Writing Process On Overload
People often ask me about my writing process. I dread this question only because I fear what the person really is asking is for the right way to write. There isn’t one. I preface my answer with “don’t try this at home” or “this is just me.” My basic belief being that you have to do what works for you and not what works for some bestseller out there. I got a little reminder of this while writing my November release, HOT AS HELL.
When ideas for books come into my head, I write them down in these little journals I drag around with me. I don’t write a full synopsis or an outline or anything that detailed. Usually, the notes are enough to put the idea in my head and keep it there for later. This happened with the HOT AS HELL plot. Before writing my current release, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, I had this idea for an estranged couple where the hero is a black-and-white thinker and the heroine is pure gray. I wrote it down and sketched it out so I would not forget the plot. But instead of my usual notes, I wrote something more along the lines of an outline and about four chapters. I then put HOT AS HELL aside and wrote RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW instead.
When it came time to write HOT AS HELL later, I had some trouble. I knew the plot, characters and where the story was going to go. Problem was that by setting it out in my journal earlier in such great detail - as was not my normal process - it was as if I already had written the book. Whenever I tried to write, my mind had a you’ve already written this response. Needless to say, that made writing HOT AS HELL a tad difficult. I got over it, but changing my process, even slightly, really did impact my writing. I had a feeling this would be the case, but the reality of it was very strange.
A few years ago I heard Jayne Ann Krentz speak and she talked about how she couldn’t write a long outline before writing a book (like, for example, Suzanne Brockmann does). Krentz said that once she wrote the outline it was as if she wrote the book. I remember thinking I agreed. But now I know I really agree. For me, the detailed outline way of writing does not work. Good to know.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Your post made me smile because we work in opposite ways. If I don’t have an outline my brain says, Hey chickie, we don’t know what we’re doing here.
I agree with you. There’s no one right way to write.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:19 am
I got over it, but changing my process, even slightly, really did impact my writing.
This is me, too. A couple of books back, or longer, I tried to write a draft without editing as I go. EVERYONE said just get it down, go back and fix it later, do a fast first draft, blah blah. Uh, no. I can’t do that. I should have trusted myself that told me I can’t do that. That book took longer and caused more grief than anything I’ve ever written.
From now on, I’m all about editing as I go and ending up with a first draft that’s pretty much a done deal. I always have to polish, and my editor will always want changes, but when I get done, I know that there’s only a small amount of work left to do!
March 24th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Oh, boy, do I agree. I did big chunks of a first draft during NaNoWriMo in 06. I still haven’t finished fixing the book! I already know the ending–where’s the fun? But I do love the story and WILL finish it. Actually, I’m not really being fair to myself. One of the reasons I haven’t finished it is because I now write under two names, and the pen name is getting all the action (in the form of requests) lately. However, that said, I am a revise-as-I-go writer, and nothing will ever change that. My 06 NaNoWriMo experiment convinced me of that. So, live and learn.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
I’m with you all the way, HelenKay. I can’t write an outline before I start a book! I don’t know what’s going to happen yet…
March 25th, 2008 at 3:26 am
Can I be selfish and just say I don’t care how you write, as long as you do? LOL. I just want the finished product in my greedy little hands. And HelenKay, whatever it is you’re doing, well, it’s working.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Interesting how changing the process made it so difficult - I know I get thrown off kilter easily. I also don’t write books - I’d try if I had more focus… but when I write, I get snippets, a few paragraphs at most, then I’m maxed out.
And I don’t think it’d work to try to sell a book of 50K snippets. I do hate outlining though. I know everyone says it’s important, and you have to - for academic papers, etc, but I HATE it. Bad.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I am definitely a pantser (writing by the seat of my pants), not an outliner/plotter. I have a general idea where everybody is going, but if the characters don’t throw me a little surprise now and then—ZZZ. And if I”m bored writing it, the reader’s going to tossed the book into the sell-at-yard-sale pile by the second chapter!