ithildin | Mental Movie Making

When a story I'm writing finally clicks on, it pretty much becomes all I think about. Whether actively, or running in the background while I'm working on something else, it's there. Very often, I'll wake up in the morning with it in my thoughts. All consuming, you might say [g] Of course, that doesn't always help in the actual writing! Turning the movie in my head (because it really is just like I'm watching a movie) from visuals to words doesn't always come easy. And I always seem to forget the best bits of dialogue by the time I sit down to write!

Anyone else have similar experiences, or is it just me? And what are your experiences?

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yep, that's me too.

I have a writing notebook so if I think of something (I've even gotten out of bed) I write it down.

PS---I think about my writing when I'm driving (to and from work) as well as on my lunch breaks:)

I walk to work, and that's major fic pondering time!

The inside of my brain is a very strange place, where all the characters I write hang out with each other! I kid you not, it's crossover dimentia, and most of them are trying to kill each other half of the time.

Personally, I think it's because, deep down, I want to write a huge multi-verse fic in which everyone meets everyone, and these dark urges spawn dozens of little, baby crossover fics.

But it's all immaterial, coz all my muses are hanging out in a bar in Seattle, getting royally, drunk (they didn't invite me along, the b@astards)and plotting to kipnap the Petrelli Brothers

Because that's all I needed, another fandom :-P

That sounds about right [g]

Who the heck are the Petrelli Brothers?

Peter and Nathan Petrelli, from Heroes. I don't believe you watch it?

Ah! Okay, thanks. No, I don't so I wans't sure who her drunken party was trying to kidnap [g]

Meanwhile, in Seattle

Joe shook his head in bemusement, as he cracked open another bottle of Whiskey and placed it on the table before he sat down. He’d heard some idiotic plans hatched over a drink, in his time, but this was ridiculous.

“You know,” Methos said, smirking as he winked at Joe. “That just might work.”

“See I told ya, Sammy,” declared Dean, the elder of the Winchester boys, expansively. “The old man agrees with me. All we need is a rope –”

“A lasso,” Sam interrupted quietly, as he took another sip of his beer.

“Whatever,” Dean said. “You know what I’m sayin’…anyway, all we need is a lasso, a ship that can travel through time and space—”

“That would be me,” said the Doctor, who propped his converses on the edge of the table as he refilled his glass and then grinned through the bottom of it.

“Right you are, Doc,” Dean said, grinning. “And then, of course, we’d need a binding spell to keep good old Pete under control until we get him ‘round to our way of thinking—”

“Oh! Oh!” Willow bounced in her chair excitably. “That would be me!”

Dean clinked his glass with hers. “You’d better believe it,” he said

Methos threw Joe a knowing look. “A cunning plan,” he drawled. “Top marks for ingenuity…”

Joe snorted. “It’s the execution you’ll have to watch out for!”

“Execution!” Willow squeaked, jumping to her feet. “Who, what, where?”

“My case in point,” Joe said dryly….

ROTFL! [applauds]

*Twiddles cigar*

Why thank you, thank you very much.....

*blinks* Oh my. That is a rather fractious bunch to be cavorting around in your head.

Huh, you haven't even seen the ones that've already slumped under the table... *g*

I'd worry when they start making group visits to opium dens [g]

The stories I'm working on tend to take over my thought processes too. Which makes trying to work on more than one story difficult, if not down right crazy-making.

But I don't really have the movie in my head experience (although sometimes I wish I did). I just get audio, and if I'm really lucky, a few stills for storyboarding purposes. Great for writing dialogue, but not much else. And it makes certain types of scenes almost impossible to write.

But as most writers would probably agree, I think, when it works, it's a great feeling.

Hmmm.. that's interesting. I don't think I've ever had just the audio. It's always Cinerama with Dolby [g]

Even if I'm doing stuff like cleaning, cooking, or weeding my mint plants, I can have stuff running through the back of my brain. If I can't write something down either on here or on paper, I'll write a few key words to remind me of what I thought of until I can get to it.

Of course after not having written for ages and now having such a kind of bad attitude about it, I guess it doesn't much matter now. *g*

I've tried to at least get into the habit of writing down character names when I think of good ones. I always end up forgetting them!

I have a few websites still bookmarked for that and I have four baby names books for character names, plus I have sheets of paper stuck into a file folder marked Names. It's fairly thick, and some names I've had as long as fifteen years.

Sad, huh?

I have a movie in my head constantly. I used to do a lot of BTVS fics, so they usually included fight sequences. I had to see the stuff in my head to properly describe what was going on. I think that's why I always got so many great compliments on the action portions of those stories (and others which included it). It's also the reason I have so many descriptions of what people are doing while the dialogue is happening. Hand movements, the way they stand, how they either look at someone or avoid looking at them, etc. What happens in my mini-movie is what is transcribed to the page.

Oh how I wish seeing fight sequences actually translated to being able to write them! I absolutely suck at such things.

That used to happen for me. But not in awhile. Actually someone mentioned having a writing notebook and that sounds like a really good idea.

The dry spell will end eventually. Mine was three years long, so there's hope!

I know what you mean. I usually get an entire story/story idea sometime like three in the morning, and by a decent hour, it's all gone, or else if it's not gone, it seems so stupid by the light of day that I don't write it. Add to that that I'm a procrastinator and there you have it. I don't get as much written as I'd like.

I have my best story sessions right on the edge of sleep, that sometimes work there way into dreams. But like dreams, they tend to wisp away in the daylight

Yeah, stories do tend to take over. I don't really see them like a movie - it's more like the character comes into my brain and starts telling me all about it. More auditory, great for dialogue, not always so good for description.

This also explains why ALL of my stories are from a single POV. I've got no clue what the other characters are thinking. Sure, I can guess, but I'd rather be lazy and write what the Muse tells me.

I walk/bus to work, and get a lot of ideas when I'm doing that - not at all conducive to getting them written down! It's so frustrating when a whole day goes by, you've got this great stuff in your head, and you just can't find the time to write any of it down.

Yeah, story idea and dialogue coming at you when you're answering a zillion calls at work is not conducive to remembering later [g]

Yeah, when it takes over, it takes over. I daydream on the subway and nearly miss my stop. I'm in the middle of scribbling something down that I know I'll forget and somebody wants me to do my day job and pick up the phone--so I do, and immediately forget the incredible dialogue that was there a moment ago and takes on new realms of lost glory because I'll never retrieve it.

And playing the movie in my head--I almost hate writing it down because the movie goes away...

[nods] Happens all the time.

totally.

In fact, mostly this is why I haven't written much - once it's played itself out in my thoughts, I'm generally done - and I lose interest in writing it out. The writing process, for me, bogs down into the details, and I either get bored, because I want to get to that really good scene coming up, or I get sidetracked on the details, and lose the rest of the good scene that I was trying to "hold off" until I was ready for it.

Oh, yes! That's exactly it. I've never been quite able to explain that aspect. Once I've run the movie through several times, I move on to the next one. I have to time the movie and the writing together.

Somebody needs to invent the module that plugs into the socket they'll invent for the back of our necks, that lets us "dictate" our thoughts into prose.

But first, they need to invent transporter beams. Seriously. Now.

Absolutely not just you. : )
When I do get into a story (and btw your Indy plotbunny has been adopted and is being coddled as I type), I tend to think about it too much, and of course get all the best ideas in the shower, so by the time I get out, they're naturally all gone. Either the shower, or whilst I'm waiting for the kettle to boil. I seem to spend all my life doing one thing or the other *g*.

Oh, I so zone out int he shower in the morning. Even make myself late -- like today -- because of it. I start drifting into a story, and don't even realize how much time has passed.

Glad the Indy bunny was helpful :)