[MUD-Dev] Re: BUILDERS: Ferries

[coder at ibm.net]

On 07/12/97 at 07:48 PM, Mike Sellers <mike at online-alchemy.com> said:

>FWIW, various authors including Tolkein, Eddings, and O.S. Card have
>talked about how they started with a map, and built their histories and
>peoples (and eventually stories) on top of it.  I think this makes a lot
>of sense. Eddings also said in a recent article that it took him almost
>two years to do all that for the Belgariad/Mallorean stories, but now he
>has the process down to about six weeks. :-)  

I spent minor time making my living as a writer (SF&F shorts mostly), and
did my share of reading on the techniques of writing, and the methods used
by various writers.

I can't offer hard stats, but my rough feel is that for every successful
author who lovingly plans his world, and pre-crafts his plot before
setting pen to paper, there is at least one more writer, and probably two,
who start with a blank sheet of paper and their equivalent of, "It was a
dark and stormy night..."

Yes, there are writers who plan everything to death, who refine the entire
world, the plot of the text, the characters, the dialogue etc all before
writing a single sentence that will make it into the final text.  There
are also those who never do any of that, as well as those who keep penned
notes to the side of the current state their world has evolved to (usually
with a sense of mild wonder).

Don't sell yourself on any of the base techniques.  They are tools.  They
work well for some, and not for others.  

Me?  

If I plan, I never do, which meant a lean wallet back then.  If I start
out with that "dark and stormy night", I'll often do, and come out liking
the results and getting a cheque in the mail.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
----------(*)                              Internet: coder at ibm.net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...