How do you go about writing?

[Morreion]

I write with a scene in mind. I write this scene down and then explore the scene- who are the people involved? What are they doing, and why? What is special about the location?

For instance, when I wrote the story called The Gift, I had an impression of a careworn man, dressed in fine clothes, waiting in Hibernia's capital city gardens for someone. Who was he waiting for? Why? How did he get there? The story came out of that scene.

Overall, my writing is intuitive, not pre-planned. Every once in a while I have an idea of what I want to write about. More often than not I won't have an idea what is going to happen until I start writing. Then the story hopefully develops. I sometimes have a tone or feeling about the emotion of the piece; that's usually it. In a way, it is disconcerting. It's like the Muses coming to visit. I hope they keep coming!

Longer works consist of stringing together scenes and relating them together.

[Oatik]

So I went and read The Gift and I was wondering how long of time period did you write it over? Oh and you can kick me for not reading all the old stories yet. *laughs*

The story with Oatik as a young boy was all about the butterflies. I was a thought I'd had about four months ago. My plan was "butterflies interact with main character".

The story in the bar was just the in game Oatik in a story. Tavern + woman + trouble equals Oatik's story. Anyone that knows Oatik knew that was just the kind of situation he'd be in.

My plan is to try and flesh out what I've started and come up with a reasonable length short story...we'll see how that goes!

[Morreion]

I'm pretty sure The Gift took a day to write- I think about a scene and the idea behind it for days before writing it down, somehow a direction comes about- the main character's dying wife in this case- and then it just all falls into place with the emotion I'm looking for that is a twist to the story. Then I write it all in a rush. I don't always make drafts of the story and improve it over a number of days (which I probably should). I think it's more common now for me to write drafts and refine it, think about the execution more.

Many of the early stories were just spontaneous and happened as I wrote them. I even wrote one at work one day, the whole thing, while on the public service information desk. That's not recommended by the way, rather distracting. Try to be literary and then a guy in a Metallica t-shirt comes up and asks you for a copy of Dude, Where's My Car?

The early stories were more about situations that happened in DAoC when I was playing. Now I think about them more as stories. I'm not sure if that's an improvement. I've always had an easier time writing about games I'm playing as the setting, characters or classes or settings that suggest the tales. Writing about a character you play gives you lots of pre-made background, what he is like, etc.

I could see Oatik in your story quite easily, as if I were in a tavern watching. Keep going, Oat!

[Oatik]

Just finished the latest scene in the Oatik saga, but I like to let it sit for a day, give it a fresh reread, make a few edits. 3893 characters (without spaces...thanks Word) I'd say about three hours total. Which puts it about the same length as the last one.

So now I have to figure out where to go from here. Well, something will happen, just open up that doc and start typing! Maybe I'll throw a couple of these on the guild site.

A day seems pretty fast to write The Gift but I could see you catch the flow of the story as you wrote. I thought the transition of the last third was well done, you didn't over state the events but it wasn't too vague either. I think things like that are hard to get right, but you nailed it.

[Morreion]

I remember when the idea came for the end of the story, I had to write it all down then, it was like it all came tumbling out at once after days of thinking about it. I used to have a 35-minute drive to work then, mostly freeway driving, I'd put on old familiar CDs and sing along, all the time mulling over the story in the back of my mind, and then it's like a ray of light, all of the elements fall into place and I know the story, the emotional impact is the true test.

Hell of a way to run a railroad!

The quote that the story hinges on was a quote told to me in-game at the time. It stuck with me.

[Oatik]

So my goal with Oatik's story is to end up with about a 20 page short story that would stand together as a whole. Mostly I just want to try and develop some characters and some kind of plot to see if I can do it. Of course I've told you my plan to make myself accountable for just that.

So one thing I'm trying to do at the end of most "chapters" is to have the reader asking themselves. "I wonder what happens next."

So if you're reading something and it's not clear at what point in time we are or it gets to confusing and makes you want to stop reading and start drinking let me know!