Quirky Writing habits, breaking from the norm...

[Theinkswell]

'Ow do,

Just a question I would like to pose, how many of you have started an idea for a novel from a place other than at the beginning. For example a novel I have been writing on and off over the last year, started out as an idea not for a story, but the end of one. I wrote the whole final chapter in a typically dramatic and creative fervor, and then had to work out what points in the previous chapters might bring my characters to that point in the story end?

Anyone had a similar experience, I just wondered what others do to break up the routine writing wise, how do you process an idea from concept to a written piece?

[Wolf's Rain]

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[Theinkswell]

Definitely, it's nice to deconstruct a conclusion as an exercise. For that particular idea I simply didn't know how the story would be. For reference I am the kind of writer who doesn't necessarily plan out the book, but allows the character's to shape it through their interaction. Which incidentally is an odd prospective, when a character does something that surprises you as their creator, I would recommend it, I have quite the adventure.

So the chapter came from the seed of an idea, and the immediate excitement of how such a thought might ultimately end, I can get a little carried away on occasion.

Quite a few of my pieces are snapshots, perhaps larger in scope to your own short fictions, but all from the same universe. I have floating about in my head an entire world history and its future epochs, all mapped out and I just pick an interest spot and go for it. It is quite fun, if a touch self indulgent.

[kanasta]

Often writers have a good idea to start with but then trail off by the end, so I think it makes sense to start from a good ending, then work out how you get there...

[Theinkswell]

A good point, but I find that alot of writers seem to put in a lot more thought into the beginning and middle of a story, without always putting the same effort into its conclusion. How many times have you read a book, and felt the end was lack lustre?

[kanasta]

Well yeah, they're the ones that don't write backwards!

[Wolf's Rain]

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[Wolf's Rain]

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[Wolf's Rain]

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[Ben Allen]

Well yeah, they're the ones that don't write backwards!