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On Writing by Stephen King
I'm reading On Writing by Stephen King and I want to share what he thinks about "plot", because it's very close to my ideas.
I agree with this point of view A LOT.
I used to be more spontaneous and rather have fun then to know where I'm going in the end, and those times were the most exciting (and innocent) writing times of my life. As I grew up (both as a person and a writer), somewhere along the way I stopped having fun and tried to be more serious. I know this, my best friend knows this and I can't write. Oh I write, every weekend, at least 3000 words, but I rarely feel that genuine excitement. I catch a glimpse of it when I come up with a brand new idea, but then again there's no plot to it yet, it's just the idea of a new story that makes me glee with joy!
I know that my writing joy was lost, because I kind of felt it yesterday. I forgot about the plot, because the plot I planned was so deep and yet so far away that I was bored even thinking about it. So I let it go, I spontaneously decided to write a regular day, seeing random things, having adventures with my characters and I had SO FREAKING MUCH FUN, it was insane.
I'm not at gun point, I'm not writing for anybody, I should be having fun, right? As long as you have a plot--a certain, written on the stone plot with an obvious ending--there's no way you can have fun. Some might disagree with me, that's expected. I know a lot of writer friends who solely rely on their plots and planning stages, but never have the time/interest to actually write it. I've been there, done that, because I wanted to try it. It's not working for me so today I decided to go back to my old self.
But all in all, I suggest everyone to try and forget about the plot and write for the sake of writing, to be the part of the universe you're creating, to have fun. Kill the plot, or in kinder words "forget about it for a while"... If it works, YAY! If it doesn't, you'll never say "I've never tried that one before." You'll know what kind of a writer you are.
I'm going back to my reading now, thanks for listening :)
Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice. The story which results from it is apt to feel artificial and labored.
I lean more heavily on intuition, and have been able to do that because my books tend to be based on situation rather than story. Some of the ideas which have produced those books are more complex than others, but the majority start out with the stark simplicity of a department store window display or a waxwork tableau. I want to put a group of characters (perhaps a pair; perhaps even just one) in some sort of predicament and then watch them try to work themselves free. My job isn’t to help them work their way free, or manipulate them to safety—those are jobs which require the noisy jackhammer of plot—but to watch what happens and then write it down.
The situation comes first. The characters—always flat and unfeatured, to begin with—come next. Once these things are fixed in my mind, I begin to narrate. I often have an idea of what the outcome may be, but I have never demanded of a set of characters that they do things my way. On the contrary, I want them to do things their way. In some instances, the outcome is what I visualized. In most, however, it’s something I never expected. For a suspense novelist, this is a great thing. I am, after all, not just the novel’s creator but its first reader. And if I’m not able to guess with any accuracy how the damned thing is going to turn out, even with my inside knowledge of coming events, I can be pretty sure of keeping the reader in a state of page-turning anxiety. And why worry about the ending anyway? Why be such a control freak? Sooner or later every story comes out somewhere.
I agree with this point of view A LOT.
I used to be more spontaneous and rather have fun then to know where I'm going in the end, and those times were the most exciting (and innocent) writing times of my life. As I grew up (both as a person and a writer), somewhere along the way I stopped having fun and tried to be more serious. I know this, my best friend knows this and I can't write. Oh I write, every weekend, at least 3000 words, but I rarely feel that genuine excitement. I catch a glimpse of it when I come up with a brand new idea, but then again there's no plot to it yet, it's just the idea of a new story that makes me glee with joy!
I know that my writing joy was lost, because I kind of felt it yesterday. I forgot about the plot, because the plot I planned was so deep and yet so far away that I was bored even thinking about it. So I let it go, I spontaneously decided to write a regular day, seeing random things, having adventures with my characters and I had SO FREAKING MUCH FUN, it was insane.
I'm not at gun point, I'm not writing for anybody, I should be having fun, right? As long as you have a plot--a certain, written on the stone plot with an obvious ending--there's no way you can have fun. Some might disagree with me, that's expected. I know a lot of writer friends who solely rely on their plots and planning stages, but never have the time/interest to actually write it. I've been there, done that, because I wanted to try it. It's not working for me so today I decided to go back to my old self.
But all in all, I suggest everyone to try and forget about the plot and write for the sake of writing, to be the part of the universe you're creating, to have fun. Kill the plot, or in kinder words "forget about it for a while"... If it works, YAY! If it doesn't, you'll never say "I've never tried that one before." You'll know what kind of a writer you are.
I'm going back to my reading now, thanks for listening :)
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I've written 9 complete novels (regardless of their quality level) and I didn't edit any one of them. That's why I never feel confident enough to actully try and publish at least one of them. (Someday maybe...)
Editing is difficult. It's messy and if you want to write something different as soon as you're done with one story, editing is almost impossible.
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