On the subject of pov - remember when you write Tony in your story he'll be half your creation and half MW's/DB's. You're telling your own story. That might help you get into his mindset - you control him in THIS story after all *g*. (Controlling Tony - always a nice thought *g*).
As for deciding about pov - I just do the sketching it out in my head thing. I think "if it's Gibbs's pov, then we'll discover x y and z. But if it's *Tony's* then I'll have to give away something I'm not prepared to at this stage so let's stick to Gibbs. Also, Gibbs watching Tony's reaction is more interesting than us *being* Tony and feeling it at this point, esp as we can't make total sense of it without knowing the bit I'm not gonna reveal yet". *g*. Yeah, nobody said it wasn't a convoluted process at times!
And the worrying about spending too long in one pov thing - no. I just write until it feels like the natural end of a pov section. Sometimes they're really long! And sometimes I know I need another section from the same character's pov soon after, so I might just insert a small passage from another pov, just to break up the emotional tension before returning to the original character's pov. I just have a feel for the pacing and where the breaks need to be.
I had to invent a couple of Gibbs's povs where there weren't any in 2M on the final edit, because I realised one of Tony's just went on too long and needed breaking up in the middle. This was good as it actually led me to a little thing about Gibbs that I hadn't anticipated happening and started his whole problem with saying the "l" word *g*. Fortuituous! Although sometimes I think it's just the story itself nudging me in the right direction.
As for the start...that's tricky. With 2M, I started off with the whipping scene and worked back. I realised I wanted to set the whipping scene in a 24/7 crossover, so I thought, how do I work Skinner and Mulder into the whole thing? And then the ideas just leaped into my head, sort of fully formed. Tony is at a bar - Hammer is the barman...he calls Skinner...etc etc. I played with other ideas too - Mulder and Skinner were already at the bar when Tony came in, that kind of thing - but this was the one that worked best.
Sometimes I have the idea for the opening scene, but more often I have the idea for the overall story - I know what it's about and have a vague sense of the scenes within it - but not necessarily the opening one. Sometimes that one can be quite hard! It wasn't in 2M but it sometimes is. I often just have a *sense* of the scope of the thing, and flesh out the individual scenes as I go along. So it might not be more than "it's in a bar" and then I work up the rest in my head. Or "Gibbs is in the basement working on the boat, Tony is tied to the wall, and Gibbs makes Tony say his safe word by telling him his story" and I know what the story is, but I don't know the full details until I write it. For example - I had no idea the brakes on the car were faulty until I wrote the bit with Gibbs confronting Daddy DiNozzo *g*.
And on the subject of thinking things up while driving and writing them down - I've found (and this might be specific to me) that I try NOT to think up the details and dialogue unless I am working on that scene at that moment with my fingers on the keyboard. Because otherwise, when I GET to the scene in question, I spend my time trying to remember my fancy dialogue or copying it in, rather than letting the scene flow naturally. Take that aforementioned Gibbs in the basement scene - I played out the entire thing while taking a bath months ago, saying great bits of dialogue to myself and playing both parts - but then forgot all about it. Didn't write it down - on purpose. Because by the time I got to it, I knew the emotional nuances would have changed and although my broad idea still worked, the specifics *wouldn't*. I never write out of order either because I lose track of the psychology and pacing. So I start at the beginning and write through to the end, no matter *now* enticing that sexy bit three quarters of the way through is *g*. This is just me though - other people might work differently.
no subject
On the subject of pov - remember when you write Tony in your story he'll be half your creation and half MW's/DB's. You're telling your own story. That might help you get into his mindset - you control him in THIS story after all *g*. (Controlling Tony - always a nice thought *g*).
As for deciding about pov - I just do the sketching it out in my head thing. I think "if it's Gibbs's pov, then we'll discover x y and z. But if it's *Tony's* then I'll have to give away something I'm not prepared to at this stage so let's stick to Gibbs. Also, Gibbs watching Tony's reaction is more interesting than us *being* Tony and feeling it at this point, esp as we can't make total sense of it without knowing the bit I'm not gonna reveal yet". *g*. Yeah, nobody said it wasn't a convoluted process at times!
And the worrying about spending too long in one pov thing - no. I just write until it feels like the natural end of a pov section. Sometimes they're really long! And sometimes I know I need another section from the same character's pov soon after, so I might just insert a small passage from another pov, just to break up the emotional tension before returning to the original character's pov. I just have a feel for the pacing and where the breaks need to be.
I had to invent a couple of Gibbs's povs where there weren't any in 2M on the final edit, because I realised one of Tony's just went on too long and needed breaking up in the middle. This was good as it actually led me to a little thing about Gibbs that I hadn't anticipated happening and started his whole problem with saying the "l" word *g*. Fortuituous! Although sometimes I think it's just the story itself nudging me in the right direction.
As for the start...that's tricky. With 2M, I started off with the whipping scene and worked back. I realised I wanted to set the whipping scene in a 24/7 crossover, so I thought, how do I work Skinner and Mulder into the whole thing? And then the ideas just leaped into my head, sort of fully formed. Tony is at a bar - Hammer is the barman...he calls Skinner...etc etc. I played with other ideas too - Mulder and Skinner were already at the bar when Tony came in, that kind of thing - but this was the one that worked best.
Sometimes I have the idea for the opening scene, but more often I have the idea for the overall story - I know what it's about and have a vague sense of the scenes within it - but not necessarily the opening one. Sometimes that one can be quite hard! It wasn't in 2M but it sometimes is. I often just have a *sense* of the scope of the thing, and flesh out the individual scenes as I go along. So it might not be more than "it's in a bar" and then I work up the rest in my head. Or "Gibbs is in the basement working on the boat, Tony is tied to the wall, and Gibbs makes Tony say his safe word by telling him his story" and I know what the story is, but I don't know the full details until I write it. For example - I had no idea the brakes on the car were faulty until I wrote the bit with Gibbs confronting Daddy DiNozzo *g*.
And on the subject of thinking things up while driving and writing them down - I've found (and this might be specific to me) that I try NOT to think up the details and dialogue unless I am working on that scene at that moment with my fingers on the keyboard. Because otherwise, when I GET to the scene in question, I spend my time trying to remember my fancy dialogue or copying it in, rather than letting the scene flow naturally. Take that aforementioned Gibbs in the basement scene - I played out the entire thing while taking a bath months ago, saying great bits of dialogue to myself and playing both parts - but then forgot all about it. Didn't write it down - on purpose. Because by the time I got to it, I knew the emotional nuances would have changed and although my broad idea still worked, the specifics *wouldn't*. I never write out of order either because I lose track of the psychology and pacing. So I start at the beginning and write through to the end, no matter *now* enticing that sexy bit three quarters of the way through is *g*. This is just me though - other people might work differently.