I think it's a great idea, Shali! Lately I've been doing something similar in my poetry and I really like some of the things I've written. My theory is that because it's not my typical process, it gives me a little more mental freedom in terms of combining words and twisting grammar in a way that's still effective in getting my point across. Only not my point exactly--more like, it frees up my subconscious to get to the point that flows naturally from the rest of the piece. Like I said, I've been doing it with poetry, but I see no reason at all why you couldn't do it with prose or a narrative. You're really good at those snapshot-type scenes because your writing tends to be very visual, and I think writing on a theme would work really well for you in terms of honing that ability. You write awesome characters anyway, and you never know what awesomeness might happen when you start changing the rules of how you develop them.

All that to say: GO FOR IT, DUDE. <33333

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A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.
~Charles Peguy

I've recently started doing that, Shali (as in, my last book that I haven't finished yet and this NaNo), but the theme tends to come together after I have most of the characters and a basic idea of the plot already in my head.

lol kitteh you never fail to inspire me to keep writing, especially when i shoot myself in the face =P so far the theme thing is going pretty well, it helps me visualize scenes better if i know that the goal is to build up or tear down trust...... hmm.... i must continue zis exspirament....

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That which does not feel pain is dead.

Good! *thwacks with the Optimism Hammer, for good measure*

Oh, also--and this isn't just to Shali--something I've discovered recently: I'm more creative when I write my first drafts longhand, in fountain pen, especially if I doodle in the margins and cross stuff out and draw arrows and just sort of barf silliness all over the page. (I forget how to spell, too, which suggests shenanigans of a neural variety since I'm a fantastic speller, but that's more interesting in a psychological sense than in a creative one.) Point is, it's something else that gives me a little more mental freedom. If I'm drawing anatomically inaccurate turtles in the corners, I don't feel so bad about writing crap on the rest of the page, and sometimes the crap turns out to be not-crap, which is kind of awesome and even more so for being logically unlikely.

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A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.
~Charles Peguy

I have a world to write in, but no characters or real story yet. XD

@Rhee: I have characters and a premise, but hardly any plot or world. :/

i have a world, plot, characters, and backstory but no motivation =P

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That which does not feel pain is dead.

Hey, that's what the deadline's for. *whack* :D

I've got a world, a few characters, and a few events/ ideas but no overlying plot at the moment. I'm letting it marinate for a few weeks in the hopes that something will turn up.

Maybe I can finally write down that romantic scene that I've had playing in my head for weeks but haven't had a chance to use yet. <3

17 days to go!





A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people- Thomas Mann




My writing blog: [aspiringpen.blogspot.com]



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 10/15/11 11:40AM by Faerie Watcher.

Well, since I've gotten absolutely nowhere in plotting for the past three weeks or so, I'm considering prepping for NaNo by just writing some scenes with my chars to get to know them better, and hopefully the plot will come together later....