PA: Do you mean where you would write down ideas, story plots, and the such? If so, yes, I have one. Though I suppose it's more of a binder, but same concept.
I currently have two binders. One for 2013, one for 2012 NaNo. I work on two computers (one conveniently without internet, which helps with not procrastinating as much), so I like having my info on paper as well.
Basically I put in whatever I think I'll need to write the story. I have the character's basic looks, age, and back story. I'm not very good with outlines, but I try to include that as well. Sometimes I'll put random things that won't actually come up in the story, but will help me with the character/plot anyway.
EDIT:
Oh, and I was wondering if anyone has heard of or has an account on Figment? They don't seem to have very many good stories (or maybe they do and I just haven't found them), but I was still curious about it.
I can't access the Narnia Writer's Guild. Could anyone tell me anything about it?
Merry Christmas to everyone, as well!

I'm still dealing with this silly little ghost story. It's suddenly grown a lot longer, and there's a sort of subplot about how the guys from the country believe in ghosts, while their city friends don't; and how scaring your friends by dressing up as a ghost isn't a nice thing to do when they actually believe in ghosts. I don't know whether I like this new version better or not.

Anna, I have a writer's journal. It's more like a file, since that helps puts in scraps of paper and such, but I do keep it to write. I find myself writing on scrap paper more than I do in the book, but I use the book to write writing tips and quotes to keep me going.
Lately, and unusually for me, writing on the computer has been more productive than writing on paper.

I think I've grown as a writer in these past couple months. I took a Composition course, and I was able to write after experiencing writer's block after a long, long time. I learned a lot about style and voice, and I'm looking forward to developing that. Though I'm disappointed by how long I went without writing, in some ways, I think it was good, because I was able to stop writing in the voice that I was previously using and put it under scrutiny to make it more concise and more like what I actually want to write like. But now I have to force myself to practice.

I also expanded my writing goals to more than just novel writing, screenwriting, and poetry; I would like to be a scholarly/academic writer, as well as a non-fiction writer for history, writing, science, and other things that interest me.

However, I'm having a serious Mary Sue problem. I think it will be a passing phase, given my age, but man, it's irritating. I am trying to create character profiles and write them out in order to avoid fragments of characters. As much as I want to be a writer, I'm currently trying to evaluate my goals in writing--do I have something to write, or do I simply want to "have written"? Prose comes a lot easier than plot for me. I've never written a novel, but I am working on changing that.

I've been submitting work for publication, and I'm running into the problem that I have trouble writing a decent short story. My ideas are often novel-length, and I end up trying to cram them into short stories, but the results are less than satisfactory. I have a few ideas for short stories, but they're often vignettes--they don't always have an overarching plot. I've got a few right now, and I think they've got decent plots. But the better ones always tend to be on the longer side. This is the opposite problem from what I had when I wrote papers for school. I had trouble getting my papers to be long enough, and my short stories aren't short enough.

@Lady Haleth: I can't give any story advice because I can't write fiction. I tried in a creative writing class in college, but my two short stories were really awful. I'm very good at writing academic papers/essays though. My longest, in grad school, was over 30 pages. My best essays are on Student Pulse. Most of the creative writing I have published online is poetry, except for two short stories. I'm rather proud of one of them, called "Jalapeno Babies."

@Princess Anna: I used to keep a writing journal, but it didn't have story and character ideas. Instead, I copied interesting quotes that I found in books (including favorite songs from The Hobbit) and my reactions to visual art.

*Dusts off another old thread*

A writing journal is such a good idea, whether it be a book to write everything down in, or a drawer or file to hold all the little scraps of paper with scrawlings. At present, I have the drawer, but I'm wanting to put it all in one place--all the story ideas, short and long; the lists of names, including the ones I've used already or have plans for; profiles, and maps, and character studies, webs and plot outlines and potential illustrations. You know, all that stuff.

It can also be a tool for tracking writing patterns--to see when you write most (and best). What I'd also like to use it for is to keep track of when I wrote this story or that, when I started a novel and (hopefully) when I finished, and just when I came up with that grand idea for a plot. I've kept a reading journal for the past 14 years, and have found it to be very handy at times.

Most of my stuff will end up on the computer in one form or another. There are many organizational tools for that, but I was struck by a thought the other day--why shouldn't I use the HTML template from my genealogy project to do profiles for characters? With a little bit of tweaking and adding, I'll be able to have a document with tables and links--all without having to reinvent the wheel.

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Seven or eight years ago, I got an idea for a book about Merlin the wizard being placed in a modern day high school. I spent the rest of my college years, all of grad school, and some time after working on it and getting it ready to send out to publishers.

I'm pleased to say that the final version is now published (by Portals Publishing) and is available on Amazon!

You can check it out on Amazon here and Goodreads here.

Oh wow, it's been years since I've been on here! I'm rather amazed I still remember my password! Now, why can't I remember the password for my work employee portal...
That's amazing news, shastatwin! I was looking for something new to read, so I just bought your book on Kindle!
I just finished the first draft of a novel and I'm working through the second draft now. I'm pretty excited! I do have a published work out, an anthology about being a CNA that I wrote with two other CNAs...but this is the first novel I've ever assembled. As opposed to my usual unfinished stories.

The CNA stories https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01AIOZV ... ref=plSrch

Welcome back, Avra! Good luck with your newest novel draft.

Congrats, stwin! I'm looking forward to ordering and reading your book.

It's the first day of April, which means Camp NaNo has started! Camp NaNo is a lot like the NaNoWriMo in November, but it takes place during two separate months in the spring / summer. Since June is the next month with thirty days, I think that will be the next one. I was wondering if anyone is doing Camp NaNo in April (or in June, though it's a bit early to start talking too much about that).

I am not officially doing Camp NaNo, since I don't want to commit to the time it would take. You can be a rebel (even officially, I believe), but I opted to stay out of the cabins, and instead try to work on the plot for a book idea that has been on my mind for the last couple of months.

Essentially, I am separating it out into four weeks, which is essentially characters, world building, general plot, and then more specific outlining (chapter breakdowns, specific scenes, etc).

I am definitely not someone who has ever plotted and done much of an outline. I nearly always give up in the first part of outlining. I'm hoping to change that this year, though, because although I still like writing without any clear plot, some of my books really need to be written in the context of an outline.

I'm really sliding into it easily as I can, starting with characters and world building before getting into the actual plot. I'm also not going to worry too much about specifics. Although I would definitely like to get an outline of sorts, I don't think this book will require a super detailed outline. It might, of course, but I won't find out until I start writing it.

What sort of prep do you do for your fictional works? Are you a planner, a figure-it-out-as-you-go-along writer, or a mix of both? I'd love to hear any suggestions on how to make an outline and how to plot in advance. ^_^

Ooooh, best of luck with the outline, Summer! Sounds like you have a solid plan for your plan.

I'm not doing Camp NaNo in April, since I've got a bunch of stuff going on the first half of the month. Even if I were, I ought to do some editing on previously existing stories as opposed to starting a new one (as attractive as the idea may sound).

I'm still working on figuring out an outline that works for me. I started just quickly summarizing the scenes/opening where I knew what I wanted to happen, but that still often had me coming to the point of, "Okay, this is the end but I have no idea what happens???" and so the endings are less than satisfying. So I've been toying with questions like:

What's changed since the beginning of the story?
Is there a reveal of something that's been hinted at throughout?
Are there consequences to the reveal? (Is the reveal actually the end???)
Am I being specific about what I want to happen? <--this is probably the biggest one so far as to making it feel like I have a plan[/list1g0bcmu5]

We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost - how long ago! -- G. K. Chesterton

ReplyQuote

Thank you, Mel! I am finding it far easier to make the plan for making my novel outline than my actual outline (if that makes sense) unfortunately. I've determined not to give up, even if I end up not getting as far as I would like, though!

Yes, starting a new story is a most exciting diversion. Even while starting on this outline, I got inspiration for another story. I wrote down the ideas and firmly told myself not to be distracted. Of course, then I got some more ideas for that one, and not my original.

Ah, yes, I've had that problem as well. I do like the questions you brought up! They're not too overbearing (sometimes, I find those sorts of questions make me want to run in the other direction).

Are you working on anything right now? (right now, as in more or less actively over the past year or so, not necessarily during this month, since you're so busy!) And are you still working on Harold North?

One idea does seem to spawn several others, doesn't it? And if you can quickly write them down, then you can pick the one you like the best. Or at least, that's the thought.

Good luck as you enter week two and worldbuilding! It sounds like a good progression to go from characters to where they live--is it working for you?

I am still working on Harold North! Sort of. I mean, I'm still trying to plan out proper revisions for two of the stories that spun off the original and I have the outline for the one where the setting is changed to outer space. And it looks great in the outline, it's a lot of fun and I really want to read it, but I can't get the opening scene to fly.

The other major thing I've been poking, without visible progress, is the revision of my NaNo manuscript from 2015. It's currently a tangled mess of ideas, lopsided structure, and "Why did I choose this viewpoint character other than the fact that they're around for the significant plot events?" As soon as I can get the main character to actually engage with their character arc, the rest should fall in place, but as of right now I could take out my heroine and replace her with a cardboard cutout and it would be marginally funnier because of the slapstick of everyone else dragging a cardboard cutout through their adventures.

I did write a complete outline for a story based on a prompt of, "What if the Chosen One turns out to be a (formerly) trusted henchman of the Dark Lord?" It looks like it'll be fun, whenever I get around to writing it.

That's what I've been trying to do. I keep on writing stuff down and telling myself that I'll simply have to come back later. Of course, there are always the ones that don't seem like the best idea, until you get a new idea connected to it when you've already started on the other one.

I don't think it really worked to separate the two that much. I didn't finish planning, but I think I will probably try this again next time I need to plot. However, it's a bit hard, though, since they're very connected. At least as far as how their environment shapes certain aspects of them. I think I do prefer working on the characters before world-building, but I might try it the other way around at some point. We'll see.

I'm going to be traveling for part of the summer, and so I have decided that I'm going to take some notes for research. I'm not sure if I will try to find a story for the research, but I think it might be easier if I could imagine characters in that setting. So, I'll be taking a break from my Camp NaNo plot (research, I decided, was an acceptable diversion from it), but I'll probably start working on it again in the fall. I've been considering doing it for NaNo, but I suppose I'll have to see where I am at that point.

Oh, yes, the space setting! I think I've heard a bit about that, though I don't always understand what is going on. I hope you get the opening scene to work out soon. Do you think that it is the writing itself, or are you having problems with how to start it exactly?

xD I would really like to read a story about the characters having to drag the cardboard cutout all around! It would make certain things very difficult, but at least the cardboard cutout wouldn't need food or anything like that.

Oh, that sounds interesting! I'd love to hear more about that when you get around to writing it.