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Can we break the rules?

by Enkeliina
Posted to Knowledge Exchange, Assumptions on Sun Dec 21, 2003 at 06:56:23 AM PST
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Writing, like most of the Arts, has rules made to be broken.  The genius is deciding which rules to break.  The reason must be of equal or greater value.  One unwritten rule being this:  "A story must be written from start to finish."  Is this so?  That is the question to consider.  

An unfortunate occurence in the creative process is to create the beginnings of a story, write it half way, and suddenly realize there seems to be no tangible ending.  What a crime!  A single incidence is a fluke.  A repeat of this is happenstance in a long life.  Another reoccurence is a tragedy of human habit-formed mental laziness -- apparently.

This problem has weighed heavily on many an author who has sweated and strained to squeeze the story into tangibility.  For those who have experience this trial, it most resembles a woman giving birth to an elephant.  Painful!  What solutions exist?

Being apologetically, but unrepentantly myself, I tend to accept certain traits I find within myself.  The only restriction I apply is to find the best of that trait and to expand on that particular portion.  This is directly related to the horrible habit of reading the last page of a story after reading only the first chapter of the book.

Cringe!

It is a horrible habit that clings like a burr to a long-haired wild dog.  But as previously stated it started a thought process on using the weakness as a strength.

Can a story be written backwards?

Perhaps not an original idea, since some languages are written, to the english view point, backwards (right to left).  Are some of us wired to work in direct opposition to the traditional English form?  It is an idea that has given me hope.

Trying formal structuring of plot and storyline proved ineffectual - for me.  Like those who, after telling their story, loose the ability to actually create it, plotting the story provided the same quick death.  Thus a paranoic tendency to secret the story before the actual writing of the story.  

Therefore a need is manifested.  

And a new/old solution presents itself.

Begin the story at its end.

Only time will prove its effectiveness.

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Poll
How do you write?
  		•  Sit down and write the whole story from scratch. 11%
  		• Organize copious notes into a plot, then write. 11%
  		• Start with a character. 22%
  		• With a plot. 0%
  		• A theme. 11%
  		• Quarantine until complete. 0%
  		• Share it vocally with others, before writing a word. 0%
  		• Write sections, then put it together. 0%
  		• End to beginning. 11%
  		• Still searching for the "write" personal method. 33%

    Votes: 9
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    Can we break the rules? | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
    Writing backwards (3.00/0) (#4)
    by scottasaigon on Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 02:52:01 PM PST
    Have you read 'Time's Arrow' by Martin Amis? It's the story of a Nazi War criminal told in reverse. It is truely fascinating. When I finished it (started it?) I had to re-read it straight away.

    'Everybody you meet is striving to be happy and to avoid suffering. We are all the same.'

    HRH The Dalai Lama
    There's more than one "one true way" (none/0) (#1)
    by janra on Mon Dec 08, 2003 at 03:56:50 AM PST
    ...to write a novel.

    The brainstorm/outline/prewrite/write method is only one of many advocated by professional authors as "the way that works". There are other authors, just as successful, who suggest starting with a bare idea, and plunging headfirst into the first draft. Still others say that writing the climax first is the way to go, as you suggest here.

    Which method you choose depends entirely on your personal working style.

    I'm actually in the outline stages of an article for this site that covers the main "one true way"s I've seen around, describing them and comparing them.
    --
    Who needs to be big and burly when you can just apply physics?

    A personal view on different styles (none/0) (#2)
    by Mich on Mon Dec 22, 2003 at 03:38:09 AM PST
    Heh... created this account a few minutes ago and already posting a comment, then again, perhaps I created the account so I could write the comment in the first place. :)

    Anyway, writing styles are something very personal, and not always easy to find for the writer in question. As a testimony to this: I've been trying to write for ages, be it short stories or complete novels... but I always failed in finishing. Most of the time I got stuck on the first few pages, I just stopped writing. Now I believe this was mostly due to the fact that I tried to plot out -everything-, be it detailed character descriptions, story lines or time lines. In itself was fun figuring those out, but it made me lose interest in writing the actual story since, in a twisted way, I already did.

    Since a few months now, I decided to try a completely different style. I haven't plotted out anything this time around, I just went for it and started typing. And sofar, it seems to work. The story isn't as complicated or perfect as I hoped it to be, but hey, it's a first draft... I'm not complaining.

    As for beginning a story at it's end... Although it might only have little bearing on this article. I've been pondering about writing a story that doesn't have a beginning, or an end for that matter. Instead, you could just start reading it at any given random point in the story, then read past the end and start at the beginning of the writing, continueing to the part where you decided the beginning was.

    Dynamic Development (none/0) (#3)
    by gitm on Sat Jan 03, 2004 at 12:24:55 AM PST
    For some reason (perhaps being brought up in a society driven by visual cues - movies, television, etc) I often get 'visions' of parts of my story. Usually as dreams but quite often as visualising what would happen to my characters.

    At the moment I'm doing a lot more work in visual rather than written media and one of the techniques I've tried (that seems to work very well) is to use a batch of 5x3 cards to describe events that you want to happen (call them scenes if you like). When you have the important events you can lay all the cards out on the floor - shuffle them around until you get some sort of consistant order and then it is plainly obvious what missing bits you need to fill in to get a coherent story.

    Works for me :)
    --- This space for rent.

    Different styles (3.00/0) (#5)
    by ultraaman on Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 01:05:27 PM PST
    Styles vary for sure.  I for one hate outlines.  I never work from one and I never will.  Even back in school when an outline was required I'd write my story/report/whatever first then go back and do the outline.  My thinking is not that linear or that regimented when I write - something that I find hysterical because in almost every other aspect of my life I am exactly that way.

    I do however USE a form of outline as a way to track my ideas once I've got a chunk of the story written.  It gets created once I reach a point where I'm sick of scrolling back and forth to find something in the story.  I then keep writing and as I reach an important concept I'll drop it into the outline.  It ends up resembling more of a bullet-point list than an actual outline.

    I too have found the 3x5 card concept works once I'm past the first edit stage.  It helps me identify concepts that I may have left undeveloped and lets me see at a glance how a story might unfold if I move scenes/beats around.

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    Can we break the rules? | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
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