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Posted

I just listened to podcast 899: Stef on Writing (An Interview).  I find it amazing how different my approach to writing is from yours, Stef.  You say that you don't think out the entire plot before you write, that you don't know how it's going to end until you get there.  I'm the complete opposite - I think up the idea for the book first, then think up the ending, then the beginning, then a few key points in the middle, then just write to fill in the gaps.  Or, at times, I write an outline of all the different chapters I want to have and what will be in each chapter, then write one chapter at a time.  You also said that you don't view plot as being as important as the message of the book, whereas I view plot  in books, movies, TV shows, and video games to be the most important aspect (if the TV show or video game is supposed to have a plot - if it's a comedy show or a game without a plot, plot obviously is meaningless).

 

The best example of this for me was when I wrote a plot outline to a video game.  I knew exactly what the general idea of the plot was going to be, and I knew what I wanted the ending of the game to be.  But I had no idea what was going to be in the middle of the game at all.  So I started writing it from the beginning, telling what's going on in the multiple plot lines as they happen  (there would be multiple "stories" that had their own plot but overlapped and all had significance to the overall plot, each of which you have to play through to unlock the final story), and at times I had no idea where the story was going, but I kept going with it, and the different plot lines overlapped at just the right moments in just the right ways, and everything ended up leading up to the climax and ending that I wanted when I first started writing it.

 

Obviously there is no "correct" way to write, and I'm sure your way works perfectly well for you, but I just found it interesting how our methods are the complete opposite of each other's.

Posted

As I understand it, Stef is very, very character-development centered in his writing. Thus, you can heavily define the characters and the main plot points, but then the characters and their interactions drive the plot.

 

If you are more plot-centered then you have to painstakingly go over the plot and then find characters or actions that can help push the plot in the way you want it to go.

 

This results in very different finished products, but both can be good book in their own right.

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