Writing Process – Taming the Chaos
Ever since I came out of the literary closet last year by publishing Origins and the follow-up Centurion’s Rise I get asked quite often about my writing process. Apparently I lit a creative fire under some friends of mine. Since I am going through it all again while penning book 3 in the Origins series, I decided to take notes along the way for posterity. I am by no means an authority on the subject, but I know what works for me. Here goes.
It all starts with a simple idea. Everyone, no matter how stoic or straight laced at some point has a great, creative idea strike them. Almost everyone just lets it go. A few dive right in with unbridled enthusiasm only to find themselves stuck after a few chapters with nowhere else to go with the idea and give it up. That’s because the big idea is usually just the climax or lead in of the story, which when you think about it only takes place over a handful of chapters.
Authors on the other hand write the simple idea down and give it a lot of thought before even typing a single word. They work forward from the idea to create an ending. They work backwards to establish a beginning. They dream up characters to live the story and conflicts. All this will generate gaps and plot holes that need to be resolved and filled. Pretty soon that simple idea evolves into a living breathing world that is almost too much to visualize in your head and you just have to start writing about it. This is how my writing career got started.
Next up: Plot outlining
It all starts with a simple idea. Everyone, no matter how stoic or straight laced at some point has a great, creative idea strike them. Almost everyone just lets it go. A few dive right in with unbridled enthusiasm only to find themselves stuck after a few chapters with nowhere else to go with the idea and give it up. That’s because the big idea is usually just the climax or lead in of the story, which when you think about it only takes place over a handful of chapters.
Authors on the other hand write the simple idea down and give it a lot of thought before even typing a single word. They work forward from the idea to create an ending. They work backwards to establish a beginning. They dream up characters to live the story and conflicts. All this will generate gaps and plot holes that need to be resolved and filled. Pretty soon that simple idea evolves into a living breathing world that is almost too much to visualize in your head and you just have to start writing about it. This is how my writing career got started.
Next up: Plot outlining
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