My Writing Process—Or Lack Of One

Another Wednesday random post and this week we’re digging #deep folks. The topic is My Writing Process and has it changed/evolved. Honestly, this image pretty much sums up my entire writing process…

So post done!

Okay… maybe not quite that blunt, but… I’m pretty sure I’ve done a writing process blog before. No, I didn’t search for it. Searching, like writing, is hard… but… to be honest, not too much has changed. I’m still a ‘pantser’ gal. If I waited until I knew the entire book, they’d never get written. I try to trust in the bits that I do know and pray (or, yeah, crossroad demon deal) the rest will come. It’s actually a pretty sweet moment when you figure out how the whole thing ends! Kind of like having a baby and finally discovering whether it’s a boy or a girl.

I might try to figure stuff out more, now… but it’s not a guarantee that it’ll happen. More likely, I’ll just get vibes for a different book, I’m not currently writing, which is so maddening. Because you know once you move to that book, I’ll get stuck there the exact same way.

So for me, the process is still the same…

An idea—whether it’s from something I saw, heard, read, lived. Somehow, conversations start happening inside my head. For me, it’s generally at night when I’m trying to find a way to fall asleep. But it’s enough to make me want to dig deeper.

Start writing—yup. Once I have an idea, and hopefully it’s the beginning, I just jump right in. The first few chapters are usually not too bad until I reach the end of my idea. That’s where I spend endless time staring at the screen. Until either I figure out the next step, or sometimes… I gotta put the story away. If it’s too forced, it won’t flow or sound natural, so…

Keep writing—Assuming bits are still coming to me, I just keep writing, and trust it’ll all unfold on its own. There usually comes a time where it’s so stuck in my head, it becomes all consuming.

Plan a bit to the end—This last bit…if all goes well, I will know enough I can make a couple of notes for each of the remaining chapters so I have a rough idea how much longer it will be. This is not a synopsis or plotting. It’s seriously a sentence or two. Just so I stay on track. Especially if the book is getting long. I know… me? Long? Surely I jest!

And that’s really it. I do go back through and update bits as they become clearer or change. Or I think of a piece that needs to go between others, but I don’t do endless drafts. That first one is pretty much the book with some bits tweaked upon my read through. And the edits of course. That’s the polish… when someone else points out all the stuff I missed 🙂

Now… for you amusement, my process in a series of gifs….

The beginning…

When I start to run out of what I know…

About halfway through….

At any given point during this ride….

When I just want to finish it but I don’t know the damn ending, yet….

Pushing through toward the end….

YATZEE!

Now go check out my amazing friends and see how they create their masterpieces…

Bronwyn  |  Torrance