[stylist] ?? character name changes and how I construct my stories

Mon Aug 17 23:26:10 UTC 2015

Nine times out of ten, my stories are inspired by a dream I had. Both with fiction and nonfiction. My dreams are so frequent, vivid and often bizarre, that I have a lot of fodder for stories. I dream nightly, and they tend to stay with me, so I don't often forget them. Maybe the lucid dreaming has something to do with this. But often that's a starting place for me. I will take a character or situation from a dream and start to create a history from there. Sometimes, a story comes out of it, other times, not so much. Like Shelly, the stuff that does not come to fruition is often used elsewhere. Especially with characters. One character, in particular, has been the star of many an idea of mine. I have yet to write a full-length manuscript though, sticking to the short story format. The most I've written have been about 50 pages of a short story, but it's usually more like 25 pages. I was trained in short story writing, so an entire full-length seems daunting, and sometimes, I feel I accomplish more in a short length, personally, than if I expanded.

BTW, place holder names is a common practice for many writers. Like Chris I tend to go with the first name that pops in my head, but if it's not right, I can't go on without having the right name. For me, it's not organic to create story if I don't have the name. Not sure why, but my writing process tends to be very different from most. Different strokes, right? Grin

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Shelley Alongi via stylist
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2015 6:15 PM
To: Writers' Division Mailing List <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Shelley Alongi <salongi712 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [stylist] 😊 character name changes and how I construct my stories

shelley Queen of Bells out Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 17, 2015, at 6:07 PM, Shelley Alongi via stylist <stylist at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Here is how I write my story is just for some information. I usually 
> will sit down with a particular ending in mind. I choose a placeholder 
> name I like that phrase can't reset it. I think it was Bridget. And I 
> work with that and I just right. I start with a kind of beginning 
> sometimes in clear ideas and sometimes in confusing ideas. I just put 
> everything on paper. Then, I decide what I like and what I don't like 
> and which ideas work for me. Sometimes in the middle of all this I 
> come up with a better ending. It's kind of interesting if I have to 
> think about what I write it's harder to get it on paper. But, if I 
> just run with an idea and type it sort of with my eyes closed, say, 
> then I look up and say oh I like that. And, sometimes what I do once I 
> get the idea in my head as I will find a place to daydream and then I 
> can flush out my characters or give them better things to say or do. 
> Dialogue is interesting. When constructing dialogue I just write down 
> whatever comes into my Head whether it sounds like a good idea or not. 
> It might be something small. Then, when I go back I sort out the 
> dialogue and say I don't like them or out they don't need to say that 
> here or this is just extraneous. It's kind of like taking a container 
> full of blocks dumping it on the floor and sorting them that was kind 
> of how I write :-) and then in the middle of all that to get back to 
> the original point, sometimes the character names change. It looks 
> kind of confusing when you read it but it's not :-) and, I'm usually 
> very happy with the ending. But, if I don't have an ending to start 
> with and then I can't start the process at all so I usually start with 
> an ending with the idea and the knowledge that it might very well 
> change. Kind of how I live my life start with one idea and on the way 
> to achieving it to you something completely different
> 
> So, that's why I asked about name changes. I usually will change at 
> least one name. In this instance when I really working on this book, 
> and I have people who have inspired me to finish it, and now I've 
> assembled a team of people to help me make sure it's a better Book, I 
> was a little hesitant about name changes but I really think they will 
> be for the best and I will end up with better characters. Besides, I 
> kind of like the ring of my character with his new name first middle 
> and last. It's like my baby. Now let's not start that because I don't 
> know how anybody comes up the baby names and keep them the same :-)
> 
> shelley Queen of Bells out Sent from my iPhone 
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> o.com and then, just a couple of more things. When my story starts to 
> take shape as I am daydreaming and getting images in my head and 
> sorting them then I start doing research. And so sometimes when I end 
> up with is the story with all these leftover ideas. And all this 
> leftover information. Then what I do is I take all that information 
> put it in a file somewhere and say oh that might work better in 
> another story. So there's never any waste :-)

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