Ashton asked Opal Reyne:

What is your writing process?

Opal Reyne Chaos! Just joking.
My writing process generally starts with me fixating on spicy scenes in my head. If I like one, I make up another, then another, and then I start thinking about the big high and low emotional scenes. The ones that make you laugh and cry. Then filler.
Once I have most of the main plot ideas in my head and how my characters should get to them, I spend hours looking up the perfect names, what they mean, and if I like the idea of the way my characters might sound saying them.
Before I even put pen to paper, I start mapping out the main emotions, drives, and fears of my characters, and WHY they want to be together.
This is all done in my head. I never write anything down and tend to remember most of the details.
Then, I start at the beginning.

I can't start chapter 1 and then go to chapter 5. I have to write them in order, which can sometimes get me stuck but I just work through them until I get flow again.
Spicy scenes are generally the easiest for me, whereas connecting scenes are the ones I sometimes struggle with.

My first manuscript is always trash. I have lots of errors, spelling mistakes, repeated phrases and actions.
My first round of self-edits generally involve me asking myself what the heck I was trying to say, and getting all to make sense. This is also where I pick up any accidental loop holes and inconsistencies.
My second round of edits is where I start heavily snipping things I don't feel I need, and adding to the scenes where they feel a bit flat.

Then I begin giving my manuscript to people who need to work on it. Sensitivity readers, editors, proofreaders, betas.
I don't have alpha readers, as I find I don't have many plot issues. If there is a major issue, which I've only ever found in one of my books where I needed to rewrite a scene, someone will let me know along the way and I can swiftly fix it.

A book can take my anywhere from 3 weeks to 2 months to write, and I generally hit around 150k words for my novels, sometimes more. It really depends on how sticky the manuscript is in my head, how clear headed I am, and how much I stay off tiktok and social media. Anything negative, especially from social media, tends to stop me from being able to write.

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