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Writing a moment down

Jabrosky

Banned
Very often I visually imagine characters, settings, or scenes that I really want to write down, but for some reason I don't feel like expanding those moments into larger, more complex novel-type stories; I simply want to capture the moments themselves in prose. For instance, this evening I had the mental image of a pterosaur soaring above a prehistoric jungle landscape, so I started writing down his journey and what landmarks and creatures he might fly past (I'm about 600 words into it so far). I have given this pterosaur a brief background (he's a widower who must feed his hatchlings) and might include some conflict later in the story, but right now I don't envision a particular theme or character developmental arc for the whole project. It's essentially a prose equivalent to the opening scene in Disney's Dinosaur.

Has anyone ever felt like this? Has anyone pictured a scene or character and wanted to write that down, but somehow couldn't be bothered to expand that into a complete novel? I don't know what to call the kind of moment-based writing I've just described, but I really wish there was a market for it!
 

Lawfire

Sage
Has anyone ever felt like this? Has anyone pictured a scene or character and wanted to write that down, but somehow couldn't be bothered to expand that into a complete novel? I don't know what to call the kind of moment-based writing I've just described, but I really wish there was a market for it!

I have, though I would not say I, "couldn't be bothered to expand it." For me it is more of struggle to connect a series of (what I view as) interesting scenes into a cohesive story.
 

Jabrosky

Banned
I have, though I would not say I, "couldn't be bothered to expand it." For me it is more of struggle to connect a series of (what I view as) interesting scenes into a cohesive story.
Actually, that's closer to what I had in mind.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Has anyone ever felt like this? Has anyone pictured a scene or character and wanted to write that down, but somehow couldn't be bothered to expand that into a complete novel? I don't know what to call the kind of moment-based writing I've just described, but I really wish there was a market for it!

You've just described most of my early writings: isolated scenes of a few hundred to a few thousand words, not really stories in their own right. I must have a hundred or more of them. With most of them, I never could figure out how to properly integrate them into a story.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
Has anyone ever felt like this? Has anyone pictured a scene or character and wanted to write that down, but somehow couldn't be bothered to expand that into a complete novel? I don't know what to call the kind of moment-based writing I've just described, but I really wish there was a market for it!

Used to do this all the time. Still do it sometimes. I find there is a story in the moment. Sometimes it's worth expanding. Other times it isn't. Part of the skill set of a writer is being able to expand stuff like this. Well, at least that's what I think.

I save the moments for use later. If they're good moments, I usually get back to them. If they're not, I don't.
 

FireBird

Troubadour
This happens to me all the time. I always save them, because sometimes when I'm writing there will just be a perfect place to slightly adjust them and stick them in a novel or short story I'm writing.
 
When I saw your description it sounded like it could be similar to flash fiction, but it also could be described as a vignette where you are just describing a moment and it isn't really a part of a larger narrative.

I like that sort of writing. I kind of see it as the writing version of a photograph when you are capturing the beauty of one moment.
 
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