okay, you know those bam, bam, bam ideas I got a few weeks ago? Well I started one them after getting over my Fear of First Page (tm). So I wrote the first chapter, and rewrote it…and finally on the third try came up with a real live keep it chapter.
This story is so weird. I know what’s happening with the plot…most of the way through. But I couldn’t nail the GMC. Of either the hero or the heroine…:shock: Not the best way to start a story. So I was beginning to panic. I mean…would these people PLEASE talk to me :secret: and tell me what they wanted??
So in an effort to keep myself sane…I retreated to the bathtub :bath: of course. I do my best plotting there. So I leaf through a magazine (I’ve noticed that helps) and then BAM. :mad2: I figured out the GMC for both the hero and heroine. Backstory. Why they wanted what they wanted. Why they couldn’t have it. Secrets from the past. It was so obvious…why didn’t I think of it myself?? 🙄
I jumped out of the tub and rushed to the computer and did a two page mind dump of everything I had thought of in the tub. You know, I case my mind like a steel trap (get serious! 
)didn’t cooperate for long.
So have you ever started into a story where you have a vague idea where you’re going, some major points, how it going to end…but no idea of the GMC?? :crazy2: Trust me, it’s not for the faint of heart.
What’s the craziest way you’ve started or plotted a book?
PS…I’m STILL not totally convinced I have the right name for my her0ine…
YAY on that :bath: soak coming through for you! The craziest way I’ve started a book. . . Well, I was having trouble figuring something out so I walked away and as I passed the TV room an episode of X-files was on. It was episode I liked so I went on downstairs thinging about Skully and Mulder and did the dishes and ran a scene over in my mind from the show. One that was completely irrelevant but BAM, it unblocked me and I got my problem solved.
Nope writing by the seat of your pants is not for the faint of heart. I try not to do it, I really do, but it always happens …
I tend to start all of my books the same way. Seat of the pants. Then I stop and rewrite the three chapters until I have a grip on them…write two more chapters…stop and realize that the first three are all wrong…rinse and repeat. :book:
That is how I always start a book, LOL!
My current ms came out of a dream I had. When I started, I had no idea about the GMC for either the hero or the heroine. I figured some stuff out, but it wasn’t till I actually finished the entire ms, during which the characters revealed stuff about themselves, that I nailed their GMC.
Writing is the toughest thing I’ve ever done. Keep struggling–that’s what I do.
Seat of the pants seems to be my general modus operandi.
GMCs always come alive last for me, very frustrating!! :mad2:
My stories are usually way too planned out before I start writing. Or else I start with one GMC and figure out 4/5 through the book, oops, wrong GMC. :cursing:
I try to be a plotter, but it doesn’t exactly work. And trying to be a pantser scares the pants off me.
What’s your heroine’s name. Want some help?
Sounds like how I do it… sometimes threatening to blow them up helps.