Novel What's Your Writing Process?

Trust me, i tried to set timelines to write stuff, and ended up burning myself out after too long, which is why i decided that i'm not going to pressure myself on it.

*Edit, I wanted to add more*

I found the benefits of being able to have 15-20 minute stints of writing, as i can still do my writing among my uni work, but it means that I don't freak out so much, and ironically i got better grades this semester for doing that, than not writing at all in first semester!

 

I'm definitely a 'panster'! I have a general idea in mind of what I want to write about, and just go from there. The characters and themes will either slowly come into frame or sometimes they just pop into my mind while I'm going. From there the characters drive the story, and I'll continue to develop the themes and motifs. I'll get the whole thing out before I revise and revise. Sometimes I'll revise by chapter or section, but I try to wait until the end so I can look at it as a whole before delving into each part. After this time I'll usually decide whether I truly like the story or not and see if I want to stick with it the way it is.. most times I'll chuck them into the Unfinished folder to remain there for eternity

 

This is my process :
1. scribble down ideas on notes (worldbuilding, character, themes, plot)
2. concept art
3. repeat from 1

 

1. Idea comes to me. Usually it's vague and not really anything to write a whole story off, like "gays in the desert" or "loner learns to trust"
2. I make a world. Sometimes it's easy and only takes a second. Sometimes it's hard and takes days, weeks even, of research and writing.
3. (interchangeable with step 2) I make a supporting cast. Deeply subject to change, and I wind up trashing and changing the entire cast two or three times before actually sitting down to write.
4. I try to start. Usually I fail because beginnings are damn hard.
5. Repeat steps 2-4.
6. I try plotting because hey maybe if I have a plot I can actually start.
7. Start. At last I'm free.
8. Rewrite the beginning because I got stuck between the introduction and the first important piece of action.
9. Let it stew for 6-24 months because I'm too damn busy/lazy/unmotivated
10. Nanowrimo season rolls around, so I strap in and write like mad, keeping vaguely in mind the plot and important events but not staying too committed to anything.
11. Refrigerate indefinitely.

 

I write backwards. I define the ending and then worry about setting it up.

 

I use the snowflake method, as its all I know and I really like it. It fits my personality very well, since I am meticulous about planning things.

I sometimes do this if I have a really dramatic scene in mind that I want to show, but its usually relegated to short stories. Only once have I done this with a full-length story.

 

There is a very good book titled, "The Successful Novelist" which was written by David Morrell. He wrote, "First Blood." He has several chapters that are very helpful, especially when it comes to starting a work. Hope this helps.

wp

 

Interesting question! I'm new here so apologies if I break any rules
My writing process is pretty simple. I don't have any rigid plan or any 'pre-writing' as such. I don't plan at all actually. I simply set aside some time during the week, get myself a nice cup of coffee/tea. Go somewhere that I enjoy (maybe Starbucks, Costa Coffee or some place with a nice atmosphere) and then I put on some specific music that I like ( Debussy - Rêverie comes to mind). I then start writing as the ideas come up. I don't edit either since I think it sort of stops the flow that I'm riding.

Anywho, those are my two cents. I actually talk about this stuff on YouTube, not sure if its OK for me to post links though?

 

Oddly enough, I get more inspiration from talking into my smartphone and recording whatever comes out my mouth. I have written whole articles just by speaking into the mic.

This usually happens when I get a sudden idea. The difficult part comes when I have to transfer the audio to the written word. But I know there are programs for that.

 

That's something I can't do - I hate the sound of my own voice, so listening to me, puts me off listening to me, if you know what I mean. Although I have been known to email myself if I get ideas while I'm out and about.

 

1. Come up with a plot (the most difficult and elusive part)
2. Write down a list of scenes in a rough order, usually the ones I can visualise most clearly
3. Start writing scene by scene referring to movies or travel brochures
4. Read lots of Stephen King and fill in the rest in his direct and popular style

 

I`m not the best at keeping a writing routine but I do have a process of sorts.

Think of idea, roll idea around the noggin for a bit
Make a google doc for that idea-summarise idea lay out plot in a rough outline and step by step writing plan that normally goes like this.

Research- I refer to this part as research but it can anything from that to world building or just figuring out how certain things would logically work.
Write- Rough draft, I write, write and write.
Read and revise and repeat until my brains about to pop
Polish move to a clean uncluttered google doc
share the doc with betas
get feedback
rewrite read re write
more betas
loop around here
Once I think it`s ready I polish it off and format it to however I need to
send the story off to wherever

Wait for the inevitable rejection and then cry myself to sleep.

That last one may be a tad glass half empty.

 

I write because if I don't I get weird looks from randomly bursting into the laughter over the thoughts and actions of character I make-up.

 

I always always always just dive right in the moment I come up with a great idea. No planning at all.

This have always worked for me. The secret is for you to "unleash your hunger to write". Just let your inspiration guide you.

 

Blast some video game music and go to town on whatever it is I'm writing.

Currently listening to Ride On from Final Fantasy VII while working on my Nanowrimo piece.

 

First, I want to congratulate ACCERBYSS for the wonderful topic. I truly needed to think this over.

Now let's get organized:

1. Setting - knowing where we are:
I start with developing a fantasy world in my mind. I create maps. I gather hundreds of pictures from Pinterest and Tumblr to illustrate my world and its cultures. When the world is ready, as if you are boiling eggs:
2. Throw in some Characters:
What works best for me is creating characters on the basis of ideas sprang during roleplaying. This helps a lot, because the characters are actually developed by different story tellers, so they are more believable and unique. Then by all means:
3. Stir trouble: create a conflict:
Each character has a compelling need, good if they even struggle against each other. Every character must want something the entire time.
4. Scenes:
Try to list the possible situations the characters may encounter. For instance: "Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl." Make a logical sequence of these.
5. Spill. Everything:
Just start writing from the first sentence, and trust in God for the next. Try to follow you little plan, but don't be afraid to modify as the story blossoms. Write your entire first draft.
6. Leave aside for one week.
Let the sunshine in. Do different stuff, get inspired. Return to your work with clear mind, pure hands and hot heart.
7. Please your audience:
Think of who is going to read your book - and translate your first draft into his language. For example, if you write a non-fiction book for teenagers call it: How to Score Chicks, not How To Seduce Women. Make sure you take the reader by hand and slowly and deliberately lead him to the resolution of your book.
8. Writing Buddy:
Find someone to edit the book together with. It's best to work paragraph by paragraph.
9. Polish it:
Put the finishing touches to your masterpiece. You must have a feeling of content from the accomplishment. Work on the book until it makes you happy.
10. Write a sequel:
Seriously. This sells.

Regards: LF

 

Have you ever gone into a persons study and it looks like someone had started to rob the place, got carried away with breaking stuff, took things too far, yet that person swears that it all makes some sort of sense to them? That's my writing style.

 

(This thread was started on my birthday eight years ago!) I guess I'll add to it.

Firstly, I have to have something I want to say. As an artist I see art as a form of communication. There's an audience, and there's the artist. There's the receiver, and the transmitter. (The first rule of communication: If there is a failure in communication, it is always the fault of the sender.) Now, I would say, "Hey. What about art itself; art for art's sake?" To which I would reply, "Hey, self. That's just fine if you can sell it. However, you're the first to say, 'I'm hungry' so let's stick with the communication idea for now, mmmkay?"

THEN...I think of how can this thing be said. Let's take an example. Let's say I wish to communicate the reality of how delicate is the bond of trust, and how permanent the damage can be if it's broken. (Gee. There's something no one's tried before!) AND, since that isn't something no one's tried before, my next move is to try to think of a way to say it that hasn't been done before. Sure, I like to entertain. However, I don't like entertainment without deeper content. I'd rather convey deep content entertainingly than try to add something deep within my entertainment...if that makes sense.

Let us leap forward and assume I've selected my theme and my angle...my topic and my approach? Hmmmm....my subject and my method??? Let's just say I made up my mind what I'm going to try to do. The next thing I do is research, and I mean tons of it. I read and read. I take copious notes. I make lists of references...all this made fabulously easier with PCs, word processing and the internet. (Yay Wiki!) And, with that let us make another leap and assume I've boned up on my era, setting, costuming, language proclivities, mannerisms, even dietary habits of the time...even if it is the present.

Then, I meditate on it. No. Not cross-legged on a pillow with incense. (Though that's cool and I don't knock it.) I actually walk around my regular day and tell the story to myself in my head. That's where I first begin to run into what problems may be lying in wait, continuity, plausibility, exposition difficulties, and where I can get a good assessment of the amount of volume involved - how many pages will this monster be? After a while, I can tell the story to myself, pretty bare boned albeit, but front to back. When I can do this smoothly, with no snags, I sit down at the keyboard.

Rather than do outlines, or timelines, I do a rough version with no embellishment, no description and no real pains taken with dialogue. The first draft. I'm after getting the structural story down to make sure it's all fit together smoothly, has good continuity, doesn't drag, or digress, or drive itself into a ditch. . . ahem. When I'm satisfied with that, on to the second draft.

This is where I add detail, and embellish; setting, landscapes, interiors, weather, etc. Some people call this description. I call it "add detail." Some of the story requires it. Some does not. If it's a tree, just say it's a tree. Don't say it's a big leafy tree unless that is important to advance the story (your readers will love you for it.) Here the rule is: Don't write to impress. Write to inform. I'm not doing dialogue yet, or character interaction in detail. This is still general notation: "they argue over who owns the dog" for instance.

Third draft. This is like icing the cake. Here's where I clothe the characters, more in their words than in garments. Dialogue advances the story, reveals back story, and "describes" your character. The most difficult thing for a writer is to write natural dialogue - have the characters speaking the way they would rather than the way you think they would, or the way you would if you were them. This is why it has its own particular phase in building the story.

The fourth pass is to ensure everything agrees, stylistically, time-wise, the actual playing out of events, and that everything is accounted for - that nothing seems to just appear from nowhere or disappear without a trace for no reason. This is also where I pare down a lot of the scene detail, and try to economize the language itself; make sure the sentences are the shortest they can be and still carry the meaning, that sort of thing.

The FIFTH pass is strictly for grammar and spelling. (Do not trust spell checkers.) Especially if you're proof reading your own work, it's easy to get caught up in the content and have that on your mind forgetting that you're only looking for split infinitives, dangling participles, run on sentences, comma overload, clauses posing as sentences - grammar. I do this last because by the time I get this far, I've reread the material so many times, being enamored with my own words has faded and I can concentrate on the task at hand. Even so, I have to remind myself. Some people may allow an editor to handle this. I don't like that idea. I even found five typos in the one volume edition of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. If you want it done right, do it yourself.

After this rigor, I don't read it again. The editor handles it from here. By the time it's gone through the editorial process, it's been out of my hands long enough for it not to be a stale chore to pick it back up with whatever specific items the editor wishes to be dealt with in some fashion. (Here's where I either do what I'm told, or gin-up my irrefutable argument against changes that I have a 50-50 chance of winning!) Theoretically, after all this, it's ready to be published.

 

When I used to write every day I had no process, I just wrote. Now since I've been in a "block" it's been a bunch of outlines. Some even broken down by chapter. Eventually they'll get written...

 

Some handy tips in there Danegroth.

 

Interesting process, you don`t go over your work that much; I know writers that re-write their work a dozen times.
Going back to your process, I was watching a video recently by Brandon Sanderson who posited that writers fell into two groups: you were either a discovery writer or an outline writer. Discovery writers just wrote, had an idea and started writing without thinking too much; "discovered" their characters and plot etc. Outline writers were organized and made an outline of their story before they started. To be honest I`m not sure whether you can box people in like that, or even whether it`s healthy to do so creatively. I couldn`t say for certain what group I fell into, I may have crossed from one to the other a few times.

I`m not sure I agree with you that books necessarily need to have deeper meaning; perhaps that`s just something you enjoy. Personally I like to read (or watch) something that doesn`t have any deeper meaning to it at all, just enables me to chill out (read Lee Child rather than Anthony Doerr). I have a job that requires me to concentrate for long periods at a time so relaxing is important, and indeed necessary.

I agree with you about spell checkers, they aren`t always accurate, but I`m also careful about trusting myself entirely. I think there`s a place for both but I guess it depends on how good you are at grammar.

 

I must work on developing my process to be more effective and efficient, but currently I approach writing very casually. I tend to come up with ideas in the normal course of my days, often when I'm lying in bed thinking about things or when I'm in class. I don't write down my ideas when they come to me, which I probably should do since many of them often escape me, but I put some of them into words when I've got time and access to my computer to type them out. This often happens spontaneously, when I'm not really doing anything else and am trying to figure out something to do. I should look into actively putting aside time to write everyday, no matter what ideas I might have (or lack) at that particular time. Practice makes perfect, right?

 

I write NON-FICTION therefore this may differ from some of your processes.

1. Put simply, I make a jotted outline of the subject I am writing about, lets say an historical figure such as a king. I briefly list the notable points in the forthcoming chapter that I wish to cover - this can be a very basic ABC taken from somewhere like Wikipedia.

2. I then scan read as many respected books on the subject, only reading the chapters concerned with the period I will be writing about. This can involved reading over 10 books simultenously for only a handfful of pages at a time. It is great to get in-depth information about theevents I will be writing about, from the words and research of those that came before me. It is important to keep track in a word document which books are being read and up to what point, as this will become key to keep organised down the line.

3. I move from these modern secondary accounts to the contemporary chronicles, building up my case from the sourced material available. This is where I start to really bring my ideas to the fore, as I may have different intrepretions than other modern writers explored in number 2.

4. Obsessively comb through all other contrmporary records, accounts, charters available.

5. Re-read chapter, re-edit chapter and repeat about 5 times.

6. Repeat process for next chapter. Ad infinitum.

 

I walk around for a long time with several ideas in my head, start writing a bit then look at what I've written and scream "why does this suck!" and then cry myself to sleep...and then I repeat a few days later

 

What we "don't" do is tell too many non-writers about it. In other words, at Thanksgiving dinner, we don't tell all our guests what our latest fiction story is about. We don't tell much at all to our office co-workers or general circle of friends. Somehow, for some people, that dissipates the energy to keep going past the initial enthusiasm. Certainly, though, it's shared with writing friends and groups like this to a certain extent.