How do you build your stories?

[pjthompson]

[Poll #1536978]

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I think I generally get a what-if scenario first. "What if someone could spin a thread from their own blood?" Then I try to find out what that means. Why would someone be doing that? Who would be doing that? And then I see if there's a drama, an actual plot, to go along with the scenario. If there is, and if, as I spin it out in my mind, I like it, then it might make a story one day.

I guess that's not the *only* way I start stories, but that's a common way.

[pjthompson]

This question came up in a memorial for Kage Baker. Someone said she built her stories in a style more reminiscent of the English school of acting: get the setting, clothing, world in place then build a character to fit--outside in. They went on to say most Americans have been taught to build the character first, then add the outward trimmings, and I thought, is that right? I think I land somewhere in the middle.

[hominysnark.livejournal.com]

I ticked the plot tickie, but with me it's more a "situation" and the characters and world and plot evolve from there.

[pjthompson]

Yeah, I'm somewhere in the middle. Generally, the character and situation arrive together, and then I piece the story together. Not always. Sometimes worldbuilding explodes in my head and then I figure it out, but usually it's what you said.

[geniusofevil.livejournal.com]

ah

[geniusofevil.livejournal.com]

how do you do it?

[pjthompson]

See my answer to asakiyume, above. Characters are really strong from the first, but they often come with worldbuilding and plot attached. Then it becomes a matter of really getting to know the character, and that adds to the plot and worldbuilding. I'm beginning to realize that theme plays a more important part in my writing than I'd previously thought. I haven't got a prayer of finishing something if I don't have at least an inkling, at least instinctually, of the substrata of the story.