiration hits me) but the word docs on which I write are all scattered. When I finish a fic, I literally open up another document to piece all the parts together. Whenever I get a random idea/line of dialoug/description or a chunk of a scene, I write down and then finish it off later.

I never start with the beginning, though I do frequently know how a story ends, even if I don't write that first but the ending is usually the first thing that forms in my head; I must know how something ends, so I can build up to it. I usually start with the first scene I have in mind (like, the first scene of my femmeslash exchange fic took place late in the story, towards the end, but not the very end. And I wrote the ending 4th. The beginning was the roughest) and build around it. I do the same with dialoug, too. I often write the dialoug of a scene first and build around it/fill it in later because I'm not sure what else is going on yet.

I've been deviating from this pattern for my big bang; because I want the emotional continuity, for starters. I started outlining for this, because I had no clue what was going to happen, or rather, I did but not sure how to get there and how to make it feel earned. Like, how to make it feel like I was building up to that ending all along, how to layer foreshadowing throughout the story and build up a running theme. If I wrote out of order and all the scenes I had in mind first, I probably forget to go back and adjust the story accordingly, or I'd worry I wouldn't do a good job of it, that they'll be so much to adjust I'll feel overwhelmed and half-ass it. With a shorter fic, I can adjust easily, but this is 32k and counting, so it'll be much rougher for me.

I'm worried, with a story this long, I'll forget to go back to the scene, or forget where it is and not notice until later. Or lose it within the body of the text. So I'm forcing myself to go in order so each scene can build from the one that came before.

But I still get random ideas and floating dialouge; right now, I have a conversation between Damon and Elena that doesn't happen until later and is mostly disjointed dialoug. I'm not sure what else to write for it, but those lines of dialoug came to me first and I wrote them down immediately. I also have random floating lines too, and a whole scene from the middle. I got sex scenes from different points of the fic started that I haven't finished yet because I've yet to get to that point, but I had the idea for them and started writing it before it fell out of my head. I once went to bed and as I was falling asleep, I got ideas for a bunch of dailoug and descriptions and events later in the fic and I wrote them all down in a notebook and later copied them unto the document, but I haven't written the scene yet. That's just the way my brain works.

P.S. This response was written out of order ;)

And I still say Uriel tops.

[unavoidedcrisis.livejournal.com]

Whew, what a question.

Um. I guess I'd have to say John topping from the bottom is the only way I see that working. Uriel might not notice though. John just lets him think he's got the power. John's pretty indulgent, but he's also way too paranoid/neurotic/John-like to relinquish any real control.







Wait, what? Okay. I'm working on a story right now, see, and I sat down, opened a word document and started writing. I had no idea what I was going to write or anything, and it just kind of took off. I've written it all in linear fashion. Haven't jotted anything on paper or even on a sticky note for later. This is something I do not do often.

I usually have piles of scrap paper all around my main writing area (ie: my bed and the floor next to my bed). I like to write lots of places though. Sometimes I got to the tea shop, or I'll charge up my battery and go to the park. A change of scene usually gets me out of a rut. When times get very tough, I lock myself in the bathroom and build a fort in the tub.

I usually write from beginning to end. I only write an out of order scene if I have thought of some really awesome wording that I am afraid I'll forget. If it's just an idea, I usually just add it to the 'idea bank'. The idea bank used to be called the timeline or the outline, but they started to get very messy and out of hand and usually confused me more than they helped (because I kept thinking of them as outlines and got flustered when everything from the outline didn't fit into the story). The idea bank is just 'ideas' though, so I can take or leave without feeling guilty. I generally type it up in a .txt file and stick it the folder I've made for whatever the story is. My 'Writing' folder on my computer is one of three things in my life that is organized. I also have a real life idea bank which is an wooden box that wine came in a long time ago. I decorated it with pictures of dinosaurs in outer space.

Does that make any sense?

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

When times get very tough, I lock myself in the bathroom and build a fort in the tub.
OK, that's awesome. It probably also means that your bathtub is far cleaner than mine.

[familiardevil.livejournal.com]

Actually, nevermind, I'm not going to sully this post.

[coyotesuspect.livejournal.com]

You know that emoticon we decided meant your soul was being broken?

My face is doing that right now.

[zempasuchil.livejournal.com]

I write in order, mostly - the beginning is the beginning - but most of my fic isn't plotty so order doesn't come up much. so I shuffle bits around a lot. Outlining kills things for me, which is frustrating, because I've only managed to write one longer plottier fic and it drove me nuts. I guess I lose interest in writing a fic as soon as I know how it's going to turn out. Is that weird? (If that is wrong I don't want to be right, seriously, it is so boring writing something I've already figured out.)

I'm not as all over as writing on scraps that get scattered and lost (though my sosc notes have some great Narnia bits in them XD), but I have a little notebook I carry with me for notes of all sorts, and another for more journally-poetic stuff, and a diary by my bed that has crazy diary stuff in it as well as six pages of Sam and Dean as well as like 20 pages of translated poetry. On my computer I have wordpad which allows me to kind of organize my bits and pieces of stuff I will probably never, ever do more with but had all the best intentions for. Final versions of fics make their way into word docs. That is pretty much it.

[zempasuchil.livejournal.com]

lol, by wordpad I mean onenote. Idk, brain is garbled.

[lavendergaia]

I have realized that if I outline before I start writing, I get nothing fucking done because it feels to me like I've already told my story. I also write better out of order and without telling anyone what's happening. I feel like I give away all the good parts about writing if I write it to people rather than write it and share, if that makes any sense at all.

Note that I have almost nothing for the entire months of June and July and at this point in my life may never write again, so it might not even matter anymore.

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

That makes total sense to me!

Bah, you'll write again. Your creative brain's just lulling the rest of you into a false sense of security so it can take you by ambush.

[alwaysenduphere.livejournal.com]

My screenwriting class taught me two terms for writers, and now that I'm trying to remember them I'm at a loss. I think they were 'tree' or 'forest' anyway it's a metaphor, obv. A forest writer is one who makes outlines, sets up an entire story, the big picture, before commiting it to the page. whereas the tree just...starts with some seeds, puts down a few roots, and then just goes from there. There was a quiz in the textbook and I was undeniably a tree. I start with a sentence, maybe two, and I go. When I make an outline, it doesn't get followed so I don't even bother. Then again, that's probably why most of what I write doesn't reach upwards of 2K.

Usually I don't know I'm at a story's end until I'm struggling for more words, re-reading what I've written, and find a line that makes for a perfect ending, then I go about re-arranging and possibly adding to make that line the finish.

Also John Winchester always tops. DNW bottom!John. Thinking about it freaks me out.

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

I write non-chronologically. Usually I start with the opening, then write the climax, then I jump around adding bits to various scenes. It feels more like listening to the narrator dictate it to me then creating it myself. Sometimes I'll toss prompts out into the vast echoing cave that is my mind. Hey, did it happen like this? Or maybe like that? A snippet of dialog here, a fight scene there. I love finding out what came before. No, seriously, Muse, WHY are you guys so pissed at each other?

I find it extremely difficult to write long-hand. I carry a notebook around with me, in case an idea occurs on the train or something, but I MUCH prefer it on the computer. My writing notebook is almost illegible, with arrows and cross-outs and interjections everywhere.

The only stories I write out from beginning to end are the ones short enough that I've written the entire thing out ahead of time in my brain before I managed to get to my computer to write them out.

Oh, and frequently when I THINK I'm done with a fic, I start quilting it together and find out that, no, there's still big pieces missing that I need to go back for.

John and Uriel both top, and their hate!sex is legend.

[cherie-morte.livejournal.com]

JOHN GETS RAPED.

That's all.

[coyotesuspect.livejournal.com]

INCORRECT.

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR WRITING PROCESS.

Re: Coyote suspect is a lie.

[coyotesuspect.livejournal.com]

>)

[cherie-morte.livejournal.com]

YOUR WRITING STYLE IS ALIEN LIKE JENSEN TENTACKLES, BUT ME!JARED LOVES YOU ANYWAY.

This is noncon question answering.

[cherie-morte.livejournal.com]

So, I'm not an organized person, but I've always had a weird compulsion to do things in order, even if order doesn't matter.

When I write, I absolutely cannot begin a story until I know every single thing that will happen in it (or at least think I know, sometimes shit pops up, but I have to think in my head that it's solid).

I write everything in order, which is often a huge problem, because there are scenes I will be inspired for and I can't write it until I write these twelve scenes before it and then by the time I get to that scene, my passion has died.

I also write in big chunks. I have ADD so focusing on things is hard for me and once I do, I just hyperfocus and cannot get up until I finish or acknowledge anything else. I have not written a single paper in college in multiple days/sittings, most of my fics are written in one or two sittings, unless it's really long and that's also why I'm so bad at writing long stories and semi-decent at writing one shots.

I usually don't play the outline game, mostly because once I have the story planned, it's already mostly written out in my head and then I just sit down and type it out. I do sometimes write out general "this happens in this story" blurbs for stories I am not working on at a given time, because god knows how long it'll be before I do work on it, so if I like something, I will remind myself. Sometimes even with conversations, I will write it out, but dialogue is something that I am more spontaneous with usually than prose. I will know where I need to go with a conversation, usually have two or three lines I want to make sure get thrown in, but for the most part, I just let the characters talk to each other as I type out what they say. I like to think this makes my dialogue feel less forced? Dialogue is something I was really, really terrible at when I first started writing, so I had to work on it a lot and now I like to think it's one of my strengths? IDK if I have strengths, but if I did, that might be one of them.

Probably the weirdest thing about me as a writer is that I can't work on more than one story at a time. Which is so annoying, let me tell you, but like I said, weird chronology compulsion does not allow me to touch the beginning of something before I've written the end of whatever comes before it.

And because I hate myself, I recently decided to throw this all to the wind and attempted writing a story I thought would be about 3K total when I had about 1K of material. I figured the end would come to me about 2K in. It is now 13K and I have the last two scenes written but not about 2K before there and I have no idea what's going on in a scene until I've written it and it's making me a nervous fucking wreck and I hate the story so much but it won't end D:

Oh, and I can't write on paper/notebooks. It has to be on a computer. Usually my computer, at a table in complete quiet. It makes me sad, because my best friend writes everything on paper first and it's so writerly and adorable.

It's dubcon - you know you'll love it in the end, baby

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

Hyperfocus is fun! Although I can see how it would be frustrating to not be able to work on the scene you're inspired for until you knock off the ones in between. And yes, I think your dialogue is excellent.

I get in hilarious writing train-wrecks because of my absolute dependence on the characters to tell me what's going on. In one story the narrator was unreliable, and flat-out lied to me, and it took me four full drafts to figure out what was wrong. And another story slammed into a wall because one character's waiting on a phone call from the other to find out what's going on, and that character is so damned secretive he won't even tell me. Argh. I know, I sound nuts.

And because I hate myself, I recently decided to throw this all to the wind
Eeeek! I hope it goes well. When I try to run contrary to my natural tendencies as a writer I generally end up with teeny tiny itsy bitsy pieces of stories that all suck. But if you're up to 13k you may have conquered the Leviathan!

[cherie-morte.livejournal.com]

YOU ARE ALL CALLING JOHN WINCHESTER A RAPIST AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IT.

[coyotesuspect.livejournal.com]

Now I'm sad because the soccer macro post I was lurking in is over. ):

[slartibartfast.livejournal.com]

I write exactly like you do. I have a notebook at the moment that I bring to work with me and it contains songs, doodles, to-do lists, chunks of fic, chunks of my own fiction, and pages where I've just scribbled aimlessly. Sometimes things form together into awesomeness, sometimes they don't. My mind is too disorganised to write any other way.

[radiophile]

LOL I actually wrote an entry EXACTLY like this (and, eerily, almost exactly a year ago)... CONVENIENT FOR ME since I can just copy&paste like the cheater I am :P Note that this was written BEFORE I started writing fanfic, so I think I've actually changed my writing style a little since then (dun dun dunnn).

I get my story ideas from dialogue. The majority of my stories spawn from snippets of conversation that pop up in my head. Oftentimes, the people talking are nameless and faceless, but the dialogue is a pivotal point in a story that I haven't thought of yet. ... BASICALLY I have voices in my head :P And the dialogue usually leads to characterization, and then the characters will lead me to the story.

So my story notes look like this (I type them).

I have to get the dialogue down before anything else. So the little (...) interspersed throughout show the parts where I need to add narrative/description. Sometimes I stick random punctuation or emoticons -- (!!!) or (??) or (XD) -- in lieu of more detailed notes. It usually takes me ages to think of a name, so I'll call my characters "X" or "Y" until the very end. (Now that I write fanfic tho, that's all taken care of. WHEE.)

Plot comes after the dialogue and characters. Usually the plot sort writes itself once I have the characters fully fleshed out. The initial dialogue gives me a clue as to what their motivations are, what the major conflict is, and from there the story unfolds. I usually have a general plot outline in mind, but 50% of the time, the story doesn't end the way I'd originally planned. I also write more or less chronologically (beginning -> middle -> end), but I skip around from time to time or move a section around.

Not much has changed in my writing habits since I wrote this (July '09). I still get most of my story ideas from random conversations that pop into my head (which I often act out, usually in the shower lol). But I've started paying more attention to plot than I used to. I think writing fanfic kind of takes care of some of the legwork when it comes to characterization; yes, you have to make the characters your own and write them in a way that's convincing and believable, but you don't have to make up their names or features or major personality traits so that takes a lot of the stress away. As a result, I think my focus has shifted more to the plot aspect of stories, and I pay way more attention to the actual STORY part of my stories than I used to.

I have trouble writing without a definite plan in mind. I won't always write an outline, but if I don't know how a story is going to end and the major events that happen along the way, then I can't really write it. Sometimes the story takes on a life of its own and I end up changing the ending by the time I get to it, but I still need to have AN ending in mind. This is probably because I write chronologically, which is limiting but I can't seem to get out of the habit of starting from the start and ending with the end :P

TL;DR lol omg sorry for rambling XD;

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

So the little (...) interspersed throughout show the parts where I need to add narrative/description. Sometimes I stick random punctuation or emoticons -- (!!!) or (??) or (XD) -- in lieu of more detailed notes.
I should probably do that more often, it's a good idea!

I have, on occasion, written something along the lines of (town name) or (insert porn here). *snickers*

[de-nugis.livejournal.com]

For short stuff that is just one mood or one idea (which is all I have written fic-wise), I don't write in order but I do tend to have to write in one conceptual process -- it can take a few days, but if I really walk away from a fic for a while I don't seem to be able to come back to it. I sometimes start with the beginning but the end is NEVER the last thing I write. I am hopeless at outlining -- I try to figure out what stuff should be in there by writing it, and then half the time I realize it shouldn't be there and cut it altogether, and the other half I realize that there needs to be more of that bit and it grows.

I wish I were good at either plot or dialogue. I usually have a few lines of dialogue that come to me as central nuggets of the story, but they tend to stay isolated rather than building into conversations. Insofar as I have plot, I tend to build what happens around images or phrases that come to me, rather than thinking up actions and then putting the description and such around them.

I am a prompt whore.

For long academic writing, like my dissertation, I do endless outlining, note-taking, et al. and then almost completely ignore it while something completely different emerges as I write and hooks itself up to what's already written at mysterious, unexpected points. You'd think I could just skip the endless outlining, brainstorming, etc., but it seems to be necessary even though it bears no direct relationship to what then gets written.

Hmmm. Uriel tries to top from the bottom, being a sneaky manipulative type, but John sees right through it and tops from the top after all.

my two cents

[emptyhanded09.livejournal.com]

My writing style varies depending on the characters. For example - I'm working on two different ~novels right now.

Novel 1 is about these 3 best friends and their trails/tribulations. Very coming of age, YA stuff. These are the characters I am most in tune with, the ones that speak the most to me. My writing process here is very disorganized. Sometimes a song will spark something or I'll say something and think "Amelia would totally agree with that," etc. That book is driven more by emotion than Novel 2, so it's much more random when it comes to writing. Do I have the basic premise worked out? Yes. I just have no plan for which part to write next.

Novel 2 is much more focused, I guess you could say. It's fantasy/sci-fi in nature, so I have to have more structure to keep everything in line. Also, I only have one POV I'm working from in Novel 2, so there's less opportunities for true variance in that regard. My main character, Carrie, is a lot like myself and I am in tune with her character. However, Novel 2 is less emotionally driven for me, so I am writing it chronologically.

I don't know if that makes any sense. My characters dictate my life LOL

<3

Edit: I should also add that, despite the differences in writing styles for both Novels, each novel does have it's own notebook. I do the song/doodle/random scrawled notes thing, too. And, after looking at them, they look quite similar in their disorganization. I guess the only difference comes when I actually sit down to write. Novel 1 is an urgent "you must write this now!" feeling and Novel 2 is a "this is what logically comes next in Carrie's experience." IDEK lol

[akintay.livejournal.com]

I'm kinda a mix, I guess? I have notes for my fics on pieces of papers scattered all over my apartment and they probably make sense to no one but me, but once I actually start writing I'm much more organized. Usually I write chronologically, the only time I skipped back and forth was for my big bang this year and I'm still surprised that worked. I'm kinda a 'scene by scene' writer and I've come to realize that I need an outline if I want my fics to go somewhere.

John tops. He's a toppy bastard.

[taintedlove.livejournal.com]

GIRLCHESTERS. ♥

If I don't sit down and write the fic all at once, it will never EVER get finished. But I have about five stories sitting in my mind at any given time, just waiting for me to focus enough to get them out.

But since I write pretty much never, I will also tell you about my mixing process!!

I hear a song and say, 'omg, this is Sandy talking to Jared', or 'wow, this is what would be playing when the pagan goddesses of SPN fandom walked into a room' and then I play all the songs on my shuffle, waiting until other songs make me feel the same way. Then they sit on my iPod for six months until I finally make a piece of crappy art and upload that bitch. :)

[write-light.livejournal.com]

I absolutely write like that - I have two yellow pads, several 2x2 sticky notes not yet typed in, several more 1x2 sticky notes (all in various states of legibility which will be ILlegible soon enough), and even a note I wrote on the shower door yesterday ("3M" WTF DID I MEAN???) which is now of course gone. And about five different files of the story itself.

3M? crap! 3 months, 3 GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH I lost a story idea!!!

[write-light.livejournal.com]

ok, I think it meant "next sequel starts 3 months after this one ends. I think. ::goes to take another shower::

[little-missmimi.livejournal.com]

I write pretty much how you write, I guess. I used to write a lot shorter (in general), and I'd go in order. But I started to write longer fics, and writing out of order became necessary. I never write the ending first, but I jump around and stick notes everywhere and get frustrated with something and come back to it later.

I never write in notebooks or on paper (partly because my hand just gets tired easily [I don't even know, but it's bought me use of a computer on some tests and the SAT, so I go with it]) and partly because I'm paranoid that someone might stumble upon my Tamcest or Wincest or LGB fic or GK stuff (basically, I don't want people reading my writing unless I show it to them/post it). Also, I'm a child of the electronic age. I have one document for miscellaneous things (Mandarin translations, HTML, posting templates, fic ideas, fic snips, LJ stuff, links, etc), and then organize fic in folders as such: FIC --> FANDOM --> FINISHED or IN PROGRESS.

[scintilla10.livejournal.com]

I love hearing about how people write! It is fascinating.

I never really write sequentially. I kind of boggle at the idea that some people can sit down and write something beginning-middle-end. Stories don't come to me that way! I do tend to keep things in one word document though. (I occasionally write on paper, but usually just to jot down notes or lines of dialogue.) it is a rather big word document, usually, with lots of scenes that I move around and eventually cobble together into a (mostly) coherent narrative. Needless to say, my writing requires a lot of editing!

[ai-kizu.livejournal.com]

Interesting article. I love the way you describe how you write.

I usually just type. It's generally in order because everything plays out in my head, sometimes I know the ending, sometimes I don't and same with beginnings. I'm usually the just get something down so the page isn't blank. I'm really very disorganised and get restless quickly, so some things can be unfinished for months before I go back and write some more.

[animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com]

With long stuff I start at the beginning and write until the end, because otherwise stuff gets all changed around and confusing and makes me sad. If I realllllly want to write a scene later on in the story I'll do it, but usually by the time I get around to writing around it, I have to change the scene anyway because the characters and circumstances have changed.

I try to outline with longer stuff but I am pretty fail at it.

With shorter stuff it is all in pieces mostly, with bits here and bits there and ramblings somewhere else. I use Writer's Cafe (omfg best), so I have snippets there and pinboard stuff and I try to keep that organized, although again, I am fail at it. If I am just brainstorming a fic usually I will have a folder somewhere with pictures and babbling and bits of things I wrote and links to places I made someone else listen to me talk about it, that kind of thing.

I write longhand a lot but always transfer pretty fast.

PS I AM A DEAN FANGIRL NOW, I AM BLAMING YOU FOR THIS 45%