My Eight Step Writing Process

I finished the first draft of my Brull novel on November 12th.  81K NaNo words and 88K of total words.  The experience was intense, writing the words in just 12 days.  At the end, my goal of 120K didn’t make it.  The plot played out before my eyes and it changed from my scene outline.  I think the book came out better than planned, but I’m hardly the one to judge at this time.

So now I’m into rewrites.  I’m already embroiled in the first one, which is a clean up after drafting the novel.  Lots of typos and awkward phrases will be eliminated.  I’ve planned out an eight step writing process that I thought I’d share.  Rewriting is not something I enjoy, but it’s still part of publishing a novel.

 

My Process:

Initial Scrivener Draft.  This includes Characters, World Building, Outlining, etc.
First Scrivener Rewrite – get gross typos fixed, come up with plot expansion/fixit list generated on a different file as I rewrite.
Second Scrivner Rewrite – Take plot expansion list and add description and feelings
First MS Word Rewrite – Take the manuscript and run it through the grammar checker
InDesign Conversion – Apply interior graphic design.
First InDesign Rewrite – Focus on Polish and description
Proof: Second InDesign Rewrite – Order an actual printed book and do a proof on the book and then input the marked up changes. (Cover and Book Interior then sent to CreateSpace for publishing)
e-Book Conversion – Transfer manuscript to MS Word and modify it for e-book publishing

You can see from the workflow that I use three writing platforms.  Each one has it’s own benefit (and disadvantages).  I use Scrivener because it’s a great drafting tool.  MS Word because it has the only grammar checker and is used as the input format for Amazon, Smashwords and Pubit (B&N).  InDesign because it’s simply the best available (to me anyway) desktop publishing tool for precise control over a printed book.

This is my first formal attempt at this flow.  I used it with some variations for my last two novels:  Daughter Disinherited and Daughter Betrayed.  Slipped in there is an editing phase which happens after the MS Word Rewrite, but that’s an external thing so I didn’t include it in the above.  The editors/reviewers use MS Word track changes