writing process

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What is your writing process?

Do you have one?

Is there “one way” to write?

Well of course, there is no “one way” to write. You find what works for you, and you run with it.

If that stops working, you find something else.

Myself, I have always been a “pantser.” I abhor outlines. Outlining, to me, sucks the joy of discovery out the writing process.

Outlining is boring

It’s too structured.  I’m just not that kind of gal.

I like the thrill of trailblazing a new story. No compass. No map. Just me, my pen, and my characters.

Which is all well and good, until one day you look around and realize you’ve gotten nowhere.

That’s what happened to me recently.  My characters stomped around my psyche. My world materialized and grew right before my eyes. Key scenes demanded to be written.

And then I was left with all these dots, and very little to connect them. My characters became agitated, then bored. I became frustrated. Again.

Part inspiration, part perspiration

Looking back, I realize that’s part of my process.

That was the inspiration part.

It’s the perspiration part I kept getting stuck at.

I  tried different tricks to get un-stuck, but nothing was working.  I was stuck, stuck, stuck.

Image by Daehyun Park via Flickr

Outlining

For a long time, I resisted outlining. To my writer mind, outlining equals boring.

The creative process kept processing. Although not quite at the same rate as it had been when I was trailblazing through the scenes that demanded to be written.

My muse hadn’t completely given up on me. Nor had I given up on her. But she was getting bored, and I was getting desperate.

Then one day while I was cleaning out my mailbox, I found something. A free class.

On outlining.

Apparently I had signed up for it months earlier.  Probably because it was free.

So I went and checked it out again.  It was Holly Lisle’s Free Plot-Outline Course.

By the end of lesson two, I was beginning to feel un-stuck and excited.

Outlining wasn’t really all that bad.

Now, I’ve got my outline, and my scenes. I feel like a forensic scientist putting the pieces together, taking bits of my scenes and placing them onto my outline, fleshing things out here and there.

It’s starting to look less like a handful of unrelated scenes and more like a story.

Your process can evolve

Is that my process?  This week it is. Today it is. Tomorrow? Next month? Maybe.

That’s the thing about writing processes — they aren’t, if you’ll pardon the expression, written in stone.

You don’t have to be stuck. More importantly: You don’t have to stay stuck.

If your process stops working for you, you can find another one.

My process

Right now, my process seems to be scene-storming (writing down all the good parts, the parts that are rattling my cage) and pre-writing (writing notes, brainstorming about characters and world-building) while the pot is boiling.

Once the most insistent characters and scenes get out on paper, then it’s time to simmer.

That’s when I do more world-building and start looking at structure, examining how the scenes might best fit together.

Then I think about outlining.  (Shhh! Don’t tell my muse, she still hates the idea of outlining.)

Once I have a framework, start putting the pieces together.

So far, so good.

What about you?

What’s your process?