Novel What's Your Writing Process?

I smoke some magical space dust and meditate for forty hours straight. After that, it comes to me, *poof* story time.

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I can't sell you this space dust so don't bother asking.


Another thing that could, most likely happens is,

1 - Sitting down daydreaming. Usually accompanied by a snack of some kind. I swear its usually healthy....usually....

2- Character comes to mind, could be whoever, I'll write him/her down for future use or abuse or both. I am a kind person, honestly.

3- Throw them into the blender of mythological stories I know(Native American, Japanese, Norse, African, you name it), greatly twist them, making them more modern and set it up in my crazy town where hope kinda lives. My first story took place in a house on a street called "No-Luck-Lane." Good memories those are.

 

My writing process used to be just 'write what comes to mind and see where it goes', but this usually led to me sitting there staring at my screen wondering what should happen next. It also meant I would set up storylines and then forget about them later and basically leave them unfinished. My early fanfiction stuff really shows how little I planned ahead. Usually I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do at some point later, but I never planned how to get there.

Since I stopped publishing fanfiction I've tried to get myself to do a proper schedule rather than just write and see where it goes:

1. Planning: I've started adopting this after reading Story Genius by Lisa Cron. She explains that a story is about how the external events (the plot) after the protagonist's internal struggle and how they change over the course of the story. So usually I'll write down what my general idea is, then I'll write about my protagonist, who they are and how the plot is meant to affect them. Then I'd build the main plot points around that. From there I would flesh out the plot in between those plot points so that I have a full narrative.

2. Practice Writing: What I'll do is write an excerpt from my story focusing one just one scene or moment of the story, so that I have an idea of how exactly I want them to play out. If I'm not satisfied with it when I'm done, then I'll revise it until I'm satisfied with the details of how this particular scene plays out. I'll do that for the main plot points, then the stuff in between until I've at least practiced writing the important stuff.

3. Writing the Drafts: Now that I have a clear idea of how I want the plot to play out, I'll start writing the actual story in chronological order and maybe make some tweaks to the specific details until I have a finished draft. If I'm not happy with the final result then I'll start a new draft until I'm satisfied.

 

Usually, I start with an imagined scenario, then outline it. Then I take the outlined elements and add the details to them that I imagined until I have a functional layout for the story. For those who need pre-production assistance, creative-writing software is available to help streamline the process; yWriter is an excellent example.

 

Okay so.. Basically something hits me. An odd observation, a beautiful observation, something like that. It can be very simple. Like one time I heard a ringing in my bathroom and that inspired a psychological drama about an Iraq war veteran who is driven crazy by the ringing in the bathroom. So once I get something interesting like that, I eventually get around to writing a story which incorporates the concept or thing that intrigued me. I write a loose outline of all the events. Then I start writing. Then I revise. I always write with pencil and paper and then type it up after.

 

@AussieNick I just bought a copy of Story Genius, and your comment has me looking forward to diving in to it. I also relate to the realization that I don't plan ahead well enough. I've wondered how the heck pantsers manage without any kind of rubric to roll with. Writing a random scene to see where it goes usually leaves me lost and confused.

It's taken me a comically long time to realize how important it is to know myself before I can know my process: recognizing how my brain works and how quickly I overthink or whittle an idea down to nothing, assessing and working to correct my fear and mental walls, developing awareness of my compulsive tendency to lose interest in projects and get caught up in something else, etc. I've been working to slow my mind down and become more dedicated and disciplined, which of course is much easier said than done.

I basically derp around until the next puzzle piece falls in to place. Last night was the first time in months that I've been inspired enough to sit in my living room hammering at my laptop well past my bedtime. What I have is a hodge podge of odd and fractured moments in a completely incomprehensible story, but little pieces are starting to stick out to me, and that's pretty exciting.

I need structure, but at the same time I'm not trying to rush or force it. It's a fun (albeit slow) process, and I'm enjoying the "it is what it is" mentality.

 

I have to figure things out, I can't just let it slide, if I get to the point where I don't know exactly what comes next, I will pace for literally hours until I figure it out.

 

I still haven't finished Story Genius. It is a useful novel and it's given me an important insight into what makes an engaging story. It does have a very well defined way of structuring a story, which is both good and bad. It's good that it really gets down to the details of creating a story but it only gives you one particular framework for doing plot. Give it a read because it is quite useful but I'd also look for as much material on writing as possible. I'm reading through some of Stephen King's early successes like It and The Dark Tower and I plan on reading his memoir On Writing. I'd also recommend Will Buckingham's Complete Write a Novel Course.

I've actually gone back to practicing using fanfiction. It's fun to do and depending on how loosely you interpret the source material it can help with plot and character development.

 

Lately it's been WRITE, WRITE, WRITE -- Don't think about errors, logical goofs, spelling, grammar -- just WRITE.
Seems to be working.

 

I don't tend to plan too much in advance before I start writing a story beyond what is essential. It always starts with a spark, whether it is a setting, a character, or a general plot line that I want to work with. Then I go off of that initial idea and create a world and story around it. Depending on the story, I might make a lot of notes about characters and how the world works. With my current story, I did write notes, but not to the same degree as past stories. Just enough to get me started and figure out the basic facts about the religion and culture. I also like drawing some of my characters if I feel up for it, since I am a very visual person.

From there...I just start writing. I start with chapter 1 and work my way forwards. Most of the time, my first draft is in a physical notebook(s), written in pencil. If I get stuck in my first draft, I may start typing up some chapters in a Word doc so that I'm at least getting some work done on my story. It's once I start typing that my brain goes into "editor mode" and catches mistakes I made or starts filling in holes and adds scenes and even takes away scenes.

The only problem is that I've never finished an original story to date. So it's going to be interesting to see how I get to doing that!