I have a bit, a chunk, a nugget of something that may turn into a story.

I'm not writing yet. I'm brewing it up first. Turning it over and over in my mind, trying to figure out what the story actually is. The shape of it. Who the MC is. What POV to use. When to start. That sort of thing.

I know it probably varies from person to person and story to story, but what I'd like to know is: how do you know when you've found something viable? Is it just a case of write and see, or can you tell in advance when something has or hasn't got legs?

Hi there.

Ideas flash into my mind all the time and each and every one seduces me.
How I sort between the runners and what I think of as my sparkles ( shiny and attractive but ultimately without substance) is by planning.

I begin by writing a detailed plan of what might happen in the story. This will tell me if it has legs. If the story defends itself against a plan it's a sparkle. If a story plans itself then it's a runner. It may not even stick to the plan in the long run but that doesn't matter.

Another method I use is the ever increasing description. So I put my idea in a sentence or two. The concept if you like. Then I expand it a few paras, then a page or so. If it refuses to be expanded, it's a sparkle.

That's how I do it anyway...
HBx

When I get an idea I rough out a plan, very briefly. Maybe just a paragraph, so I know what the characters want and how they go about getting it - what the point is. Then I spiral off from there, making notes, writing down details, fleshingh things out. Sometimes the point changes as I write. I quite often find out half way through that I'm stuck, or it's a no-goer. Or even after I've finished writing. I don't think there are always problems with the idea, though, more like how I'd approached it.

I've been thinking really hard about this, and I absolutely haven't a clue, except to say, unhelpfully, that I just know whether it'll work.

I don't think I think in a positive way about ideas, if you see what I mean. I don't sit down, mentally, and work it out. It's just that the ones which have mileage are the ones which stay around, and the others get jotted down in my notebook but then forgotten - I'm always amazed, if I have to look back, to see the fascinating ideas which never grew. With an idea for a novel, they might have a year or so, just knocking around in my head and deciding for themselves what they need - it really does feel that passive, though I'm sure it's not really.

The other thing with novels is that if the idea couldn't sustain a novel on its own, it may be a matter of weaving in another strand, rather than abandoning the idea all together.

Emma

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Even that passive process, though, depends on what aspect of the story-in-waiting arrived first. If it started with the MC, then that's not a decision I had to take. If it started as a genre then location, MC etc. do need working out a bit more.

I think what I'm saying is that that I don't think I'm working out an idea, because I'm doing that all the time that I'm conscious.

What I have is a very small snippet. One tiny moment. But it opens out in so many possible ways, and I'm not sure how to choose between them.

There are three characters (one of whom is dead, but probably still counts). There's also an unspecified-but-large-ish chunk of time alluded to, into which I could pour all sorts of events...

The other day I plotted out the bare bones of one version. Lots of abuse/violence/revenge - nasty but juicy. No ending yet, mind.

After leaving it stewing in my head another day I can just as easily see another story forming itself. Different MC, different time, different story. Not plotted out yet but it feels lighter. Magical thinking and oddments. Like flipping the switch from dark to dippy. But still a bit dark under the surface.

Now that I think of it, maybe typing this is helping to clear things up. Number two sounds quite good, doesn't it?

maybe typing this is helping to clear things up.

See? Once you've seen what you've said, you know what you think.

Or shove 'em in all together, and call it a novel...

Emma

<Added>

In fact, you've just discovered one of the chief values of WW - by the time you've read all the replies to your question, and started responding, your head clears and you realise you know the answer...

It varies, although I have learnt the important of having an ending to aim for, otherwise it just peters out.
It is nice starting with a set of 'what ifs' and then extraopolate the story from there.
I don't like to plot it too tightly as that takes the fun out of writing.

I don't like to plot it too tightly as that takes the fun out of writing.

I know this is the accepted wisdom for writing longer pieces, but I'm not sure how far I go along with it, personally. I have to plot serials quite tightly including a "cliffhanger" at the end of each episode. It might be flat and linear on the page as you lay down the bare bones of the story but the excitement comes in manipulating the plot so you come at the real story from unexpected directions. And then the relationships only really take off off as you start writing too. As well as the flat "and then, and then, and then" there's the language and the voices to work at too.

I don't plan short stories much but I do tend to do a lot of editing as I go along.

I just mean I don't want to know exactly what happens next and have to follow a strict story outline as I'm writing.

I always just begin with a tiny nugget of an idea - some characters and an initial conflict - and then write and see where it takes me. It's the only way I know how to work. But it's not a great recipe for success - I've had as many books end in the drawer as get anywhere!

Good luck!

Rosy x

Like most aspects of writing, I've found that for me it's a combination of gut instinct and graft. If the former wanes as the latter is prolonged, then it's probably a non-starter.

What I do find irritating is to look back on three or four thousand words and realise it's all pointless head rattle. But you don't know unless you do the spade work.

Exactly Turner - and I think that's where many novice writers come unstuck. They think they have to get it right straight away. I think that's some hangover from when we were at school and we had to write stories within a certain time and hand it in when the time was up. Time is never up when you're creating.

I hear ya, Turner.
I'm pathologically opposed to wasting time, which is why I test the waters with a plan. It may actually take as long as some who just start the thing and see, but it feels less wasteful, to me at least.
The thought of discovering a project just doesn't work, half way through, makes me shudder. But that may be because my work is always front loaded, so once I get to the writing part, I'm seriously on the home straight.
HBx