Essay on Story Writing Techniques- Homework

My initial impression of strict structured story writing (as opposed to 'on the spot' or spontaneous writing) was one of skepticism. Most of my 'notes' have been done mentally and I have never kept written outlines of subjects or characters beforehand and in doing so, I was convinced that the natural mood of the story would suffer greatly. 1

This proved to be untrue. As I followed the patterns set before me in each lesson I was able to see a skeleton of my plot emerge, my characters’ main qualities take form and the general direction of the entire piece was set to some limited degree. Though at the time I could not see the use in this.After all, I thought, wouldn't these things happen in a natrual progression as I wrote my story? But as I began to write I found myself relying heavily on the notes, and synopsis. 2

While it's true that the outline and notes proved to be of good use I did find that once the story took on its own life I was 'forced' to break away from many aspects of the plot summaries that I had written for my synopsis and that some characters did not evolve as I had planned. For instance, originally, I had planned for one of the main characters to be killed in the end but as the story played out this section took an entirely different direction. I can see that this may have presented a huge problem had I sent my synopsis in to a publisher for consideration and then, in the end, made this important change in a main twist of the story's conclusion. 3

So, while I see that this structured way of story writing can be useful, I also see that no matter how much I outline beforehand once the story begins its own 'movement' (or life) many of these outlines and preconceived ideas may fall by the wayside and even major plot lines and character developments may change drastically. 4

When I relied on the structured notes they proved invaluable. Characters' physical descriptions and scenery details where much easier to expand upon when the outline was within reach. But in the cases of personality, actions of the characters and method of movement I was compelled, in many areas, by the story's mood and flow to break away from my notes in many key aspects.5

After working with these pre-written conceptions of my story's main points I concluded that, while I may not wholly rely on the structure writing technique I see this direction as a valuable method.  I doubt I shall ever return to writing spontaneously in a complete sense, but instead will use notes and outlines, yet will not hold myself to them in any strict or confining manner. In other words, what I first outline may not be included in my story’s final presentation even in the major plot directions. I can only assume then that I had must not send a synopsis to a publisher to speak for my story as I cannot be certain of the main developments.6