This isn't a proper response more an add of my own query - does anybody outline their stories? I've heard this helps collect and focus your work but mine always feel flat/over simplified and I end up dropping my story because it seems boring when I try to lay it all out.

Or maybe all my stories ARE boring and this is saving me from continuing them further....hmmm....

My mind is always floaded with poems so much so that I have to find a way to turn off my mind. My whole world is a story and everything I come in contact with can become a story, a poem, and should I say a song too. I have tons of scrape paper's, envelopes, letters, book's I mean all kinds of books that I use to write in. And who hasn't used toilet paper before because you forget your phone. Not only that I'm obsessed with writing pens as well. Every good writer have to have their writing pens.

When I began with my first book, I jotted down a few ideas.

Then I started writing. By the time I got to chapter 5, the story had taken over, some of the ideas I'd had went right out of the window and I had no idea where the story was going until I got there.

I ended up using some of those discarded ideas in my second book but even then, they were changed and the book went where it wanted. As long as I remain logical, cause and effect, one event leading in a logical manner to the next...

Well, you get the idea.

In 2016 retired and started writing short flash fiction stories, I now write two stories a week and have a short story podcast where you will find my work. I wrote my 1st novel during NaNoWriMo 2017 under a pen name. I discovered I write best when left alone and late at night or early morning with no family distractions. I use visual, and audio prompts and triggers to kick start my writing. Then as I am writing, I find when I get stuck, the best thing to do is to use a text to speech app to listen to what I wrote, which gets me writing again.

the writing process can be hard. I get inspired by odd things often at inconvient times. During serious moments or silent meetings i’ll often laugh about some scene i’m imagining. For example at a really boring, i guess, you’d call it dinner party i found myself penning in all the people around me in a scene. I guess they’ll never invite me again because as i explained the scene to my sister we couldn’t help but break into laughter. Not that quiet type of laughter but the boistorious one that makes people wonder if your laughing at them. It makes people ask questions that you can’t quite answer since the joke is most certainly on them. I live in a family of writers so it’s hard to develop your own process when you’re motivation has been your mom, your sister. You want to be like them but to write you have to find your own voice, become your own person. In writing for me at least there isn’t really a process it’s all about how i feel. Usually, though i turn on some music and get inspired by the melodic words and calming tunes. Nothing is quite as motivating or inspiring than turning on “The National,” and just starting to write something that I know, is going to be amazing. I think for me at least it’s important not to have a process if I did i feel like my writing would be generic and less passionate.

If I had to have the full path of a story in my head and an outline written, I'd never write anything beyond songs and Prose entries. My brain just doesn't work that way, putting it all together first. No, I generally get an idea first. Like, I may be on the bus and then a passenger causes me to think, "You know what would be a great idea for a story? A book about a bus passenger going ballistic and killing everyone on the bus." Then I'll have the title in about 3-4 mins, and shortly after that, maybe the main character's name, gender, description, and perhaps even a scene or two that I want to make sure to have. All of this gets written down in a notebad app on my phone. By the time I actually sit down to write, I've figured out the first scene, but little else. I just kind of wing it from the first word onward.

thought, random thoughts

still prompts

without scrolling, its own thought

thoughts , creativity of someone else

what is hidden behind.

sometime deep knowledge , sudden gush

particular interest

field yet to unfold.

random thoughts garlanded in petal forms

opening up one by one,

when needed to unfold taking its own space and form

when budded out as mature flower.

sometime broken here and there

petals folding and molded.

but those petals still have scent feeled

when just touched that may be

deep rooted inside also.

emotions, thoughts to deeply uproot

so echo can be made in dimed voice or sudden roar.

Most of my stories start with an idea. Doesn't everybody? Lately, a lot of my stories have been coming from dreams because, let's face it, your brain running unchecked usually comes up for some pretty good (and wacky) ideas.

Sometimes I have an outline for a story and sometimes I don't, it depends on how complicated the story is. I used to write out lines for every story I wrote but it took too long and I usually ended up changing half of what I had in mind.

Unlike a lot of writers I usually write multiple stories at the same time. For example, my dad (who was also a writer) can only write one story at a time, but a lot of writers have multiple stories going at the same time. That's how I am. I will write on the story consistently every week until I run out of ideas then I move on to something else. I also rotate what I work on every day and every week this also helps me come up with fresh ideas.

One of the things I found that has helped me the most is keeping track of my word count and how long I write every day. I keep track of how much I write every day, every week and every month; I tally how much I've written at the end of every month. This helps me keep track of how much I've written, the stories I'm working on and potentially what I can or cannot do in a particular period of time. The idea of keeping track of how much I write was suggested to me by my dad who uses it every day. I've been doing it for the past three years or so and have found it quite effective.

Most have a style they stick to.

Some spend hours, days, even weeks planning for the perfect story, outlines and incomplete drafts.

Mine is slightly more sporadic, a firework. There is no preparation, no previous thought process; it's a slap in the face, stars in my eyes.

It will come to me in seconds, and I have to rush to get it out before it escapes my mind. It can come every moment of the day, or once every few months, there is no telling when it will come to me. It's spontaneous and beautiful.

While driving, I always keep a notebook close by. I never know when a line, a phrase or an idea will come to me.

I often get up in the middle of the night to write. It is either a thought that comes to me in a dream or something I can’t forget. Or otherwise, I will be filled with regret.

My own genre is 90 percent verse poetry. Yet, unlike more creative writers here on the prose; my writing is either what I am seeing in the world, or an experience that I have had, and then I fictionalize.

Sometimes the editing can take longer than the write itself. Sometimes I have a story and no title or a title and no story.

I ‘always’ have more than one version of the same title.

I lack when it comes to pure fiction. Therefore, I am working on that. The prose has helped me a lot. I never used to write dark or remotely sensual, but the challenges have taken me places I never knew.

With much help and encouragement from prose mentors. Some, younger and some older than myself.

Writing for over 3 decades, and I am still learning.

“Every piece, I feel as though I concieved alone and gave birth to.”

The above quote is from my story “One Of My Own”

As exiting as it was, selling the copyright to one of my own poems to an independent film maker, it was also extremely difficult for me.

I felt like I was giving up one of my own children. If that sounds ridiculous to anyone? That is ok.

These writes are extensions of myself. Yes! Of course I want to share and I will continue to do that, but it was a very wise Mr. @Danceinsilence, here on the prose that said to me, “Benz, it sounds like “Dreaded Fall” is where it needs to be.” He was right:)

I hope this helps you in someway-

Thank you for asking :)

Benz

By Benz Copyright © 2019