perringcentral:

writtenhastily:

juliawritesbooks:

When you have a new idea for a story, what do you tend to develop first? Characters, plot or the world/premise?

Usually vague ideas of world and character to start, then heavy plot for outlining

ive always found that characters first work best for me!! when characters are sticky (ie they dont leave my head and leave comments in everyday life) i know i have a keeper so i figure out their story, which gives me plot

It starts with a huge blob of vague new ideas mixed with bits from cannibalised old ideas I never used and would never even fit together. I probably have names I want to use before characters, and solid lines before I even know when a story takes place let alone what the story is. It’s like a puzzle of madness and I fill the missing pieces with my tears of confusion until it resembles something coherent that could possibly be described with words that start with real letters and not just vague noises of confusion. Which is when I open a Word document that always starts with “okay so” and write a ten-page wall of text that involves at least seventeen “I don’t know this part yet but something will happen"s and several times more ”(???)“s then I decide everything I’ve ever written is crap, have a twitter meltdown where I shame myself for being weak and a bad writer for at least three days, then I put my entire writings folder in the recycle bin and play 2048 frantically for another two hours while crying hysterically before going to bed and waking up in a bed made of shame under a pillow of regrets.

Then I flesh out a rough plot while on the toilet before work.