New ... brooms!

[silverr]

It's an old saying: "A new broom sweeps clean."

I've found that this can apply to writing as well. I don't just mean changing your methods or approach (e.g., writing out of sequence if you're usually linear, or freewriting if you're usually a detailed planner), I mean actually trying a new writing tool--or even switching to trusty paper and pen. Sometimes it's just the jolt you need to get things flowing--or at least save you some hair pulling.

So, what tools do you use? What do you use them for? Why do you love them? What do you wish they did better?

Comments

[silverr]

*grins*

For the chaptered story I'm working on my, I had, oh, 5 or 6 20-30 page Word files, dating back 8 years, with various rambling drafts of various scenes and chapters, assorted copy-pasted chatlogs and email excerpts discussing various scenes .. and no clear scene sequence.) It was a freaking mess, and for a while I felt like I should just toss everything and start writing from scratch again (which certainly would have been a valid option), but I knew I had good stuff buried in all those pages (Sometimes several different re-writes of the good stuff :p)

Rather than do a line-by line comparison, I just set up an index card/heading virtual bucket for each piece, and then went through the files and everything I saw that related to "the scene where the old crush shows up" or "scenes where people threaten the villain" I just copy-pasted it out into Scrivener. After a while the underlying structure of the story started to merge, and as it did I started moving the "index cards" for the scenes around, adding notes, refining the scene title.

(I think a lot of this technique works for me because I approach writing stories as if I'm making a film. I like storyboard; I don't mind shooting/writing out of sequence; I'm willing to cut entire scenes for pacing ( but I still keep them "just in case" :p) and some of the story is built in the editing process.)

Whenever I've gone through this process I feel like I have a much clearer sense of the skeleton of the story, and having an "aerial view" also helps me articulate to myself "what is the purpose of this scene, what does it accomplish?"

All this probably sounds painful and boring, but I find this ordering and organizing activity very calming sometimes, especially when it seems that my enthusiastic concepting of a piece will outstrip my ability to follow through.

(It also makes me appreciate those very rare stories that blast out all in one sitting.)

[credoimprobus]

Heh, no, it's true -- the organising can be nicely zen! I mean, there's certainly a reason I can cheerfully spend hours messing around with plot spreadsheets or my writing journal. :D

I should probably do something like what you did with my massive old chatlog paste files -- sure, I may have everything relating to one project in one place, but it's not exactly easily parseable. (For one thing, everything is GIGANTICALLY out of order, since it's all chronological-by-chatlog-date. XD;) Actually, I'd probably do well to organise all my notes properly, and not just the actual ficbits...

(Admittedly, I think I did do that once -- it's just that it was in software I don't have anymore. *dramatic sigh*)

Aerial view! That's a really good term for it. :D I tend to get to it by making buttloads of nerdy spreadsheets, myself. I'd be ridiculously lost without them, to be honest, because, yep, non-linear. So, so non-linear, omg.

(End note: I sometimes wish I'd get those lovely blast-out-in-one-go pieces more often... and then I remember how they generally mean 2+ days of no sleep and terrible eating habits and coming out the other side a total physical wreck, and I'm kinda fine with them being so rare. XD)

[silverr]

I hope the take-away from this topic is that there are a lot of tools, lots of ways to wrangle one's words, and that different things work for different writers (and at different times).

I think the toughest part is figuring out how you work, what you need as a writer, and then poking around until you find a tool that feels right for how your creative flow works.

(I have to say, I ultimately gave up on yWriter because it felt too rigid to me - the version I used a few years ago was very persnickety about my identifying a main character for each scene. What I've come to appreciate about Scrivener is that it's more open ended ... and that it keeps a lot of its tools out of sight. I'm sure that there are other (probably free) outliners out there, but for now Scriv works for me.)

And yeah .. those pieces that just flow out like lava, I think they're only ... 1 in 20 or so? almost always one shots, under 5,000 words. I did write a novella once, in a 26 hour marathon but that was a looooong time ago. (it was written on a manual typewriter. :p)

[zoamh]

Chatlog paste files! It never even occurred to me to go through and reorganize those until you mentioned it. Oh man, I have about a months' worth of rambling chatlogs for a project my gf and I have been working on. I'll have to wrangle them into submission. This is gonna be great. :D