How to put your thoughts to words?

[Syn]

First of all, I went to first seven pages of this section and haven't found any topic like this and I'm sorry if I missed one, I didn't mean to do that and make a double topic about this.

Anyway, I was wondering how do you put your thoughts into words? It doesn't have to be pure story writing, it can even be just writing notes for a story. But how do you do it?

Let me give an example of my own troubles with it.

I'm writing a fantasy story which has magic. I still don't have any (or most) details about the story and magic figured out, so I still think about all that and what should I do next. And I had to write a battle scene which featured magic, so I had to think harder of how I wanted magic to be. I didn't want to just use the out of nowhere fireball type of things, rather I wanted to give it at least SOME dose of sense.

So I did write something, but it ended up urging me to think a bit more about how it all should work. And I can't really force myself to be creative so I just let it be for a while. I usually try to think about the story before I go to bed. It both helps me to pass the time until I fall asleep and sometimes I come up with something good since I can think about it uninterrupted.

But this is where the problem comes in.

For this particular story, I wanted to have a character explain to another character how basics of magic work. It fits well in the story that way. And when I was thinking about it, I had this wonderful speech I wanted him to do, explaining it so well, and yet so simple.

But when I try to write that down, I just can't. It doesn't matter that I thought about it so vividly mere minutes or even seconds before, I forget most of the exact phrases and I end up with something really weak stuff and missing most of the points I wanted to make in the first place. It's like my mind works much faster than I can follow with my typing so it just ends up spilling all over the place.

How do you deal with that? How do you transform long thoughts into words without losing phrasing quality while focusing on the part you're writing?

I guess another extension of this question would be, say you think of a scene that needs to happen later in the story, and there are still some variables missing so you just want to write a note as a reminder of what needs to happen, but you also want to capture and be able to remember a certain feel and some visual or even dialogue details about the scene. So how do you do that?

I guess this comes down to anything, really, where you want to write something while you're doing something else, and you think about writing it and you get this great speech and wonderful writing in your mind, and when you have to write it down, you forget it all.

I don't know if any of you have such problems, but I do.
So I was wondering what are your thoughts and suggestions on the matter.

(Sorry for the long post)

[The Enchanted Muggle]

Stream of conciousness?
Word vomit?

I've had the same thing happen to me and I just open a new word document and write down bits and pieces. Stream of conciousnes. Write down everything you're thinking about. Whenever you think or something new later on, go back to the document and blast everything down. Doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense or if it has tons of mistakes. You can always go back and rework and redraft it.

I don't know about you but sometimes I write the middle of the story first, if I have enough energy for it. I would write the scene before I go back to where I was. Maybe this is a bad thing to do but you know, it works. Sometimes.

Also, may I suggest recording yourself? xD It would definitely help if you have too many things going on in your head. Just open a recording program on your computer. It's easier if you're speaking it rather than writing it down, I think.

Another thing I think would help: take writing exercises and do them according to the ideas you have for your stories. I tried that and it helped me realize that a character wasn't right for the one story I had him in.

I don't know how much of this will be helpful to you but I wish you luck in your writing!!

[Dabs]

Well, remember that you can always go back and edit. So, take those few points that feel weak and just edit them one at a time whenever you feel the inspiration. That way you'll be able to dump all that creative energy on something relatively small and, perhaps, turn it into something much more vivid.

[Julian]

I'll help you, tomorrow.

Meanwhile, somebody move this to the Writing Q&A directory.

Edit:

I think that you are trying to hard. Stop focusing on the prose in your first drafts, because, believe me, first drafts are meant to be bad. This took a while for me to realise, but disregard all thoughts leeching your creativity.

Also, in the chatroom we hold 'word wars'. It is the maximum output of words in a limited amount of time (.eg 15 minutes with as much words as possible); grammar and syntax don't need to be followed. You can always try doing similar as this. In fact, it is known that when our time is constrained, we produce more efficiently, hence as to why tests are timed.

Another thing is to brainstorm. Indeed, you told us you have the words, the idea; if so, why not why not put words associated to your idea? Vernaculars, jargons, colours, objects, etc are good ways to create a concrete image, and thus create a setting where your characters will breathe (fig. or lit. or both).

Finally, do note that transitions are everything to the creation of a story or of a plot. Indeed, without this, you will perpetually abide by the classic features of structured storytelling, and nobody wants cliché. here. You know that very well. So back to the subject, if you want to connect two idea, you need a transition. Obvious right?

An example, you want to connect a vampire and a fairy, then... why not make them lovers? or enemies? or siblings? An endless number of possibilities.

So, if you master the art of making transitions, you can virtually start the novel at any part, in the first draft. Whether it'd be the middle, the climax, whatever.

As for capturing the 'emotion'... In my opinion, this comes in the second or later drafts simply because of the prose's active participation in this. Indeed, word choice is the key, as well as sentence structure. Capturing the emotion is never a hard thing. People [I] just make a fuss over it [so much fuss that the story becomes cheesy].

[Syn]

I don't know about you but sometimes I write the middle of the story first, if I have enough energy for it. I would write the scene before I go back to where I was. Maybe this is a bad thing to do but you know, it works. Sometimes.
I don't have anything against this, but I can't do it that way. I can only write some bare minimum so I don't forget about the scene, but I usually don't know the characters or the setting that well to write the entire scene. I probably SHOULD practice doing this more often, though.

Also, may I suggest recording yourself? xD It would definitely help if you have too many things going on in your head. Just open a recording program on your computer. It's easier if you're speaking it rather than writing it down, I think.
I've thought about it and I don't think it will be much different from writing because I think faster than I speak too xD
But I will probably have to at least try it, maybe it works. However, it raises some other issues, like me disliking to hear my voice and stuff like that hahahah.

Another thing I think would help: take writing exercises and do them according to the ideas you have for your stories. I tried that and it helped me realize that a character wasn't right for the one story I had him in.
This actually sounds like a very nice idea!! But can you elaborate a bit more? XD

Well, remember that you can always go back and edit. So, take those few points that feel weak and just edit them one at a time whenever you feel the inspiration. That way you'll be able to dump all that creative energy on something relatively small and, perhaps, turn it into something much more vivid.
Yeah, that's true. I guess writing a novel is not just about developing pure writing skills, rather some work ethic and organisational skills as well. Somehow, to me those are the harder ones to work on...
Meanwhile, somebody move this to the Writing Q&A directory.
Oi!! Sorry, I actually totally missed the Q and A section.
Must pay more attention!

[graystripe79]

What I do is carry around a small note book and pen. It's filled with story notes. The notes aren't in any order, but writing them down so that I can go back and see them/add on to the thought REALLY helps.

Sometimes I feel like Im just not getting a story part right, so I'll go into word and just type out the basic thought. Then, as I conintue to write the part, I find that my mind just spits out better ways of wording something. Before I know it, I'll have a page done. That may or may not work for you, but it's worth a shot, no?

Hope I helped some, and good luck!