One Scene..Build Around It

[AnnMarie]

Has this ever happened to you? You're just sitting around, maybe watching TV or reading or gardening, when ONE SCENE from a story will just play itself in your mind, and you HAVE to write it down?

Then you have to go back and work it into a storyline....

[glainfach]

All the time! Sometimes the urge is so compelling that I will put down the book and not get back to the original story for days. What is even stranger is when the scene hits you days or weeks after reading the story. Then I often have to go back to the source material and read it all over again just to establish some context.

These random scenes tend to rot on my hard disk until something else comes along that fits with them and suggests a storyline. Otherwise the best parts of them eventually wind up being written into other stories.

It's always satisfying to put one of these into a story, but nothing beats that first initial rush of inspiration that causes you to write them down in the first place!

[Monkeysrule]

YES!!!! All the time!!!

[Tabra]

Yes and no. Yes it happens all the time, so my brain feel like a sieve of ideas. But no, I don't have to write them down. I have to let them simmer in my brain until a storyline comes along to join in. If it doesn't, the idea usually fades away, to be replaced by others. I can't stand having scenes I don't use, so if I can't use them, I don't try.

[queenrider melody]

Just now, actually! I was looking at some posts on the Southern Weyr forum, and I got a single scene for a story! Now I'm going to have to write it down.

[Vyon]

Yes, it's how most of my stories start. It can be inconvenient if the scene is at the end of the story and I have to figure out how they got there.

[Keita]

Oh yes! All the time! Most of my stories start out that way, then they evolve from there. In some cases, the oroginal scene that started the story isn't even in it any more or have been changed and twisted beyond recognition.

Once, what I though was two seperate stories (started from 2 seperate scenes) turned out to be different parts of the same story. The elements that were missing from the one could be found in the other, so I merged them...and I didn't even have to adapt my map! :D