Where do I start?

I've been invited to join a science fiction/fantasy authors' discussion group at my alma mater recently. Today, I responded to the question, "Where do I begin?" The answer is, "It depends." Everyone is different, and everyone writes differently. Part of becoming a good writer is finding what will work for you. After getting to know the questioner a little, I found that we actually had quite a bit in common, so I was able to offer him this advice.

Steve- You sound a lot like me; coming from an engineering background, and only writing part time; so let me share what works for me, and hopefully that will get you going.

You have to understand that there are two general types of writers: those who plan, and those who don't, or don't plan very much. I know that my inclination is toward the former, but I could choose to do either and make it work. The problem is that the latter doesn't work as well for the hobbyist writer who can only spend half an hour here and an hour there working on the story. Most of your "writing time" gets used up rereading what you've written to "get back into the flow of the story."

I'm not mocking that; it is a legitimate requirement if you are writing the story with only a mental plan. You have to put everything else out of your mind in order to remember all the details you've stored in your mental file cabinet. Again, this works best when you can spend at least four hour chunks of time on writing, because then that half hour you spend rereading isn't most of your time.

For me, I find a written plan much better. The actual writing goes more smoothly, I don't suffer from writer's block, and I can take advantage of open blocks of time as small as five minutes. The drawback is that I spend a LOT of time writing the plan before I start writing.

First, you need to write down the whole story, beginning to end; say, two to four pages worth. Then, you divide your story up into chapters. For each chapter, you make a bullet point list of things that are going to happen in that chapter until you have 15-20 of them. If you can't think of that many, combine it with another chapter. If you have more than that, it's time to divide. The number of bullet points can vary, depending on the pacing you want in that chapter; fewer for a fast pace. Once you have your list, you'll want to review it to make sure the points are all consistent, and all necessary. Usually, I wind up crossing out two or three and not replacing them.

With that complete for every chapter, the writing is easy. I keep the list in the same Word document I'm writing in, and delete each bullet point when it's written. I usually spend five to ten minutes writing each one. I don't have to reread anything to get back into the flow, because the next bullet point tells me where to start.

So, I know this was a bit of a wordy answer, but if I were you, I would start with a plan.

What I didn't share with Steve, but I will share here, is that writing without a plan absolutely, positively will not work when you are co-authoring a book. You HAVE to have a plan written down with at least as much detail as what I described.

When you are writing a story as it comes to you, the story frequently takes an unexpected turn on the author. There's a quote from Louis L'Amour that I like to repeat: One day he was speeding along at the typewriter, and his daughter, who was a child at the time, asked him, "Daddy, why are you writing so fast?" And he replied, "Because I want to see how the story turns out!"

That works just fine when you're the only writer working on the project. But here's how well it would work for us:

Jeff: I finished chapter 19 today.

Craig: Great! I'll have 17 and 18 done this week, and then I can start on 22.

Jeff: I decided we should call the monsters "bat-gators," since they have such short legs.

Craig: What? We already decided on "cryptobeasts!" Now I'll have to go back and change it in 13 and 17. Why did you change it?

Jeff: It just seemed more menacing, and familiar. When you hear "bat-gator," it brings an image to mind. Plus, it was ironic that Ensign Hayes, the champion alligator wrestler, would be eaten by one.

Jared: Hold on! Ensign Hayes still has to be around for all of my chapters. What do you mean he got eaten?

Craig: We never discussed killing off Hayes. He is admittedly annoying, but--

Jared: Hey, he's just inexperienced. He'll improve.

Jeff: Not if he's dead.

Clearly, this would lead us down the "throttling each other" path we've been trying to avoid.