katallison: (Default)
[personal profile] katallison
So I posted something earlier today about getting back into writing, and in a comment, [livejournal.com profile] cesperanza pointed out that I'm really a "Method" writer, one who (like a Method actor) spends a lot of time upfront thinking through characters' emotions and motivations, and then has to struggle to figure out what the characters should do to express those; whereas she writes in what she calls the "British" method, analogous to the great British actors who stand *here* and say the line and then walk over *there* and do that piece of business, and work back from there to discern and build in the emotional underpinnings.

And now I'm fascinated by this, because I just assumed that everyone goes about writing in the same way I do, more or less, and I'm having fun trying to get my head around what it would be like to simply have some scenes in mind, and write them out, without having already done a lot of sort of preparatory emotional outlining to guide the process. And because I have a ton of other stuff I should be doing, I thought that instead I'd -- that's right, do a poll!

[Poll #511623]

(no subject)

Date: 2005-06-12 11:00 pm (UTC)
ext_1774: butterfly against blue background (Writing -- due South)
From: [identity profile] butterfly.livejournal.com
With me, it actually depends on the intent of the story.

With a dialogue-heavy story, I tend to write the dialogue out first, without any description, and then I go back over it and slowly work through the mental work behind the dialogue. And because of that, the story doesn't always look dialogue-based at the end.

With an emotional vignette, I pretty much write from beginning to end. It's all about that initial "Oh, that's what this story is about," moment. And though, again, I revise and refine it, it all pretty much comes out in one whole piece.

Sometimes the actions dictate the emotions, sometimes the reverse. A big part of my writing is about the completely natural flow, just how the words come out, who the person is that I'm writing about, what the purpose of the story is. I also do a lot of intentional circling in my fic, doubling back to the point of the story at various points and at the end.

I don't usually have to spend too much time thinking about the character while I'm writing the fic, because I don't (generally) write fic until I know the characters, until I feel as though I could live them. On the other hand, writing fic has on occasion been how I finally understand a character.

Profile

katallison: (Default)
katallison

November 2009

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags