> > The only other thing I have to say on the subject is that I have been thinking about trying my hand at writing something longer. Unfortunately, my other pieces were a story where I knew the end before I wrote it, one where I made it up as I went but had a logical conclusion in mind, and two which are unfinished becuase I couldn't keep them flowing the way I would have liked. This leads me to believe the things I was taught in grade six about writing-- It's a good idea to have a plot worked out in advance. Making up 50,000 words of story as you go is not feasible. I plan to check out Dave's Somewhat Complete SF/F Writers' Internet Resources to see what I can find there, but other than that, I welcome any suggestions from more experienced writers. What are your thoughts on lengthy stories and how do you go about planning/writing them?
> >
> > That's all for now.
> >
> > Don "Seeker of Knowledge" Monkey
>
> I haven't written some *very* long stuff, but a story for kids in four episodes (the story, not the kids) for a magazine I used to work for earlier. I wrote the story together with my (ex) girlfriend, and we worked out a coarse synopsis first, then made more detailed ones for each episode, including rough sketches of the house (with crypt underneath) the kids in the story were exploring. Once the plot/synopsis and surroundings were in place, writing was very easy! But planning is just as much work as writing, especially if you have more than just a few characters in your story.
>
> That's how I'd do it in the future, too. I find that having everything planned out before I start writing really liberates me when it comes to the actual writing.
>
> Trav"giver of the little knowledge he has"holt.

Cool. That seems obvious, reading it, but somehow your description of the process makes the idea of planning work a little better for me. I'll have to give it a try...

Don "Receiver of Knowledge" Monkey