How do you write???

[Artiespet]

Aug 14, 2011 9:56:22 GMT -8 Apple said:

I love to do my writing in longhand, though it doesn't always happen that way. I did write TNOT Heart's Desire in longhand first, while sitting at the ice rink during my daughters skating lessons. It passed the time. There have been times that I was writing on the desktop and had to leave but I took paper with me and continued where I left off because if I didn't I would lose the momentum. So as I sat in the nursery at church in case people had to drop off their little ones, I wrote the end of Lightnin' Strike.

Now here's my question for those who have done beta reading. Do you beta read at the computer, or do you print out the story and make your marks on it in pen (or pencil)? I print it out...just finished marking up a novel-262 pages! Now I have to go back and put them into the document in OpenOffice. That helps me to make sure that the comments are legitimate, or if I my mind wasn't picking up the real meaning in the story the first time I read it.

With me it depends on where I am when I'm writing. When I was at work the only choice I had was to write longhand. Once I got home I would type it up. Now it depends on whether or not I can get to the desktop. I prefer beta reading and writing straight to the computer because it saves ink...no scribbling when I screw up lol

[California gal]

I don't do any writing longhand anymore other than sometimes a short reminder note that I have to "cover" something I mentioned early in the story, or in a few cases, to write down a list of the characters I've invented.

However, before fan fiction (when I had no idea it existed) I wrote a lot in longhand. I'd take my tablet or notebook to the beauty shop to write while under the dryer. Those poor stories, though, never got transferred to either a computer or a typewriter, mostly. They just languished and eventually had to be tossed because the box was stored in a garage that got wet!

I sometimes think of writers from long ago who HAD to write in longhand. Often, I'm sure, they had to write multiple drafts in longhand! That's dedication and perseverance!

[Paradox Eyes]

I wrote my first two stories completely in long hand. Then I started writing partially in long hand and partially on the computer. I can't take my laptop with me, because I'm already carrying too much stuff, so I still write quite a bit in notebooks and on scrap papers. I find that more and more I write stories in sections that are out of order. The outline will be in my head and I'll write whatever seems to be in my focus at the moment. The beginning is always written first, then it's anybody's guess. I'll write certain dialogues or I might write the complete ending before I flesh out the plot in writing. This is common for me, even if I'm typing on the computer.

As to beta reading; when someone asks me to read for them, I print it out first unless it's a monster of a piece. I prefer to jot notes in margins as I read, like Apple, I'm sometimes not certain I got the right meaning until I read further.

[tyche]

Ah...writing. Sometimes something in an episode will give me an idea for another story - TNOT Druid's Blood gave me the idea for my first story 'The Night of the Drugged Mind' and I created the character of Eleanor Talbot because I wanted a strong female character as a foil - well eventual foil - for Jim himself.

I suppose that ideas come from all sorts of places, sometimes I have got to a point in the story where I've got completely stuck - and sometimes writing about the American Civil War is quite difficult for me because I come from the UK so it's hard to grasp the magnitude of it. But I also find it hard to grasp just how big a country the USA is anyway.