A-mazing. Thank you for taking the same to put down your writing method. I have one of those feelings that it's about to change many aspects of how I'm going to tackle big writing projects. This is now a permanent bookmark on my browser, and have sent it off to some friends. (my hand is aching from so much handwriting, but wow it works!!) I'll let you know when I'm published in Barnes and Noble;)
I followed your same journey, but in reverse. I started with a plotted novel and then decided to discovery write the next one, and I'm glad I did. There are strengths and weaknesses to both techniques, and since then I've done my best to double-dip as much as possible.
I'm intrigued by this collapsing wave method (a reference to the physics phenomenon/computer science algorithm, I presume?) I'm curious to see how it would work for a character-driven novel. Those tend to be motivated by changes in emotional state rather than plot events, but I suppose you could map someone's internal journey the same way you map the movements of armies or the stages of a heist. This might be a case where writing Draft 0 first is helpful, since you can get a clearer sense of the protagonist's emotion in each scene, and THEN map out all possible responses.
P.S. I recognized the Skyrim poster in your grad school thesis photo :P
This is amazingly helpful. I've been kind of stumbling through, kind of cycling back and forth between trying to find the plot as I go and trying to have a semblance of an outline, and my outline is very "and then" instead of "resulting in." Going to take a step back and use some of this.
I'm so glad! and yeah I forgot to mention the "resulting in" language was lifted from a talk that the South Park writers gave to film students. It's been circulating on tiktok/reels recently.
Let me know how it goes and if any questions crop up!
A-mazing. Thank you for taking the same to put down your writing method. I have one of those feelings that it's about to change many aspects of how I'm going to tackle big writing projects. This is now a permanent bookmark on my browser, and have sent it off to some friends. (my hand is aching from so much handwriting, but wow it works!!) I'll let you know when I'm published in Barnes and Noble;)
So glad it was helpful!! Can't wait to buy your book!
I followed your same journey, but in reverse. I started with a plotted novel and then decided to discovery write the next one, and I'm glad I did. There are strengths and weaknesses to both techniques, and since then I've done my best to double-dip as much as possible.
I'm intrigued by this collapsing wave method (a reference to the physics phenomenon/computer science algorithm, I presume?) I'm curious to see how it would work for a character-driven novel. Those tend to be motivated by changes in emotional state rather than plot events, but I suppose you could map someone's internal journey the same way you map the movements of armies or the stages of a heist. This might be a case where writing Draft 0 first is helpful, since you can get a clearer sense of the protagonist's emotion in each scene, and THEN map out all possible responses.
P.S. I recognized the Skyrim poster in your grad school thesis photo :P
This is amazingly helpful. I've been kind of stumbling through, kind of cycling back and forth between trying to find the plot as I go and trying to have a semblance of an outline, and my outline is very "and then" instead of "resulting in." Going to take a step back and use some of this.
I'm so glad! and yeah I forgot to mention the "resulting in" language was lifted from a talk that the South Park writers gave to film students. It's been circulating on tiktok/reels recently.
Let me know how it goes and if any questions crop up!