My Writing Process…

I haven’t been a published author very long, about a year. I don’t consider myself to know everything about writing or publishing. I don’t think anyone does because it seems publishing changes every day and writing, well the more you write the more you yourself progress in talent and routine. I’m sure someone on the outside would tell me I’m doing it all wrong (there’s always at least one asshole). I’ve completed two novels in the last couple years. One was published last August as Little Gray Dress, it’s now republishing with a new publisher and rebranding as The Lucky Dress. Essentially I’ve written this book twice, as well as an additional book that will be released in Jan/Feb 2019.

When I wrote the original Little Gray Dress I was participating in NaNoWriMo the winter of 2017. I wrote that book in about 10 days, then went on to do a complete rewrite by the end of the month. When it went to my new publisher I added 20k words in a week. Considering I had time to think of what I’d like to change during the six months it was published, it wasn’t hard to add those words. My second book came to me one day in January 2018 and I had it written in two weeks. THIS was the book I wanted to write as my debut, but I just couldn’t find the right characters at the time.

To say I write the first draft quickly is an understatement. I never intend on writing them so fast but my personality is one where once I’m in the groove of something, I will obsessively work on it until it’s finished before being able to move onto anything else (like cleaning the house or cooking for my family lol). So when I sit to write a book, chances are if things flow, I’ll be sitting at the computer for twelve hours a day until it’s finished. I’ll go to bed late and wake up early. I’ll drink dozens of cups of coffee a day and eat only finger foods. I’m not sure why this system works for me, but it does. The fact that I can type almost 100 words a minute means sometimes I’m typing faster than I’m thinking and rewriting what I just wrote five thousand times until I love it.

Before I find that story that has me ignoring life as I write it, I’ll sit and try to force a story out over a period of a few weeks. As happens every single time, I’ll hit about the 20k mark and delete the whole damn thing. It always ends up going nowhere when I try to write how I consider is ‘normal’. Apparently, it’s not so normal for me.

I recently signed a 4 book deal with Aria Fiction (woot!!). My first release (August 7th, 2018) will be my debut novel Little Gray Dress, rebranded as The Lucky Dress, with a new cover (cover release coming VERY soon) and 20k word addition (if you read LGD, I promise you’ll love these changes – reviewers, I listened to you, some of you that is). My second book was complete when I signed the contract and it will be released in Jan/Feb of 2019. The third book in the contract is the ever popular requested ‘Liam Story‘, which I’ve started and deleted about five hundred times in the last few months. Liam has consistently been on my mind and I’m this |   | close to planting my ass in this chair and writing for a week to tell his story. I actually feel it coming soon, as in the next few weeks soon. Because it’s been brewing and making it’s way to the surface with all the right plot points and characters, I’ve been desperately trying to get other things in order in other areas of my life because when I disappear, I disappear until the first draft is written right up to those magical words The End.

Once I’ve completed my first draft I’ll let it sit for a week or so before coming back to it and hashing through it, adding on 10-20k more words. Rereading and rewriting over and over and over until I’m happy enough to send it off to beta readers for their opinions before I start in on my third rewrite. It all sounds a little nutty but it works for me, somehow.

I’ve thought about why this process works for me and I think I’ve figured it out. I always love fall when all the new TV shows come out, and finding one everyone is talking about that I can’t wait to watch. I’ll keep up with it until about episode four and then I’ll forget about it and not remember until the series is over years later and then I’ll binge watch the entire eight seasons in less than a week on Netflix or Hulu. I just can’t stay interested when something is drug out over a long period of time and I guess that also goes for me when I write. I need to ‘strike while the iron is hot’, so they say. I’m not complaining at all. In fact quite the opposite. I’ve come to love the way the story comes together, even as quickly as it does. It also helps me stay true to my characters and not lose my voice for that particular story.

So that’s it. I’ve got little patience, and I want instant gratification I guess, so I write like the wind and then take a break until editing starts. It works for me.

How about you, any weird writing routines when you write?

Tell me in the comments below!