Writing

I've been trying to catch up on my podcasts today, since I've got oh, more than a hundred that I haven't listened to backing up on my iTunes.  To be fair, it's my own fault, and I don't listen to my podcasts that much anymore, since I only listen to them when I'm going to bed, and I fall asleep pretty fast, so I keep having to rewind them. 

But, today I was listening to Writing Excuses (a - go figure - writing podcast by Brandon Sanderson - who happens to be a favorite author of mine, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler) and they happened to be talking about Discovery Writing in their podcast from May 16, 2010.  They discuss the fact that there are two kinds of writing - outlining and discovery writing, and people write in various shades of those styles. 

I always knew I was the kind of writer who didn't really outline.  For me, outlining takes the fun out of it.  Once I get the ideas down on paper, they stop popping into my head and tormenting me.  If I outline, then they go away because they're down on paper.  I outlined a lot for a long time.  But I also found that my outlining was stifling the story I had to tell because the way I outline limits me.  That's just how I am with them - if I outline, then I'm not doing what I love, because I'm done by the time the outline is done.  Outlining with bullet points is somewhat better, but I don't like doing that much either. 

The interesting thing about it is that most discovery writers like myself have trouble with the ending.  I don't.  I'll have a solid beginning and a definitive ending, but my trouble is the middle.  It's how I get from Point A to Point B.  That's always been my failing.  I'll get a big chunk of the beginning done and be very happy with them, and I'll have the end of the story bouncing around in my head, but half the time, I can't figure out how to get to the idea that's bouncing around in my head. 

My next problem is that once I get the end written down if I don't wait until I write the middle, then I lose the desire to write it.  My project for NaNoWriMo last year was a fanfiction that I eventually plan on rewriting in my own world when I finish it as the story it is now.  I don't see it going to the same place if I rewrote it as a novel or as the whole trilogy.  The thing is, I started in the middle with what I had written and built from there before I skipped to a scene in the middle because I got bored and I got stuck.  From there, I wrote a small chunk, and then I jumped to the end, where I wrote more than half of my word count for NaNoWriMo in the last maybe...seven...chapters.  Then I let it sit for a while as I attempted to get over burnout.  And it's still sitting there, since I've edited and put up the early things I had and have managed to get to a point where I'm still in the middle.  The ending has been sitting there for more than a year now, still riddled with typos, rushed sentences, and probably an out of character narrator.

I can't say I'm hugely proud of that particular attempt at the end of that story, but this set of stories would probably be considered trunk novels as they stand right now.

I've also discovered in the past couple of years that I just don't rewrite things.  Oh, I've rewritten my little flash fictions and short pieces, but I've never actually gone through a novel and rewritten anything more than a sentence or two in editing.  I've tried, but I don't know what I'd do different in a lot of cases, such as the Robin Hood (BBC) fanfiction that is my main fanfic project right now.  I've considered rewriting it once I'm done, but I don't know where else the storyline could go.  I suppose that might be because I have so many other ideas, but the plots I get are usually set once I've written them.  In my mind, that's the only way they can go. 

That's just me, though.  Always has been.  Maybe I can actually do that someday.  That would be nice, considering that I want to get published and all...