Story Cafe

Jim,

This is exactly how I find myself writing! It is so good to hear that I am not alone. I feared that maybe I was going about this whole novel writing all wrong! I, too, started with a skeleton plot, just kind of playing around and seeing where it would lead my characters. I am in my seventeenth chapter of my first fantasy novel. I do find that my characters are much stronger than my plot right now, but am not too worried, as I recently learned that your story can be character-driven or plot driven! Not to say that I feel that my story will not grow stronger in its telling, I just realize that the plot becomes more substantial as my characters come to life! I seem to write better if I do not try to plan out the ending. I simply find myself absorbed in the moment and it all falls together quite nicely. I agree that you must discover and hone your own writing technique. There is no one right way to go about it.

I did, however, start at the beginning, but now that I am so far into the plot, I am realizing that the beginning does not seem to fit the story! Have you ever had this problem? I am struggling with completely changing the beginning, or trying to create something in my story to tie into the beginning, but this idea seems more impossible the further along I am. I am, so far, afraid to touch it, fearing that I will become overwhelmed and discouraged, so I am leaving the beginning alone for the time being, since the rest of the story is still flowing smoothly. Maybe when I come to the end, I will go back and change the beginning! It sounds frightening, but now that I know that there is someone else with the same technique, I believe in its success!! Did it really take five years to be able to start at the beginning?

Shelly