When I'm writing, I'm essentially watching the story on film and writing it down; I don't necessarily know what the characters are thinking or why they do what they do...
OMG I have been able to do this since I was about six. Are you the first other person I've met? Well, no. But it's been a long time and you're the first one I know of at RBF. Next, you're going to tell me you pace too (although, my pacing is somewhat compulsive and I wouldn't wish that aspect on you).
Everything in my head is animated- second generation otaku here -I should mention and I generally have access to nonvisual sensory input as well, which is part of the reason I tend to overdo it with such vengeance.
More to the point...
A lot of tricky or important scenes require a certain degree of what you could call editorial intervention. Say, I have to sit there and think: "If I do X, what Ys will open up and which ones will run screaming to the hills?" Deciding between Ys comes down to equal parts of what would further the point of the story and what I want to do. Concerning the former, JoR has been problematic because the point shifted while the story was in production. The latter's why I'm so interested in other people who do converse with their characters. I can only just barely fathom having that happen and it sounds pretty damn spooky, honestly. Getting that final say yanked away by some lippy little bastard from the ethers.
Anyway, maybe that's similar to your chose your own adventure situation in a way.
The rest of how I manage that comes from my somewhat eccentric manner of drafting dialogue. Yes, I can hear conversations, but let's suppose my mic isn't working and I don't always get everything that's said. Time to improvise/synthesize/do odd stuff. It's not uncommon for me to have conversations from pivotal moments sitting around getting poked for weeks. And when I write conversations regardless, they always start out looking like this. One of my drafts from my slush box saved wrong. These do not survive the writing process in this form.
She a good doc? Yes. She took excellent care of the mission and of me. You really should have given her the, ah. *looks at the sideboard* Festive consumables. Who says I didn't? Which one are ya gonna knock back first? I'm trying not to think about that until I'm allowed to drink. By which I mean the almond sake. Yuck! That one's all yours, far as I'm concerned. I really was trying to cut back at some point. Bein' sober's for quitters. [-] OK, so like. Text me if ya need anything. Books, blow, Piers Anthony. 's all good. Know ya totally /won't/, but hey, still gotta offer. *nods and isn't quite looking at her* Comes over and stands all close, her hands behind her back, gets all whispery. "What'dya want?"
Or, worse than that, if they start off in my handwritten notebook, they have tildes instead of line breaks. But, that is basically a script. When the conversations look like this, it's easier to refine the speech patterns, regulate how much is said, change the tone- all that good stuff. So, a lot of the messing around part of tricky scenes comes in that form. Say, "Everything Has A Word" that I just ran. It wasn't just the Siebenkas and Pip conversation that took five drafts. I was over and over and over the dialogue in that. That bit changes everything. It had to be dealt with just so.
Finally, I'm not averse to heaving tracts of prose out the window if I don't like how a scene is progressing.
Re: Pip
OMG I have been able to do this since I was about six. Are you the first other person I've met? Well, no. But it's been a long time and you're the first one I know of at RBF. Next, you're going to tell me you pace too (although, my pacing is somewhat compulsive and I wouldn't wish that aspect on you).
Everything in my head is animated- second generation otaku here -I should mention and I generally have access to nonvisual sensory input as well, which is part of the reason I tend to overdo it with such vengeance.
More to the point...
A lot of tricky or important scenes require a certain degree of what you could call editorial intervention. Say, I have to sit there and think: "If I do X, what Ys will open up and which ones will run screaming to the hills?" Deciding between Ys comes down to equal parts of what would further the point of the story and what I want to do. Concerning the former, JoR has been problematic because the point shifted while the story was in production. The latter's why I'm so interested in other people who do converse with their characters. I can only just barely fathom having that happen and it sounds pretty damn spooky, honestly. Getting that final say yanked away by some lippy little bastard from the ethers.
Anyway, maybe that's similar to your chose your own adventure situation in a way.
The rest of how I manage that comes from my somewhat eccentric manner of drafting dialogue. Yes, I can hear conversations, but let's suppose my mic isn't working and I don't always get everything that's said. Time to improvise/synthesize/do odd stuff. It's not uncommon for me to have conversations from pivotal moments sitting around getting poked for weeks. And when I write conversations regardless, they always start out looking like this. One of my drafts from my slush box saved wrong. These do not survive the writing process in this form.
She a good doc?
Yes. She took excellent care of the mission and of me. You really should have given her the, ah. *looks at the sideboard* Festive consumables.
Who says I didn't? Which one are ya gonna knock back first?
I'm trying not to think about that until I'm allowed to drink. By which I mean the almond sake.
Yuck! That one's all yours, far as I'm concerned.
I really was trying to cut back at some point.
Bein' sober's for quitters. [-] OK, so like. Text me if ya need anything. Books, blow, Piers Anthony. 's all good. Know ya totally /won't/, but hey, still gotta offer.
*nods and isn't quite looking at her*
Comes over and stands all close, her hands behind her back, gets all whispery. "What'dya want?"
Or, worse than that, if they start off in my handwritten notebook, they have tildes instead of line breaks. But, that is basically a script. When the conversations look like this, it's easier to refine the speech patterns, regulate how much is said, change the tone- all that good stuff. So, a lot of the messing around part of tricky scenes comes in that form. Say, "Everything Has A Word" that I just ran. It wasn't just the Siebenkas and Pip conversation that took five drafts. I was over and over and over the dialogue in that. That bit changes everything. It had to be dealt with just so.
Finally, I'm not averse to heaving tracts of prose out the window if I don't like how a scene is progressing.