two ways to approach any piece of writing
27th March 2017 | for Creatives | structured writing & plotting/outlining, intuitive writing & pantsing, creative process, create for YOURSELF, pantsing vs. plotting, writing, ideas, Marcel Theroux |
"There are broadly two ways to approach any piece of writing, in my opinion. One is where you have an idea of where the whole thing is heading ... The other is where you have a phrase, an image, maybe a single line that fascinates you and provokes you into elaborating it."
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let it play out naturally
"Listen to the story being told. Come up with the idea, but let it play out naturally. Try not to shape it word for word or be so married to an outline that you deny what could become something amazing."
following the thread out of the labyrinth
"[Flannery O'Connor] just had a sense of an opening and then pursued it—like Theseus following the thread out of the labyrinth. ... I think this seems scary, but it can lead to an outcome that feels very natural, unforced and satisfying. ... I really encourage people to follow this advice, and largely follow it myself. "
a waste of time
"Most writers will create an outline and start pounding out a draft. But Klinkenborg does neither. Outlines, he says, are not only a waste of time, but they also harm our writing. How, he wonders, can we presume to know what we're going to write before we write it?"
the writing was always boring
"I was a real outliner... the real price was, the writing was always boring, because I had already mapped out what I was going to say. There was no energy left, and no excitement left in the prose itself."