Novel What's Your Writing Process?

I am obsess with writing right now. I have periodes - two months I can write every day, more hours on day, and the three months I cant even hear about writing. My characters are usually my friends and people I know. Of course I change their names and the way they look and of course things I write about never happen to them, but still they are my inspiration. For example: My friend like a guy and I discover this boy is very interesting and handsome. I integrate him in my book and then I decide if they will stay together or he will be murderer or he will become main character. I never make plan or something I just sit on my bed and write for hours. At first i write in small notebook and when I have story on the paper I rewrite it on a computer. I cut off some scenes and add something and then I post it to my best friend. She is really book-lover, and she tells me if story is good or horrible. For now that is it. I have never made next step before. The truth is I dont really know what I have to do now.

 

I write it, it's klutzy. I edit it, I think it's great. I come back to it days/weeks later and can't believe how klutzy it still is. I edit some more and pretty much think I'm doing a good job getting rid of the klutz. Next time I edit it, I only change a couple words, reorder a couple sentences.

I'm getting there.

I know I've already said this in the thread, but I just edited an older section of my novel and couldn't believe how much klutz I could see that was hidden to me before. And now the chapter is good again. I had to tell someone.

 

My writing process:

1. Think
2. Search up films/stories/novels/etc for inspiration.
3. Read/watch the above ^
4. Think
5. Reflect on life experiences/social issues/etc
6.Think
7. Sleep & dream
8. Wake up to hopefully remember what you dreamt about
9. Think
10. Go to your word document/processor and type/plan out any profound concept for your story

Note: I do not go straight to the word document and start brainstorming. I do all of that ^ before I even begin to begin typing out a typed-out plan/draft

I spend 90% of my time thinking and reflecting, and then I go to Microsoft Word and I jot down bullet points of my ideas. I only jot down ideas and concepts that I think are profound and exceptional. It's really all subjective since it is your story. And then when I can go over my nots and bullet points and imagine a story/plot with all of those ideas and concepts and the flow of the plot makes sense, then I start making my 'first draft', etc etc etc.

 

Music on, no holds barred, I let my brain go. I write. I research and reference as I work. I don't have a nice orderly process. I don't outline, my characters do the work, driving the storyline, even when I don't think it can be done. I update my timelines and family trees, along the way but I do not outline or plan otherwise.

 

I am using the normal writing style. I hate to write now because of submitting too many assignments and other grade earning task in school. Once I use one cheap essay writing service to complete my assignment. The writing style of that service was good.

 

Don't have a process, don't plan, don't think ahead. I can't do most normal things, normally, and writing is no exception. Emotional state is more important for me than planning. I can only write from a position of pure blood desperation. When I'm on my arse and the emotions are getting squeezed out of me - that's magic time. That's when I don't give a damn about the words, when I enforce my will on them. That's when I boss them around the page.

 

I like to lay out a base of my ideas, a skeleton draft (if it could be called such) This keeps me from leaving ideas behind and keeps me moving forward. When inspiration wanes i go back and iron out the details, typos, and add the "flesh" of the story. This is just my process and is by no means a tryed and true method. What works for me, works for me and my not for others.

 

Prewrite for me is walking around and thinking about the scene I want to write. After enough of that(20-30) I sit down and write the scene. I am away from home generally, so I let typos go by. Once home I send the sample to myself and spellcheck it to catch typos. Then I read it while splitting paragraphs as my writing device doesn't let me do this on the first draft.(something I am ok with, fixing it later I think is easier.) While reading it I look for clumsy phrasing and apply fixes. After that I play a reader, listening for more clumsy phrasing/typos that were previously missed. Correct all that apply, if more than 10 errors corrected I run it through the reader again, rinse repeat. After that I have product worthy of being called a draft that I show people.

 

I write whatever comes to my mind, a stream of consciousness. Then I try to flesh that out into a proper section which flows nicely. Then I will rewrite, leave it alone, write ahead of it and before it, and rewrite again. I never do any formal type of planning as most of what I plan is inside my head and materializes as I write. This is fine for me because I typically end up ditching many of my initial concepts. The introductory paragraph for a novel idea that I've had has been rewritten completely over 19 times.

 

i think you need to just write whatever comes to mind, get it all out onto paper or screen then sort it out from there in your own time thats how i work some might say its not the best but it works for me.

 

Every professional writer is having a particular style and process for writing. What I generally know first of all a writer will prepare a rough estimate of blog or content he want to write, then he write but writing is depend the thinking of a writer. Use the techniques to manage your ideas of writing and keep track on the common problems in your writing .

 

I generally start a story writing a specific scene that won't leave my head, and continuing to do so until I have the bare bones. After that, it's time to connect them all and flesh it out.

 

My writing process is very long and drawn out if I'm wanting to publish the work, but surprisingly quick when I'm not. I really wish that were flipped but alas it is not. I think though that my 'serious' works take longer to flush out because I want my work to be as close to pristine grammar wise as I can get it before I let people read it. Even before it's finished (which they usually aren't) if I let anyone read it it's been combed through sometimes up to five times before they see it. Not to mention I'm coming up with plot as I write it. Anyway, my process. Whether or not it's with the intent to someday publish or not I always seem to feel out the general idea of the plot first before anything is written. (In some cases I write half a page of dialogue or the first few paragraphs before even knowing anything else about the plot, but that's rarely.) After I have a general idea of what the plot will be (sometimes only a few sentences) I sit with it for a day or two, usually just to make sure it's something I want to continue with. Past those initial days of indecision if I decide it's something I want to continue that's when the sleepless nights and annoying characters bugging me to write more of their story comes in. When I decide to write something everything starts happening very fast, characters come rushing into my head, and plot starts making me scribble on the closest piece of paper in hurried fragmented sentences. Most of the time I have no control over it, when an idea comes for a new story I have to write it down or either it'll bug me or I forget it and never forgive myself. As a result i have an entire filing cabinet drawer full of papers with nearly unintelligible writing scrawled wherever I could fit it, sometimes in complete sentences and entire scenes, sometimes names and three word descriptions with hasty labels. It get's messy but it's how my brain works so I've learned to embrace it. Between the whirlwind of late-night scribbles and annoying half formed characters I'm researching and getting the first few pages down trying to make sense of the babble to get an introduction finished. For me the first chapter is always the hardest (normally I don't do chapters or titles till the end but for the purposes of this explanation...) setting up the plot and introducing the characters, I'm chomping at the bit to get to the good stuff I know is on it's way. The characters are trying to tell me where their story begins and I'm just like 'I don't care, get to the scene where you kill your mother and save your people! Or when you bond yourselves together! Oh, or when it's all over and you're crowned king and queen!' Am I rambling? I'm rambling...

Anyway, I come up with a plot, wade through crazy, listen to my characters, then struggle to get pages done and have enough patience to get to the end without the story being total crap because I skipped over most of the arc to get to the climax faster. If I can get through all that I have to decide to stop being so nervous, stop editing, and just let people read it because it's probably better than I think. Ding!

 

Hi @LorenaTralala. Welcome to the forum.

Ha ha! I chuckled as I read your post, because you've described my writing method pretty much to a T. The only difference between me and you is that I only work on one story at a time. But the little scribbled bits of paper? And the urge to write the juicy scenes first, and out of order? You bet.

The one way I've managed to pull order out of this chaos is by collecting my little scraps of paper—before they get to be a huge pile—and start adding what I've scribbled into a computer file. I keep a computer file divided into scenes (as I think them up), and when I scribble an idea to add to the scene, or a bit of dialogue I think will fit, I add this in to the computer file fairly soon afterwards. (And of course back up, and occasionally print out, the entire file.) I can throw the scribbled paper away, and the idea is right where I can find it easily, when the time comes.

It also helps to set up a story timeline. This is NOT an outline, by the way. It's another note-taking document divided by time periods (years, months, days) that are pertinent to the story. It's something I use constantly. Somebody is born, somebody rides to town, somebody gets attacked in their home, somebody goes to high school, somebody meets the love of their life, etc. Every time I think up an event or envision a scene, I stick a note of WHEN it happened into the correct place in my timeline.

This way I can not only coordinate my story with real events (I write historically-set fiction) but don't meet myself coming with other events I've created. Example. It normally takes 9 months from conception to birth in a human baby. So if the baby is conceived in December, it won't be born normally till around September. If the baby is born in early July instead, it will be severely premature. You can easily make that kind of a mistake if you don't keep a timeline. Timelines are useful for anything that requires time to accomplish, as well. Including journeys. Somebody starts off on a thousand mile journey on horseback, they're not going to arrive at their destination next weekend. This kind of thing.

 

The work I'm doing now had me writing this one idea, through the first chapter I thought what about this instead and it's pretty much consuming my thinking time, even if I haven't written down the intracacies, flying along with the vague idea of what I want to do and trying to build it into something.

 

@jannert Thanks for the advice, and I've been thinking on making a timeline for my main book but the only problem is that it's like an alternate history sort of book. I've wondered what I'd classify it as when I'm done because while it has classic fantasy characters and plot, it's set in the real world. Anyway, how would i go about making up a timeline for something with an expansive plot like LOTR and a setting like historical fiction?

 

I'll PM you....

 

You could use a spread sheet. I find them great for timelines.

 

1:Look at empty page
2o something else.

 

Brilliant tips! I would like to add 8 item about "FeedBack", if you do not mind. Sometimes your friends of colleagues can improve your writing process.

 

Depends on the kind of story and context in which the story I'm writing is set

If it's a large kinda piece which is set in a fictional world, then I LOVE thinking about context and background (nearly as much as the actual story)!

I come up with a history of the world, background of characters involved, histories behind various factions or parties that might be of interest, and write down a timeline of events that may or may not have anything to do with the story itself. Much enjoyment in creating a world of my own that doesn't need to feature in the story.

With other pieces such as short stories or historical fictions (maybe even romance or crime from time to time) I like to literally just write down as I go. My sister is really into coming up with plans and rough ideas first and having the story fully worked out in her head before she starts, but I much prefer starting with my vague idea of what is happening in the piece, and then just write it down!

I recall writing a short story based on a WW1 soldier receiving a court martial for attempting to flee the field of battle. I hadn't intended for this at all! It was originally supposed to be about the correspondence between said soldier and his lover back home, but evolved as I wrote more and more. Makes the writing process all the more fascinating

 

In my view many of these are deeply misguided - with all due respect to Knux57.

And chapters can be wildly varying in size, so not a very good guide.

2. I think it is a mistake to wait until you know the full story before planning out four or five scenes. Ideas happen en route and it's best imho to dive in early with your basic concept and early ideas and get them down on paper.
4. I see no value in revision until you are at least two thirds way through the book. It interrupts the flow and creativity process. Drive on !
5. Sending chapters for opinions is in my view suicidal and insane UNLESS they are extremely carefully selected and able to offer an opinion that has nothing to do with their personal tastes.
7. Totally and utterly insane. This is some kind of 'writing by approval' plan that is destined to cause failure and deep upset that could put you off writing for life

My 2c.

 

I'm working on an alternative history story as well. Please feel free to reach out if you want to bounce an idea or two off me regarding the genre etc.

 

I have to agree. An author should first rely upon his or her vision and talent and not constantly seek approval or reassurance. I do plan the outline of the story and plot, but not the chapters. Those come more organically, arising when it is clear that a significant break in the timeline, location or POV occurs. I cannot see assigning events into chapters before I commence writing.

Of course a method can only work for each individual, so I don't say that the seven step process is wrong, merely that no one should think that it is a mandatory or even a recommended method.

But writing by committee never works. Do the first review yourself and see how satisfied you are with the story. Then have an editor or reviewer go over it if that is what you want. Apart from errors in spelling, grammar, continuity or logic, the author should always have the final word on how the story goes.

 

I have to make an admission here. Before I started writing (and I am NOT claiming to be a successful writer ! only a writer who has managed to finish two books and had decent feedback and a small number of sales) I THOUGHT that this would be the way I would write !

I come from a primary science and then a financial/business background. So I thought I would structure everything and plan everything magnificently !

It was only after I launched into writing my book in slight desperation due to personal circumstances, that I discovered how massively my internal tendency to make stuff up and how it happens so organically and in such an unpredictable way .. made a nonsense of the complete pre-planning of the whole story. Looking back I sometimes think ... would it have been easier/better if I had been able to coming up with the plot an storyline beforehand ... and then I say no .. it is better for the fact that it happened spontaneously.

Indeed. Michael Connolly, I believe, prepares the complete story before starting to write.

Not just the final word .... but not be influenced by other individual's micro-critiquing of the story/plot. Yes by all means ask for indications of major structural errors or inconsistencies .. but no more imho.