# Do you know exactly how you did it?



## Strangedays410 (Jun 18, 2013)

This is something I've wondered about other writers. Often when I start a scene, I only know what I need to accomplish in that scene, and what I need the scene to feel like. Once I begin, the scene takes on a life of its own, and even though I have a specific purpose, I'm more just watching to see what _it _does. By the end, it's (hopefully) well woven, and rife with alluring trickery. Some of this is intentional, but some is definitely not; in hindsight, 'it just sort of worked out that way_.'_ Luckily, it _keeps _working out that way...most of the time. All that to say, my feeling is that, while I know what I'm doing, I don't always _really _know what I'm doing...in terms of how I've just accomplished a given scene. I always worry that maybe I won't be able to do it again...since I don't exactly know how I did it _that _time. Does anyone else operate this way? Or do you know exactly what your doing...period? Thanks.

Miles


----------



## shadowwalker (Jun 18, 2013)

I think I know what you mean. I once had a reader give me this detailed (and practically worshipful) analysis of a story, stating how they loved the imagery and symbolism - and I read through it thinking, "Huh. I did all that?". I look at my stuff and often find myself wondering how I did it - or, in some cases, why on earth I did. :sour:


----------



## TheYellowMustang (Jun 18, 2013)

shadowwalker said:


> I look at my stuff and often find myself wondering how I did it - or, in some cases, why on earth I did. :sour:



I've experienced that too. A lot. I'm often embarrassed or impressed when I read things I've written. The latter is definitely preferable, but strangely not as good of a feeling as one might think (in my opinion). Instead of feeling proud, I'm usually just puzzled.


----------



## Skodt (Jun 18, 2013)

Sometimes it could be as if little men live in my head giving me a story. I start and when I finish I wonder where it all came from, and why I chose to do it that way. I have ideas and thoughts to the story of course, but the actual hard copy; putting it into words sometimes it feels like it has a life of its own.


----------



## Nickleby (Jun 18, 2013)

It's like the difference between reading a screenplay and watching it being shot. When you're plotting a scene, you're thinking about it. When you're writing a scene, you're inside it, living it. You're writing the script, playing the parts, and directing the action all by yourself. It can be a heady feeling, like playing God.

... only the reader can't see the movie you shot in your head, or hear the soundtrack, or feel the heat of the lights. There's just the screenplay you jotted down during the shoot. All you can do is hope that the reader can visualize what it was like.


----------



## Strangedays410 (Jun 18, 2013)

Exactly! I'm glad to hear your inputs. I can walk away feeling like I came upon some bit of magic (where the sum of the scene is better than any one or ten things I actually did) by luck, rather than skill--oddly, even if it's exactly what I was aiming for. Mind you, I write a lot of trash too, but my best scenes sometimes feel over my head...and that makes me nervous. I guess as long as it keeps happening, I don't need to know how or why. It's just an uneasy feeling _not _to sometimes. Such a slippery, shadowy thing to deal with...art. Glad to hear your similar sensations.

Shadowwalker, indeed. I've thought a lot about what you just mentioned. On those occasions though, I bet whatever they're reading into what you've written fits perfectly--as though you _did _actually write all those double meanings into it, instinctively perhaps. The more I think about it, the more I think it's legal to just say, "Uh...yeah! Right!" ...and then act like you meant it that way. Lol. Anyway thanks for the replies.


----------



## Kevin (Jun 18, 2013)

Ah...muses and familiars. Beware! Put down the pen.


----------



## Strangedays410 (Jun 18, 2013)

Kevin said:


> Ah...muses and familiars. Beware! Put down the pen.



Indeed--an unnerving contract, I'd say.


----------



## ppsage (Jun 18, 2013)

If I didn't know better, I'd swear I'd fallen into a nest of surrealists.


----------



## Grape Juice Vampire (Jun 18, 2013)

This is usually what happens to me. There are a few occasions where I know down to the last detail what's gonna happen, but that's rare for me as my mind is constantly going and changing. Also, i find chapters written in this way more satisfying and occasionally scary as I am sometimes bewildered that I could write a certain thing. And I love it when it feels more like the character wrote it rather than I.


----------



## Angelicpersona (Jun 18, 2013)

Strangedays410 said:


> I can walk away feeling like I came upon some bit of magic (where the sum of the scene is better than any one or ten things I actually did) by luck, rather than skill--oddly, even if it's exactly what I was aiming for.


If you're doing it "by accident" rather than on purpose, that's skill in itself. A lucky unskilled writer might come up with a gem every now and again, but a skilled writer can let the words flow without even meaning to =)


----------



## Kevin (Jun 18, 2013)

Is it an ability or is it a skill?  (hello. Just call me Pedant  )


----------



## Mutimir (Jun 18, 2013)

Every sentence has a purpose but they can evolve through the process. When you get into the character's head and find their voice things just begin changing. There is a balance that needs to be found so as to stay on the correct track. I suppose that is the only thing I truly know, it's that path I want the story to travel. Scenes seem to change on the way but they follow the same plot.


----------



## dale (Jun 19, 2013)

my life in general works that way. so i don't see why my fiction wouldn't. i start off with a vague notion of what i'm gonna do when i wake up.
but the rest of the day and consists of "winging it" and the flow takes me where it will. the only thing i can really count on at the end of the day
is that i'll probably be fairly inebriated. everything else is kind of out of my hands.


----------



## Staff Deployment (Jun 19, 2013)

I don't understand what everyone's talking about. Writing, for me, is unhealthily deliberate. If it's not, the editing gets much worse.


----------



## dale (Jun 19, 2013)

Staff Deployment said:


> I don't understand what everyone's talking about. Writing, for me, is unhealthily deliberate. If it's not, the editing gets much worse.


well, that's just one example of how you and the professional writer differs. us professional writers, more often than not, abduct an unsuspecting female from a gas station, duct-tape her feet together and her mouth shut, then force her at knife-point to do our editing for us.


----------



## Strangedays410 (Jun 19, 2013)

dale said:


> my *life in general works that way. so i don't see why my fiction wouldn't. *i start off with a vague notion of what i'm gonna do when i wake up.
> but the rest of the day and consists of "winging it" and the flow takes me where it will.the only thing i can really count on at the end of the day
> is that i'll probably be fairly inebriated. everything else is kind of out of my hands.



Well-put...and I guess a good artist simply makes peace with that, and then goes on about his business. That's a good mindset.

Staff Deployment, as far as I'm concerned, what you describe would be the ideal, particularly in the case of writing professionally--perhaps because I'm a control freak. For me though, sometimes the only thing that is deliberate in writing a scene is being real clear on what I need to have accomplished by the end. Regarding the _manner _in which I carry that out, so much of what comes is serendipitous and surprising to me--and (when I'm lucky) having more intricacy and appropriateness than I could have mapped out from the start. In that case, rather than _proud _or _skilled_, I feel something more like _appreciative--_and hopeful that such grace will return as I write the next scene. I covet your foresight. At any rate, good to hear your experience on the subject.


----------



## Gamer_2k4 (Jun 19, 2013)

My writing ability is deeply rooted in how much I care about the part I'm writing.  When I first began planning my book, I had concepts I wanted to explore, and I knew roughly how I wanted things to end.  Getting there was tricky, but once I began hitting the later chapters, things just started flowing.  When I reread my story, the introduction and middle are decent, but the closing chapters are truly enrapturing.  Every word seems spot on, and the emotions the characters go through feel so real.  It's just a joy to read in a way that the rest of the book isn't.

I don't know if that's because of my writing ability increasing as I went on, or if I hit my stride with the characters and scenes, or even if it's just the unconscious recognition that yes, I really did write a complete book.  I do know that the parts I love to read are also the ones I loved to write.  When my passion drives my writing, the results are very rewarding.


----------



## Al D (Jun 19, 2013)

I've just come to accept that when I sit down to write some other Al D kicks me out of brain and does the writing. He leaves, I return, and I always wonder who the hell wrote all this stuff.


----------



## Staff Deployment (Jun 19, 2013)

Al D said:


> I've just come to accept that when I sit down to write some other Al D kicks me out of brain and does the writing. He leaves, I return, and I always wonder who the hell wrote all this stuff.



Ha ha, that's how I feel when I'm doing exams.

"Dangit Staff Deployment the square root of 8 is 2(√2), not _four_, what were you thinking, just get out of there and let me drive okay"


----------



## JosephB (Jun 20, 2013)

I have things pretty well thought out before I write. Ideas pop into my  head -- but I'm fully aware of it and I consider how they're working as  I'm writing. It's all rather deliberate. There are no trances, no writing doppelganger takes over. There's nothing magical or mysterious about it. But as long you're satisfied with the result, how you get there doesn't matter all that much. And you know the old saying -- if it ain't broke, don't fix it.


----------



## Kyle R (Jun 20, 2013)

I think there's always a possibility for something unexpected to come about in writing, some spur of the moment idea or an accidental choice of words that ignites a creative fire in the writer's imagination.

I know it happens to me when writing. I might be comparing a character's arm movement to a branch swaying in the wind, when the image of a tree clicks in my mind and I decide to move that tree into the setting of the current scene, or build a future scene around it.

The whole process can be like a tree, actually--starting with a trunk, a bare idea, and then the branches grow out in unpredictable directions. 

Generally I try to polish and tighten along the way, giving the chaos a sense of clarity and purpose. But yes, often I end up in a place I didn't plan on to begin with. Sometimes it's a wonderful accident. Other times it's just a train wreck.


----------

