I want to write some fiction-buit writting is painful to me.

Don't write anything for a couple of weeks.

Get to know the character/s that are roaming around in your head.

After you have a good handle on at least one solid character--imagine or contrive situations they would get into. Then, start writing. If your character development is strong, the character may move through the story independantly--and you just sort of chronicle it.

Of course, there are practically almost as many methods as there are people...

Some stories are plot driven. My method is for character-driven stories.

The first rule is, write about what you know and are interested in. An outline is not necessary, but you should know in advance as nearly as possible where it will lead you. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Sometimes a character will begin to move independantly of my chosen story line. Sometimes I go with that, but I have a few times ejected that character from the story and invented one better suited to my original vision. I suggest writing sketches of folks you know at first. Then perhaps take a favorite tale and put a new twist to it using your own characters.

Trouble for farmerman is he knows too much...

Farmer, my view is just write and write - it might be that the third draft and ninth that are keepers, or even the twenty second. Save all drafts.

shut up and write (I say in the kindest way).

Your intelligence and sense of life will work out in stories.. just get them down, and then, after a bunch are sitting out there in typewrite, you can start to zero in.

I keeep a notebook with artt ideas and the back half is story lines. Ive writtten down a hundred at least. They favor tthe weird aand fantasy-based twists of the rules of science. i got the first urges after reading THE DaVINCI CODE and I realized that I could write a story better than that. It was so obvious that the plot quirks were telegraphed waay up front.

I have a story about Creationism being bolstered by a series of finds , Another about a coincident universe at a point where a new hiqhway is planned to be built.

I said to ci once that, because I do alot of techn ical writing, I get so revved up to try fiction since techy writing is boring but Im well experienced at making cases and proving on evidence so I have some skills . Im just afeared of committing.

osso, Ive tried the "just shut up and write" I used to write nature articles for a paper and was aqlways asked to cut em down . I have to learn how to be concise and witty

lash-i like that familiarity with the character approach. I can see some of my stories being told from a characters POV. How about if the main character is a road? I have a story idea about these memorial crosses we all see on sides of hiways. I was thinking a story like The Bridges of Toko-Ri where the lives of ttotally unrelated characters meet at a single point

One wise person advised me this way: "Don't be afraid to be bad." Just write it. Then through rewriting and experience gained you can make it good or at least lay a groundwork for better writing projects.

You can always edit later. What might be best is, just to get started, write about a typical day in the life of farmerman, or, write about the life of farmerman in general, covering all the ups and downs. It may not be interesting to you, but the reader might find it fascinating. You should always start with "you", then hone your craft to cover all the ideas you have been writing down. You could even make yourself a 'fictional' character. Characters are always an exstension of ourselves, for better or worse. That's where the inspiration comes from.

Comment on all the things that go through your head while you work, observations, emotions, reflections on the past, thoughts of the future, etc. It might be a good motivating exercise, and if you don't finish it and post it here, we'll have to kill you. The main thing is, just write it down. Who do you know better than yourself?

farmerman-- Wow on the idea of the memorial crosses and 'meeting at one point'... and the road narrator.

You could really do something with that. Hope you'll keep us posted.

thanks for all your ideas and help. Yeh edgar, Im a student of rewrite and editing but its aalways getting LONGER. I write too much from a passive voice and , I think that it sucks, but its been drummed into me in geology literature.

cav, after the holiday, Ill put something up. Itll be as dead as roadkill, but I guess its worth thr try.
Lash, The road cross memorials are such sad testimonies to lives that were snuffed in a car. We have a country road called rt 472 which goes from Lancaster Pa to the Md border. on that 35 mile stretch are no less than 27 crosses and memorilas. Ive often stopped to read about the people who died there and its mostly kids or whole families and kids. Some are forgotten from the yeaars passing and the memorial patron has moved on with their life and tthen there are the sad memorials full of flowers and teddy bears and initials carved into the tree that the kid hit while driving at warp speed. Id like to have all these people meet , hosted by a road that is required by natural law to ovesee their spiitual welfare cause they are all aerth bound . its kind of hokey but Ill bet it could be stoked up a bit.

The concept of rewriing is something that Im used to happening from tech editors and peer review boards.

Dynamic action sentences. Boldness. Color. Some good writers are long-winded and some concise. Who's to say which is the best? Compare Dickens with Hemingway. The long-winded guy is the best.

....I wonder...?

I see the road like a well-seasoned character, but not too wordy. Sort of a free-spirit--been everywhere, seen everything--maybe world weary. There's a lot you can do with that.
He's seen a million stories...type thing.

You know, I hear dys when I think of the road character.

He's not a 'flowery' writer. But, you are the one who will find the voice.

Anyway--for what its worth--it sounds like a great project. I see those signs/crosses/funeral home arrangements on the side of the road all the time. I drive 35 miles to school 5x week--and there are a few of these sites. One is so sad. Three small white crosses in a little group. I've never gotten out and looked before. I will now.

A different one is a bigger white cross that has the date calliographed across the horizontal beam of the cross. 12/27---I can't think of the year. Guess that anniversary is coming up for someone...

tThe back-story for tthe road is a briief one, tthat it was been built at a time that tried not mess witth propertty rightts, so tthere are a lot of sharp tturns that skirt farm boundaries. many people travel tthese turns entirely too fast and the result is an ever growing collection of these crosses. Seems like only Christians drive like as*holes.

I did the same thing, drove that road for years and never much paid attention to the crosses. One day, there was another accident , right in front of an old cross. Tthe result was a brand new additional cross.
"Hi there, Im Jimmy, care if my family makes a litle memorial next to yours?"
Ill work on this one first cause I think Ive just got the "why bother" out of the way.

<smiles>

Now that you've decided, don't let go of it til your done.