This is really interesting and is similar to what goes on in my head when I’m plotting out a fic. I don’t really see scenes first–I hear them. I’ll drop the characters into Storyspace with a given setting or situation, start thinking about how they would react, and pretty soon they’re having a conversation/argument/whatever on their own and I’m acting like a scribe or translator, trying to get it all down. I have to initiate the process, but the muses will pick it up if it’s a good idea (this is how I can tell when it’s just a brain fart vs. a possible fic). While the muses are talking, I’m both transcribing and monitoring their conversation, so if they veer off track plot-wise or character-wise, I stop them and go back. Determining where they go involves something similar to what you call feeling out the plot. I recently said in my own blog that I can sort of “feel” the shape of a plot before I can see the details. You get a sense of where you want the story to go, where the peaks and valleys are going to be, and so on. It’s an interesting exercise in balance, trying to listen in on the muses’ conversation without stifling or determining it, and yet still steering or gently nudging it in the right direction if they veer off track. This may be similar to what you mean by echolocation or the sort of continuous feedback involved in communication between characters and author.
*nodnod* Really, I think this is probably fairly common among writers, and possibly fandom writers especially. Given the way “muses” developed as a Fandom Thing, it surely seems that way.
This is really interesting and is similar to what goes on in my head when I’m plotting out a fic. I don’t really see scenes first–I hear them. I’ll drop the characters into Storyspace with a given setting or situation, start thinking about how they would react, and pretty soon they’re having a conversation/argument/whatever on their own and I’m acting like a scribe or translator, trying to get it all down. I have to initiate the process, but the muses will pick it up if it’s a good idea (this is how I can tell when it’s just a brain fart vs. a possible fic). While the muses are talking, I’m both transcribing and monitoring their conversation, so if they veer off track plot-wise or character-wise, I stop them and go back. Determining where they go involves something similar to what you call feeling out the plot. I recently said in my own blog that I can sort of “feel” the shape of a plot before I can see the details. You get a sense of where you want the story to go, where the peaks and valleys are going to be, and so on. It’s an interesting exercise in balance, trying to listen in on the muses’ conversation without stifling or determining it, and yet still steering or gently nudging it in the right direction if they veer off track. This may be similar to what you mean by echolocation or the sort of continuous feedback involved in communication between characters and author.
*nodnod* Really, I think this is probably fairly common among writers, and possibly fandom writers especially. Given the way “muses” developed as a Fandom Thing, it surely seems that way.