So, the idea of this post popped in my head when Giannis asked me about a comment I made on using Google Docs, but I figured it made more sense as it’s own blog post than just a response.
What is my normal process for bringing a story from idea to completion?
Well … let’s say a story idea pops up, I create a Google Doc that contains the following information:
“Synopsis:
Type (of fight):
Notes:
Ending/Winner:
Visual Reference:”
Then, after I have filled out that little questionnaire, assuming I have enough information nailed down to do so, I set myself to finding models. Models that match the characters I see in my head. Though sometimes the idea comes from models I have found to be a perfect match for one another.
Once I have them, I try to make an edit (which you’ve all seen before, and yet still I have inserted one here for those who may have missed my work entirely). The edit usually contains the rivals and then images of either where the story takes place, or parts of the story I find important.
After that has been created and added to the doc, I usually leave the story for a day, a week, a month, or even longer. In that absence, and while I am in the shower or laying in bed, I try to imagine the fight and the story playing out from its introduction, as far as I can — even to its conclusion.
Sometimes, I can leave a story unwritten but imagined until I have figured out the entire tale. But often, some particular scene will be so good (at least in my own mind) that I have to write it, even if after having put it down, I again step away from the story to imagine more.
Eventually, those sessions lead the story to either being finished, or abandoned, if I reach an impasse of idea I cannot get around. Which happens often. I prepare to write a story, love that story and the idea behind it, but then reach a point where I cannot figure out how to continue it.
I have a story about Amber and Jennifer from War on the 85th Floor fighting a maid together, that I wrote in part and then gave up on, because it just wasn’t something I liked, the deeper into the story I moved.
Luckily, I have sooo many stories planned that I could drop half of them and still have more than I could possibly finish.
But that’s the best problem in the world to have. Infinite possibilities and a lifetime of writing.
