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Sdrawkcab Gnitirw
Posted by: maggenpye
I write backwards. Haven't got my keyboard reversed or the characters running right to left or anything like that. The book, the story grows backwards.
"If only I knew how to begin" said Alice.
And with that line, Lewis Caroll summed up what I find hardest about writing.
I start with an idea, a scene of two people talking about whether one of them had an affair. Or someone watching a couple kissing, thinking 'I'll show them.' with utter hatred. Or a pun, a really awful play on words. I start to wonder who told that joke? Why does he hate them? Did he have that affair? It leads to another scene, another set of questions. Soon I have a basic plot. They start here - they go through this crisis - it's resolved when that happens. I'll start sketching out scenes. Notebooks litter my personal landscape at this stage. They're mainly to firm up the scenes I've thought of and catch those little things that could be useful: A cryptic crossword clue that I got from a bumper sticker. That saying about One for Diamonds, Two for Pearls, etc. A blue Cortina, like a piece of the sky has come loose to curve its way down the hill road. Most of them won't get used. The thing about the affair never got used. She doesn't even have a sister any more! (long story, hah!)
Then I start writing. Key scenes with copious notes on what happens in between. It's just filling in the gaps after that. Working out what would happen to get these people from here to there. I write the finish after the main bit, because the characters and motivations change during the story. I journey with them and find out what they've learned on the way.
Then, when I know what's happened and how it all works out, then I write the first chapter. Introduce the important characters, who I may not have known about when I started. Hint at what journey they need to take, which I only learned as they took it. Work in jokes that only get explained near the end. And hook the reader into the theme. Which by that stage, I know.
So, to sum up; I write backwards.
How else could it work?
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23 Jun 2007 21:44:10
Comments
On 23 Jun 2007 23:46:08 Kerryn said:
Maggenpye, it sounds like you write a lot like Louise Doughty does over at [url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/awritersyear/nosplit/awritersyear.xml]A Novel in a Year[/url]. What ever way works for you, I reckon. And it's important not to assume there is only one way to work as a writer.
On 24 Jun 2007 14:09:39 maggenpye said:
I've just bookmarked the list of exercises. I haven't heard of her before, but I'll certainly read through them. Thanks. I agree,I've got dozens of books on writing, I use a little from each of them and that works - for me.