A bird is screaming at me outside my window, which is totally random and unconnected to the subject at hand. Or maybe it is connected, somewhere in that mass of muscle known as the brain.
Accessing the subconscious, part 2
In any creative endeavor there are a number of steps that need to be taken. These do not always take place in the same order.
Invention or idea
Arrangement (beginning, middle, end)
Style (Combination of choice and variation)
Memory (how you keep everything organized)
Delivery (How you get your message to an audience.
An inventor comes up with an idea. He works it out on paper (memory), creates prototypes (arrangement) creates a package or a sales pitch (delivery) which includes images and perhaps a marketing plan (style) and presents it to a team who may be willing to back the production (delivery). The marketing team goes through a similar process.
As writers, the idea does not always come first. The order in which these things happen is going to depend largely on how this person writes. I usually get a flash, a piece of a scene, maybe a line of dialogue and work from there. Others extensively outline (memory) and have idea, arrangement, and delivery planned out before they write a single word.
Still others may write a scene here, a scene there, a connecting bit of dialogue, all of it out of order until they finally organize it into their final product. Since my writing is very organic, with one scene following another in logical sequence, I seldom change arrangement after the initial draft. Other writers will shift chapters around, work in alternative chapters or scenes so that the sequence works for them.
Every writer has their own way of writing, and most times one writer's method will not work for another. Like a painter or a sculptor, each writer will find their own method, their own path, and the finished product will be something that could only come from that writer's mind or imagination.
How does your writing fit in this framework? Which step do you take first?
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