To paraphrase ol’ Leo, all writing processes are different in their own way. In other words, no matter how many blogs or articles you might read about how authors prefer to do their work, how they prepare, where they like to sit, what they like to have around them, what time of the day they do it etc, in the end it all comes down to what works for you. So, does the world really need another this is how I do it piece? No, of course not, but it may as well have this one.
I’m always making notes, jotting things down, saving pieces of news, all kinds of things like that, whether I have an idea of how I might use them or not. Quite a while ago I saw something on TV, then read some more about the whole idea of places that no longer exist. Over the course of centuries they’ve ether been swallowed by the sea, been abandoned for one reason or another or, maybe most interesting, there’s the mysterious story of the Roanoke Colony. At around the same time I also read a few things about the discovery of hitherto hidden buildings, huts and other dwellings, forgotten underground streets and such. So, I added them to my notes and carried on with whatever else it was I was doing at the time.
The idea of hidden or disappeared places stuck with me and soon led to a story developing in my mind. I’d also become interested in the theme of block time, wondering if that, too, might fit into this new fermenting tale. I did a bit more research, made copious notes and then started trying to implement these ideas my new story idea.
When I begin something new I usually have so many notes that I can get quite a lot down straight away, usually the first three or four chapters in one sitting. Of course, they’re super-scratchy and rough, but I find that as soon as I have something down it becomes much easier to continue to the next part, and then on to the next. You may have heard mention of ‘pantsers’ and ‘plotters’, the former being someone who writes their stories as they come, by the seat of their pants, while plotters will think everything through before they start, usually having at least a good idea of how they want everything to fit together. If you really want to know, I suppose I’m more of a ‘pantser’, with just a little plotting here and there. And it really is amazing, if you are writing with only a general idea of what, at some point, will happen next, how the story seems to grow organically, how ideas and plot points and dialogue just seem to appear from nowhere, things that may never have occurred to me if I’d been trying to get most of it prepared in advance.
Anyway, after that initial burst of activity I then fall into the rhythm of adding to the story whenever the urge strikes me, both typing on the Mac or by making notes in the Supernote. I usually have other things on the go, short stories, flash fiction, that kind of thing, and then there’s the Fox Creative ‘day job’, researching or printing or cutting, editing the website, updating the accounts, preparing mailouts etc etc. Still, the story carries on being written for a while and then, from nowhere, a new burst of inspiration strikes and then I’m off again, pretty much working on it every day until it’s finished. This usually happens over the course of, perhaps, three or four hours each day, which equates to something like 1500-2500 words. I use Scrivener, and that has a handy tool where, if you give yourself a deadline, it will then tell you how many words you need to write each day in order to reach that deadline. It’s only this year that I’ve started using it; it was reading something Stephen King had said about how valuable it is to get the first draft of your story written in 90 days that made me want to give it a go, and it is a handy and surprisingly motivational thing.
So, that’s pretty much where I am right now. I have a couple of chapters left to write in my story of hidden locations and shifting time, then I’ll leave it alone for a while, work on other things and then, after a few weeks, I’ll come back to it with fresher eyes. Then it’s time for the editing and the rewriting, getting a second draft finished, then a third and on until, hopefully, the story is as good as it’s going to get.
And then, well, we enter the world of When does the laughing start?, another bloggy post around here somewhere.
So, what is my process? Well, basically, there’s nothing set in stone, no particular time of day allocated to it, it just happens when it happens, the muse grabs hold and I follow it in whichever direction it wants to take me. And so concludes another unhelpful article. If you would like to read something on the subject that’s slightly more erudite, please have a look at this, or perhaps this. And then, well, I suppose the best advice of all is to just do you.
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