The art of writing...

I write novels and short stories and people are often asking me 'How did you think of that?' or 'How did you write that?'. So I thought I'd take the time to explain how I go about writing, although I'm sure all authors have different approaches.

I always start out with an idea for a book or short story, but then as I start writing I find that the creative process takes over and as the characters develop, the story unfolds more or less on its own without much effort on my part; I think this is all to do with the subconscious mind working away in the background.

I do think it is important to have an idea of how you want the story to progress and even to write a short plan before you start out to make sure that you don't just end up going nowhere with the story. I would imagine that most writers, me included, have a reason they want to write their particular novel or story - somthing they want to say - and so its important that the message you want to get across is not lost along the way. I usually write a very brief plan before I start writing my novels, about an A4 page, setting out what I envisage happening in the book and how it will end. I don't usually find I need to plan for my short stories; the idea is usually just in my head and then I start writing it and develop it as I go along.

I have found that although I can more or less stick to a plan for the first draft of a novel; the ending is usually different to what I had planned, as the story takes a different route along the way. I can usually write the bare bones of a novel in about 6 months and then I edit it until I'm happy with the manuscript; the editing process in my experience takes longer than writing the story itself, although I truly believe that a book is never 'finished' and it would be possible to edit it for ever and still find more things to change/add!