I don’t have any quotes right offhand, but I seem to remember that Stephen King once said about Cujo that he himself was surprised (when he was writing it) that the little boy had to die at the end. I seem to remember other authors saying similar things, maybe about plot developments that were unpopular with their fans.
Is that just BS popular authors use to get fans off their back, or is it possible to be surprised in the writing process of what you come up with? Is it like you’re channeling some muse who doesn’t reveal everything to you at once, or what?
There are many different ways to write, but authors tend to fall into two camps. One camp insists outlining is the one true way. They know the entire story from start to finish, and may even know exactly what is going to happen in each scene, far in advance. Authors have all sorts of interesting ways to plot and to keep their outlines straight. I know some people who use post-it notes on the hallway wall to keep things straight. The other camp abhors outlines. They often start with an interesting question or scene or a line of dialogue–something small that sparks their interest. As they write, plot developments are often a surprise because they literally have no plan.
Obviously, the two different factions have essentially no common ground, and it’s a question that will be argued voraciously by both sides for pages and pages.
Stephen King doesn’t use an outline for any of his books. He’s a “pantser.” He likens writing a book to an archeological evacuation in On Writing. He’s not so much creating the story as he is uncovering it. That’s how I write, too, and I feel like it is a perfect description of the process. As a result, sometimes really unexpected things happen. I think it’s perfectly plausible that King had no idea the kid was going to die until he was writing the moment the kid ceased to be.
Hey, it happens. A friend of mine, who’s published five mystery novels, is very big on outlining (I am a pantser myself). Yet even with this, she has changed the villain in every single book, to her own surprise. The new villain fits in perfectly, all the clues were there, she just didn’t see it, and of course, neither did her detective, but it makes perfect sense.
I start my books with no clue who did it, but I’ll get there when I get there. And as long as I’ve got my butt in the chair and my hands on the keyboard I do get there (but I should stay off message boards).
Sometimes you have a good idea of what you want the story to be about, but don’t have a clear vision of who your characters are. Once you start writing in their “voice” they often say or do things that aren’t what you’d planned but are exactly what they would say in that situation, and that can introduce new plot ideas or developments.
A good writer should still be able to wrestle it back onto the track originally intended, but the twists and turns in the middle may be different than what had been pencilled in.
I’m a writer, and when I write fiction I don’t outline–I just write and the story develops itself. As the characters develop and become “real,” they begin to act not how I would consciously have them act but in ways they would actually behave. They become real and the story becomes organic and starts to write itself. It’s like you get into this zone and some pretty amazing stuff comes out and you say “Where did THAT come from?”
Pantser here, and yeah, this is exactly what happens. You finish writing the last sentence of paragraph, skim back over it and go “holy crap! how did that happen? what’s gonna happen next?” and you dive right back in to find out.
Definitely. I know I’m onto something when the characters I’m writing start to surprise me. That’s the zone I aim for, because it means they’ve become real. At least to me, and that’s really all you can do to make them real to other people.
For the record, I sometimes outline, just to have like a checklist to start with–with an outline you start with a view of the light at the end of the tunnel–but I have NEVER completely stuck to the outline; it always gets discarded at some point.
Kate DiCamillo who’s won awards for young people’s literature (“Because of Winn Dixie,” “The Tiger Rising”) has insisted to me on a number of occasions that she gets characters in her mind, and just writes what happens when they interact. She knows how skeptical I am of that–but it’s her story and she’s sticking to it.
I once read a description of writing a novel that compared it to a long car trip at night to an unfamiliar destination. You know where you are starting. You know what your destination. But you only see what your headlights reveal as you travel. And you only know how the scenes will come out as you write them. I find it’s exactly like that.
I was skeptical about this same idea until I became more serious about my own writing. And this phenomenon isn’t just limited to “seat of the pants” writers who make everything up as they go, either. I outline a lot beforehand and almost always find new paths along the way that demand exploration. There will almost always be some amount of artistic discovery in writing. Even the tiniest improvised details could inspire new connections in your creative subconscious that could radically alter the story you’re working on. It’s like you’re writing and thinking, “hey, wouldn’t it be cool if blah blah did this instead of that? Wait… that would be cool!” Suddenly your story has made a radical turn you never expected, and it was because you decided this trivial extra character was from your main character’s hometown instead of from another city in another state, or something. It’s exhilarating, really.
Happens all the time, not just to me but to many more writers. I’ve gone off on all different tangents, sometimes because I wrote a line of dialog that seemed to flow out of the conversation and realizing that it had implications that needed to be worked out. As you write, you realize that there’s a more interesting narrative path than what you originally thought of.
I don’t outline, and some of my best stories were just writing something and then seeing where it goes.
Most of my published work is non-fiction, but I do have a novel published and another on the way. I outline, but that doesn’t mean my characters will stick to my outline. I had an ending worked out to my first novel, but my protagonist came up with an even stronger finish. One of my docile characters in the current novel just suddenly started an affair, which is going to mess up some of my plans for down the track. He just didn’t want to be so wishy washy any more!
If your characters are real enough to be written then they will come up with surprises.
JMS said that happened to him all the time while writing Babylon 5. Especially when it finally came time to assassinate Cartagia. JMS had planned for the assassin to be Londo. Instead, Vir “stepped up” and did the deed.
I’m a “pantser” too, which has led to some interesting discussions at my writer’s group meetings, particularly when I submit a partially written story and get asked questions about where I’m going with a plot point. My response of “I’m not sure yet” is particular frustrating to one of the other members of the group who is a die hard outliner.
It’s not uncommon for me to have some offhand comment or description early in a story later develop into the solution of a problem, or even a major plot issue. I sometimes attribute it to my subconscious plotting the story without bothering to tell me about it.
It happens to me even when I’m writing a post here. I start writing something, and then the ending just follows naturally. There’s just this feeling about what sounds right and what doesn’t.
He writes about 300 pages and abandons the story if it’s “not working.”
On the other side was Jack Chalker. I remember seeing him speak (a LONG time ago) and he mentioned a critic reviewing book 3 of the 4 Lords on the Diamonds and expressing his opinion that there was no way Chalker could pull the plots together coherently. Of course he could, he said, he had it all mapped out in outline.