My Writing Process

What's my writing process? Well, it's really quite simple. All I do is stare a tree (for who knows how long) and then sit down and write about said tree. And in four days, I come out with a 200K word novel all perfect and ready to be published.

Ha! If only it were that simple. (But then, if it were, anyone could do it.) This is actually what I do:

The Idea

I found out pretty quickly that going out and looking for ideas doesn't work. It's better if I just let them come to me. (They really need to work on their timing though. :P) But even when they do come, they don't want to stay and chat. All they do is pop in and say something that doesn't make any sense whatsoever, and then run away.

So, I chase after them, asking questions as I try to keep up. Even though they don't stop, they are nice enough to throw answers over their shoulder, however unhelpful they may be. But, eventually, I get everything I need to at least start.

Plotting?

I actually don't think that I have a set way of doing this. It feels like it's different every time. With The Barrier, I did this whole outline thing, which I didn't follow very well towards the end. I practically pantsed Strangers. For that one, I just had a few ideas in my head before I wrote it. And finally, this new idea that I've started writing doesn't really have an outline. It's more just character sheets and backstories.

But two things that I need before I can begin is characters and setting. One thing that I have to do before I start, is get to know my characters. What they look like, what their personalities are, how they interact with other people, etc. Settings are also really important, because without that, I don't really know what my characters can and can't do, or where they can go.

So, I guess I don't really plot, but I'm slowly changing that.

First Draft

This is the part where I take my characters, throw them in some random place, and force them to interact with each other. I mean, in a way, that's basically what all writers do. Am I right?

Apparently, a lot of writers hand write their novels? I started out doing that, but not for very long. I found that typing it up is a lot faster. Usually, the only time I hand write is when I don't have my laptop on hand. I do like handwriting, it's just that my hand has a hard time trying to keep up with my brain. :P

The time it takes to write the first draft varies. It can take four weeks or it could take ten months. All of them are very messy and bad. But, I hear that's why we edit.

Editing

And then comes the first round of edits. I don't know about the rest of you, but for me, this is pretty much a love hate relationship.

The first thing I do is read through everything I wrote and just make small changes as I go (which are mostly typos). The reason I do this is so that I can figure out what and where I need to add, take out, or move things. Then, I create a new document and rewrite it.



So that is my writing process, if you can call it that. :P

And to wrap up, I have just one thing to say. At the beginning of this month, I said that I had a new novel idea and that I would add it to my Writings page sometime this month. Well, I got around to that the other day, so if you want to go check it out, feel free to do so.


What about you? What's your writing process like?