Anyways, it seems, from production hints and the like, that this is how you write: you often get an idea (or 6) and spawn a new story. You write as for as your inspiration takes you, and usually come to a halt. At some later moment, your muse strikes again (TV show, friend, random comment, etc) and more gets written. Repeat until done.

Since your writing spurts on any given story can be so far apart (years even), how do you know when a story is done? Not being a writer myself, it seems a little mysterious to me. From my POV, it seems that it would be easy to tinker with a story forever, never being quite satisfied.

--Chris
Maybe my Software Design classes are getting to me...

Usually there comes a point at which all the events I wanted to show in a particular piece have been shown, at which point it's just a matter of wrapping up the presentation in a decently pleasing style. Sometimes, though, I just know; Hunted Rose ended that way. I got to what is the last scene, looked at the last line, and said, "Huh. That's the end of this part." It's not really something that can be explained - just an instinct.

Sometimes that instinctive knowledge comes later rather than earlier, too. For instance, I was feeling quite directionless on Welcome To Your Life at one point, wondering just where it was going to end, before I realized that it had ended some way back and I was now halfway into the next story (which became Ad Astra). Knowing that, why it all felt so weirdly undirected was then obvious, and I chopped the bits apart, posted Welcome and went on to finish up Ad Astra with a much clearer sense of purpose.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Although, like Gryphon et al., I often write when supercharged by inspiration, I usually have the end of the project in mind from the beginning, and I write toward it. For instance, my BGC short story "A Wild And Untamed Thing" was built based on a mental image I had which was eventually incorporated into the final scene. The ending for Drunkard's Walk II has been more or less completely written for years, right down to all the epilogues (yeah, DW fans, that's a plural), as has the great climactic confrontation right before it. (No, I'm not going to say who's confronting who.) Having all that roughed out or even finished as I go through the 13 or 14 chapters before it makes it immensely easy to lay down foreshadowing and drop hints about where things are going.

As for where to end chapters, well, I outline my chapters before I write them, again, with a definite end in mind before I even start. I usually have a specific sentence or paragraph for the ending already shaped, and again, I write toward that. For instance -- and here's a bit of a treat for you DW readers out there -- I know that (unless it runs really long and I split it into two) Chapter 12 of DW2 will end with Lisa Vanette marching up to Sylia, dropping an almond-sized diamond in front of her, and saying, "I have been authorized to hire the Knight Sabers." And everything I write in Chapter 12 will be influenced by knowing that end point. Of course, I've been accused of loving cliffhangers overly much, and shaping my chapter outlines to accomodate them... <grin>

-- Bob
(Proud member of the Legion of Rabid Crack Weasels)
-------------------
Kosh:  "Who are you?"
Morden: "What do you want?"
Ivanova: "I'll be in the car."

Sort of.

I try to write <i>something</i> every day, as much as I can drive myself. Sometimes all I can write are journal entries and random bits of prose; other days I'll churn out pages of text. On most of my fan projects, I've sat around and waited for the muse to come up and bitchslap me, but on <i>Evangelion Densetsu</i> I've been getting into more disciplined writing habits, and I'm also much more disciplined with my original fic.

>Since your writing spurts on any given story can be so far apart
>(years even), how do you know when a story is done? Not being a
>writer myself, it seems a little mysterious to me. From my POV, it
>seems that it would be easy to tinker with a story forever, never
>being quite satisfied.

Theoretically, yes, but, honestly, polishing a story is a bit like building, say, a hunk of furniture out of wood. First, you've got an idea in your head. Then, you go and do some research (though the kind of research for furniture would, obviously, be very different from that for a story). Finally, once you have enough material ready in your head and you're done with your preparations, you start to work. Finally, you get to the sanding -- and this is the part that, when writing fiction, could theoretically take forever, but, honestly, you can only do so much before you realize that nothing else you do will have any further significant effect. At that point, you slap on a coat of paint or maybe some stain and varnish, and set it out for people to look at and use.

Of course, the problem with this analogy is that sometimes you'll think you're building a bookcase and discover, when you're done, that it's actually a coffee table.

-- Sean --
Rabid Crack Weasel #42
"All tribal myths are true, for a given value of 'true'." -- Terry Pratchett
The Broken Link
Follow my creative process

For me it's bot both, and neither... Coming into a story, like when I start Book 3 of Tales of the Wanderer, I'll know what the overall events are. THen its a matter of writing them until you get to the end. WHen you run out of story to tell, you end the story.

Chapters, on the other hand, for me tend to work a biti differently. In general, I DO try for about 10 pages of story per chapter; allthough that's subject to change. When I get close, I look at what's comming up in the next few secenes and decid where would be a natural stopping point; in general those are points where the action pretty much is at a cliffanger, or that the action is going to take a break logically for a while anyway.

----------

Close enough.

>Since your writing spurts on any given story can be so far apart
>(years even), how do you know when a story is done? Not being a
>writer myself, it seems a little mysterious to me. From my POV, it
>seems that it would be easy to tinker with a story forever, never
>being quite satisfied.
>
Oh yeah, you can tinker with a story, modifying or changing details when the muse isn't with ya, but I think that a lot of writing is kinda done instinctivly, you just gotta know in your gut when it's finished or if theres gonna be a sequel or something. Years? Oh definitely, I've been working on one project that has seen little light for, about eleven years now.

If Death Is Only The
Begining, Then
What Is The End?

At least, all my stories do. The hard part is being patient enough to write the whole thing down. Or draw the whole thing, which is preferable by me, but takes about eight hundred times longer.