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Joyce Melton
Note:
The original version of this post can be found at Sigerson wrote: Do any of you write this way? I can't believe that I am the only one. Based on my output of posted stories this does not appear to be an efficient way of writing. I've done it in a similar way. "My Juno" and "ekiN" were essentially driven from just such scene descriptions done in my head. When I went to write them down they turned into stories. Some of my stories came from the concept of a title, like "Every Lollipop Loves A Licking" and "All Trespassers Will Be Eaten" and "Pussycats for the Blind." I just sat down to explore the implications of the title and a story happened. Others came out of incidents in my own past, like "Ms Barefoot" and "Dirty and Dangerous" and "Private Weather" and "Kissing the Rat" all of which are at least semi-autobiographical. Some other stories came out of trying out writing something like some things I had seen others write. "Mercedes" and "Miracle Titty-Gro" for example. Others are poems that got away from me, "The Girl with the Goodbye Eyes" and "That Kind" and "Christmas, Adam". "Ginger-with-a-D" came out of hearing the main character's voice in my head. I had to try to write something with someone who sounded like that, a brainy, self-aware, airhead. :) The story went in ways totally unexpected for me, it happened as I wrote it. No matter where I start from, that is the way I like to write. Spontaneously, letting the characters take the story where they want it to go. It's much easier than writing toward a defined goal. "Ginger-with-a-D" was easier to write than "Every Lollipop..." for instance where I had to write toward the punchline. The problem with that kind of spontaneity is that sometimes you end up with the characters wanting to tell a much longer story than you were prepared to write. I've never finished "Imagine My Surprise" for that very reason. Frank Love and Nona Glass just have too much story in them. Or you end up with a story that you have to paste an ending onto, like "My Juno." Tim wants a whole novel to explore his preference for tall women, maybe someday I'll give him one. I polish stories after I write them. I go back over the story and add bits and describe things I hadn't described. Then I send it to a few editors and listen to what they have to say. Then I shorten the story, cutting parts out and making it tighter. "Kissing the Rat" is an extreme example of this, the orginal story was over 3000 words, I got it down to less than 500 words for the anniversary flash. I'm not working on anything now. The last thing I wrote was a bit for Mat's Erotic Art Gallery. Mat had asked me for something several times and I finally just got a blank screen and started writing. Once again, somewhat autobiographical and not really a story but I wrote the whole thing in a matter of an hour or two. Hecate has asked me for a piece with a supplied title. I dunno. I have an idea but I haven't put the blank screen in front of me yet. That's when everything happens, when the white screen or paper gets all messy with little squiggles and the characters start to come alive. See, there's this private club that hires pretty young waitresses... |
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