The Crowd Inside my Head
Jul. 27th, 2021 12:20 pmI had a bit of a realization yesterday after reading a post by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tuzemi and responding to it.
Writers are thought to be solitary creatures, and for good reason. Writing is done with a writer and some form of technology to record the creation. Even collaborations tend to involve folks writing independently and passing on what they've done to be integrated or reacted to. There are a lot of writers who tend to introversion, and that's understandable, because introverts tend to do their best thinking away from a group.
The classic definition of the difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that introverts are drained by being around other people, especially groups, while extroverts are energized in multiple people situations. Watch this at brainstorming sessions as the extroverts toss ideas around and synthesize things to forge new ideas and approaches while the introverts are writing down as much as they can. The later emails and ideas will come more from the introverts who come up with their ideas away from the others.
I'm extroverted. According to the Meyers-Briggs and other derivative tests and other personality tests that measure this axis I'm very extroverted. So how can I keep my sanity sitting in front of my computer for hours a day, typing to a turned off screen?
A brief digression -- it's applicable to this discussion. There are two major types of stories, plot driven stories and situational stories. A plot driven story starts with something like an outline, and the author knows how it'll start, the major beats and plot reveals, and how it'll end. I've done this a couple of times, and it makes it possible to do a lot of controlled theme development and make sure Chekhov's Law is followed without having to fix slipped details in later drafts. Situational stories are very different, the author posits a situation and runs with it, letting the story evolve as it moves along. Some situations I've worked with in the past are "What happens when a tween transgirl who's running from a string of bad foster homes gets taken in by a couple who turn out to be modern day wizards?", "What are the real world effects of something almost everyone has said about wishing they knew in high school what they know now?", and "What's high school like for a rising volleyball star when the virtual school's diversity awareness program shuts off her visual input for her senior year?" Then the stories run from there, the situations and characters creating the tale.
I like to write fully formed characters, with their own motivations and assumptions. So often they wind up directing the story by how they react to the situations that evolve from prior situations or their actions. And at some point in the writing the ending becomes known to me and I can work to get there and conclude the story. my last novel managed to do that at a pinch over a thousand pages, so it can go long and deep. And this is the key I was missing. These characters are people. Not ones who walk around in the outside world, but they walk around inside my head. And to get the story written I interact with them, get to know them, and hear what they say and do. This seems to fill my need for some interaction. (I still want other social interactions, of course, because this can do only so much)
It's an interesting realization. And it explains why a huge majority of my work is situational instead of plot driven.
Nyyki (she/her/Miss)
tuzemi and responding to it.Writers are thought to be solitary creatures, and for good reason. Writing is done with a writer and some form of technology to record the creation. Even collaborations tend to involve folks writing independently and passing on what they've done to be integrated or reacted to. There are a lot of writers who tend to introversion, and that's understandable, because introverts tend to do their best thinking away from a group.
The classic definition of the difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that introverts are drained by being around other people, especially groups, while extroverts are energized in multiple people situations. Watch this at brainstorming sessions as the extroverts toss ideas around and synthesize things to forge new ideas and approaches while the introverts are writing down as much as they can. The later emails and ideas will come more from the introverts who come up with their ideas away from the others.
I'm extroverted. According to the Meyers-Briggs and other derivative tests and other personality tests that measure this axis I'm very extroverted. So how can I keep my sanity sitting in front of my computer for hours a day, typing to a turned off screen?
A brief digression -- it's applicable to this discussion. There are two major types of stories, plot driven stories and situational stories. A plot driven story starts with something like an outline, and the author knows how it'll start, the major beats and plot reveals, and how it'll end. I've done this a couple of times, and it makes it possible to do a lot of controlled theme development and make sure Chekhov's Law is followed without having to fix slipped details in later drafts. Situational stories are very different, the author posits a situation and runs with it, letting the story evolve as it moves along. Some situations I've worked with in the past are "What happens when a tween transgirl who's running from a string of bad foster homes gets taken in by a couple who turn out to be modern day wizards?", "What are the real world effects of something almost everyone has said about wishing they knew in high school what they know now?", and "What's high school like for a rising volleyball star when the virtual school's diversity awareness program shuts off her visual input for her senior year?" Then the stories run from there, the situations and characters creating the tale.
I like to write fully formed characters, with their own motivations and assumptions. So often they wind up directing the story by how they react to the situations that evolve from prior situations or their actions. And at some point in the writing the ending becomes known to me and I can work to get there and conclude the story. my last novel managed to do that at a pinch over a thousand pages, so it can go long and deep. And this is the key I was missing. These characters are people. Not ones who walk around in the outside world, but they walk around inside my head. And to get the story written I interact with them, get to know them, and hear what they say and do. This seems to fill my need for some interaction. (I still want other social interactions, of course, because this can do only so much)
It's an interesting realization. And it explains why a huge majority of my work is situational instead of plot driven.
Nyyki (she/her/Miss)
