Welcome to my perfumed garden

I'm with snailbones; I'd love to know more about how you plan your stories (or even if you do!), especially as they're so long and I'm prepping to plan a long one myself. Do you write a detailed outline, know everything that is going to happen and when?

I’ve probably already answered your Q. in depth in my post to Snailbones! – See? I can’t even write an LJ post without it turning into an epic!

But, no, I don’t write a DETAILED outline; I have a vague idea where the story’s going to go – but I rarely know how it’s going to end. I sketch the ideas out, and fit them as best I can to a scene/chapter structure. Then, I detail the first couple of chapters – maybe to chapter three - and start writing. Usually, the story will take itself where it’s going to go and I adapt my overall plan as it does. For this reason, I never detail more than a couple of chapters in advance.

My stories are long – always have been, even when I wrote in other fandoms. I don’t know why, exactly, except that I love to develop characters, and the interaction between characters is very important to me. There are no supporting acts in my tales. I like to think the original characters in my stories are as rounded and recognizable as gen-oo-yne human beings as are Jim, Blair, Simon, Naomi etc.

And all that tends to take a lot of writing! - not that it can’t be done in a short tale. One of my favourite TS stories is the ones who love you best, by Crowswork, which is very short, but beautifully descriptive of both Lash and Blair. So, it can be done, just not by me! I need space, man!