Starting with the pinnacle, then gluing highlights

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磯七ラスミ
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Starting with the pinnacle, then gluing highlights

#1 Post by 磯七ラスミ »

Hello, Isonana Rasumi here. My thoughts this time has driven me to this subject. When you build something you start with a "base", then you build upon it, right?

As a fun example, I have a rhyme here:

On the whereabouts was no way out in sight to escape,
meaning that what she was told by her mate was fake.

When I was writing the first part I hadn't think yet about lies or misunderstanding, but it came to my mind afterwards because I was looking for a word than ended with a similar sound. That means that I drove my story to that conclusion just because one single word.

Now as one more example, this time for a love story. I'd want to put a horse race, a greedy old man and a plane crash. How I glue my chosen characteristics? If there's a greedy old man and a horse race, I could involve him to the races by huge bets, then he ride on an airplane in order to escape... But wait! Where is the love story? Maybe the old man has a son that has fallen in love, but now I have to add a girl to the story too. That wouldn't be interesting if I can't achieve get the couple to be related with the three main aspects.

Is this starting with the desired parts then joint the plot so everything fits how stories are made? What's your preferred way? I want discuss about this method.

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Re: Starting with the pinnacle, then gluing highlights

#2 Post by dreamfarmer »

Well, there's the very common approach of 'top down design' or 'snowflaking' or 'outlining' for fiction. You start with a line or so, a blurb like you'd see in a magazine bestseller list. And then you iteratively expand that until you have a full story. That tends to start less with some random elements and more with the bit you (initially) believe to be the most important part. "A plane piloted by an angry old man carries two lovers to their destiny." Then expand that to define one of the lovers as a jockey, and add a couple more lines. Repeat.

On the other hand, my current project literally started by me listing off a bunch of heroes I'd like to write about in an otome game, declaring I wanted them to also Fight Stuff, and then defining my plot and setting around 'how can I include all these guys and also make them Fight Stuff?' which is a little more like what you're doing in terms of 'random elements'.

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Re: Starting with the pinnacle, then gluing highlights

#3 Post by Mammon »

I either read something and get a fanfic own character I develop while the story progresses or an entire story. Then I start working out that story, mix it with some other ones that I have, and eventually I get ideas for stories based upon those stories. And every one in ten or so is actually a decent story that I turn into a viable project. As long as it doesn't even resemble the old story any more and is a chronologically sound outline without large gaps in the events or logic, it can be a good story.

Or I get a semi-erotic dream in the middle of the night which is surprisingly well-structured and with a great chronological flow. 3 o'clock with sleep in your mind is a disturbingly good state for making stories.
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Re: Starting with the pinnacle, then gluing highlights

#4 Post by Mutive »

I don't think there's a single right way to write.

I know some people start with a conclusion, then work their way to it. Others start with an interesting scenario and figure out how it eventually concludes. Others outline the whole thing, then write to flesh it out. They all can work.

I tend to (personally) start with an interesting idea, write a bit to explore it, then go back and outline, come back and flesh it out. But that's a me thing...(and definitely not suitable for everyone!)
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Re: Starting with the pinnacle, then gluing highlights

#5 Post by traineroflegend »

There's no right or wrong way, but the following general approach will likely get you where you want to go without requiring substantial rewrites:

1. Establish genre (like the love story example you mentioned). Genres are malleable and sometimes difficult to pin down, but they each have some inviolable elements that must be met, else your readers are going to be very disappointed. Romance needs to have believable progression, along with some conflict to make things interesting. Horror has other needs. Establish this from the beginning so that you know where you want to end up.

2. Establish beginning, middle, and ending. Even if you're not one for outlines (pantsers as many fiction writers like to say), you absolutely need to know what characters and their situation will be like in the beginning, middle, and ending of your story. I like to outline about 3/4ths of a story before I start writing. While writing, I add scenes here and there, but the whole process is easier because I know where everything is going.

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Re: Starting with the pinnacle, then gluing highlights

#6 Post by Ezmar »

traineroflegend wrote: Tue May 29, 2018 3:07 pm
2. Establish beginning, middle, and ending. Even if you're not one for outlines (pantsers as many fiction writers like to say), you absolutely need to know what characters and their situation will be like in the beginning, middle, and ending of your story. I like to outline about 3/4ths of a story before I start writing. While writing, I add scenes here and there, but the whole process is easier because I know where everything is going.
I agree with this. There are other ways to do it, but this is, in my experience, the best way to write something meaningful. If it can exist in your mind as a general outline of the entire story, chances are there's something worthwhile in the story. I'm in the middle of writing my own story, and the ideas were floating around for the better part of 5 years before I had something concrete to tie them to.

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Re: Starting with the pinnacle, then gluing highlights

#7 Post by wenki_cai »

Stories usually come to me in some sort of thought soup. Usually it starts with a character I want to see, with traits that I find appealing that I want as a character. Then there might be a plot I want to explore in mind, with certain aspects I want in it. But that's just the concept...

Eventually at some point the story begins to solidify into a story, you know? As the above responses talk about, I start getting an idea of an endpoint and what kind of progression I'm interested in. Usually there's a goal of some sort: they win (or lose), those guys get together in a relationship, etc. Most of the time, the story changes so much in my head, even before it gets on paper! But I do eventually get to a solid story at some point.

A good note: Don't feel married to the concepts you have in your stories, even if they were ones you intended at first. Maybe you fall out of love with the concept or, more likely, you find out it simply doesn't work like you thought it did. I completely streamlined a story I've been developing lately and actually broke apart a certain couple in it because of how I wrote a certain character. You might just find something even better anyway in the process ^^

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Re: Starting with the pinnacle, then gluing highlights

#8 Post by airenrin »

Usually, I try and begin with a concept that can be described in 25 words or less. A cafe that exists on a strange dimensional rift that collects and sells stories. Android trying to figure out why his creators have abandoned him and the laboratory. Last person on Earth journeying to find a working spaceship. You can also say that this is the beginning of the story.

Next is the end goal. What are the characters trying achieve? How are they going to achieve it? And how far are they willing to go before they say the price is too high to achieve their goal?

With those two in mind, obstacles will pop up in front of the characters. Emotional obstacles, physical obstacles, relationship obstacles. This is the middle of the story and it's probably the hardest part of the story. At some point you will begin to feel like running out into the street and screaming 'I can't do this' when your characters begin to come to life and take the story away from any outline that you may have made or when you need to get from point a to point b but you have no idea how to do it. For me, the middle is the hardest part of the story, so if you know how to make it easier on the storytelling, also tell me.

Finally, I agree with wenki. Don't get too attached to the concept or how you will execute the story. My current WIP is a lot different from when I started it a few years ago - it was originally supposed to be a novel (the ones in a bookstore, not a VN). Recently I went back over the story and realized that the story is better told as a VN, since what I have done was wrote out the ideal ending to several characters' routes.

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