Seasons

Or come up with the beginning and keep writing whatever you're writing until it takes on a life of its own. It does NOT get any easier at that point, but it does seem like it's been writing itself all along. Like 100 pages down the road, you may think to yourself, "Oh, so THAT's why I put that particular picture in the stained glass window". Things like that.

Depending on the mental stability of the author, the story can get quite demented when writing that way. I should now.

Well, I'm currently stuck on chapter 2 of my sci-fi story, because I need a baby sitter for my main character who is currently seven years old, and I haven't felt like inventing another character for the job. Anybody want to babysit Spencer?

My going rate is ten bucks an hour and whatever I find in the fridge is fair game.

But as far as writing goes, if I don't have at least some idea of what the result is going to be, where I'm shooting for, I just can't find any direction. That's the trouble with a lot of the incomplete stuff I have. I just lose the direction of it. I mean it's great if you can just write until an ending emerges naturally, it's more organic that way, but that sort of story is only likely to satisfy you. A reader might not relate.

I do have a question, do people find that when they write prose that they focus seem to focus on certain aspects of the story at the expense of others? For example, I find personally that I concentrate on dialogue, action, and internal thoughts of characters and sometimes forget to do much in the way of description of setting and characters physically. I guess what I'm asking is what you consider the strengths and weaknesses of your writing to be?

I've been carrying on here as if my bots were characters in a novel. Like characters in a novel they have developed personalities of their own and have completely taken over, at the expense of moving the story along. How about a novel without characters? Or have the French already done that?

I tend not to do much description either, because once I get started it has a tendency to turn into a little mini-novel of its own. Sometimes the plot just takes over and all the cosmetics play second fiddle, which doesn't make it a very good read but it's sure interesting to create. I'm beginning to suspect after all this time that maybe I don't enjoy the writing so much as the coming up with the plot to begin with. Except I can't just come up with a plot and then have someone else write it cuz I'm too damn picky.

The babysitter? Do like real life. Come up with some people, do a little screening, then try them out. If they don't work, "fire" them and try somebody else.

Hey I'm cheap! And I don't wet the bed! Minimum Wage!

Here's a scary idea:

How about you base it off of NotKirby? An old crone eternally PMSing that never really answers your questions(perhaps she leads the kid on a bit, though). And of course, she would have to always be too busy to watch the kid, like reading a monster truck magazine or watching the lifetime channel.

Or watching .. well... real late nite TV..

My strongest point is dialogue, although I go off on poetic descriptions occasionally.

I'm not concerned about the money since the kid's parents are going to pay for the sitter anyway. :-) I just haven't decided if he or she is going cause trouble or not. Spencer very much wants to be left alone on that particular Saturday morning so he can keep an appointment. I know...maybe his parents have a few different sitters they use at different times. I'll have him go over the possibilities in his mind. Then I'll decide which one it will actually be.