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   Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 19:38:18 JST Charlie Stross

   #WritersCoffeeClub 11/24—What's the most challenging part of the writing process for you?

   Ideas are easy. Openings are easy(ish). But in a novel there is a stage about 10-20% of the way in when you've hacked through the opening and suddenly you need story development/plot. And I'm an inveterate pantser.

   Long walks and much swearing generally ensue at this point.

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     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 19:57:48 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Oggie

     @Oggie That's actually what I do, but there's a lot of pain involved in not knowing how to continue it!

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     Oggie (oggie@woof.group)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 19:57:49 JST Oggie

     in reply to

     @cstross Preface: Not offering advice, but I feel like you 'tried this' so I'm curious why it didn't work-

     What is the downside of 'writing an opening', then 'oh this cool scene/interaction between these two characters' and temporally hopping around a bit, then stringing it together? Does it come off disjointed? Does it not mesh properly for you?

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     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 20:03:23 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Oggie

     @Oggie Programming is typically structured and you at least have a firm goal in mind: you can leave the low-level details for later. Novels, in contrast … if you're a pantser you write linearly from start to finish: an unspecified class or module is a complete road block—you can't see past it.

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     Oggie (oggie@woof.group)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 20:03:24 JST Oggie

     in reply to

     @cstross Entirely valid!

     I was just curious because that's how I work a lot when programming (NOT, typicaly, when writing) and just go 'okay I know stuff happens here but let's go do somethign else for a while' and let it cook in the backbrain.

     But my novel writing experience is...minimal, so I didn't know if it 'doesn't work' or wasn't a preference, or...well, you know.

     Thanks!