Rushing a story

[Greninjaman]

If there is one thing I know about myself, it's this: I have a tendency to just rush the story. This is why I tend to scrap many stories. My latest one (Link and the Fate of the Deku Tree) is rushed. I feel that I rushed it. There are things I could have done to make it longer. I know that there are other writers who had/have this issue.

What are ways to stop rushing and slow down?

 

[LightningTopaz]

This is why it's good to have something resembling an outline--if you know how the story starts, how it ends, and some things you know you want to happen in between those points, you can take the time to develop them.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Just like @LightningTopaz said, having at least a basic outline is very helpful in structuring your story. It's one of the reasons why I do sub-documents, as it gives me some framework and something to fall back on if I get lost or forget something.

For example, back when I was still writing Psychic Duelist Django I would often do sub-documents of how the Duel would play out, mapping out the different effects, stats/Life Points, and so on, so that would give me the basic framework of the Duel in question. With that done I can then add in the dialog and other stuff as I put together the Duel itself in the actual chapter. That helped me greatly in later seasons, especially for multi-chapter Duels, as with that framework done it allowed me to build the chapter around it.

So, yeah, having some form of outline to create the "skeleton" for the story helps prevent one from rushing a story, as you can then work around that "skeleton" and bring it to life more easily, tweaking when needed as you go. It's not a foolproof strategy but it does at least make getting the story done properly easier and at least slows down any attempts to rush it.

 

[Greninjaman]

Yeah. Working on the main/important characters first before doing the world sounds like a good idea as well.

 

[LightningTopaz]

@Greninjaman

The same can also be argued for building the world first--by having some of the basics (how Earth-like it is, or if it's even Earth at all), how magic/powers work (if any), basics of cultures, and some key places in mind, this can inform how you build the characters.

 

[Greninjaman]

@LightningTopaz
True. I guess it is a good idea to have a basic idea of how the world of the story works, especially early on.

 

[mastermind lissi]

Um. So I was writing a long Fic and I had big plans for the ending but forgot to plan out the middle. Ended up using a time skip for my sake and um. It annoyed my friend who was the only one I let read it so much