What is your writing process?

[Teresa]

What is your writing process? My first novel wrote itself. I jokingly call it "plot without thought." But the process felt sacred.(see goodreads blog http://bit.ly/1l1LjU4) Does anyone else write like this?

[Feliks]

I plan/sketch/outline heavily beforehand because there is nothing worse (to me) than wasting effort or having to re-do something.

In every scene or chapter--I must know what the goals are. When I keep my goals firmly in mind, then --very often--I can 'play' and channel in some absurdity and surreality. But this takes place only in these cases where I keep priorities straight.

Its not really as rigid as it sounds. In laying out the anatomy of the story--in that planning stage-- many times the characters themselves seem to 'find their way' without me consciously determining their fates for them. I've been surprised by the story taking a completely unplanned turn while still 'in my head'. Once I begin writing though--no changes allowed.

[Neven]

I write pieces of plots I think I want to put in the novel, and I see if I can connect them or not. Of course, I do have a master plot in my head, and I also do a lot of research.

[Doug]

I start with a single idea - a vivid scene or some sort of event I want to write about - and then I just start writing. I rarely know exactly where the story is going to go and there's been several times when I've surprised myself. Am a true 'pantser'. There are times when I think I've written myself into a corner but a few days of sleeping on it and thinking about it always produces an answer. I've learned how to trust my inner writing voice and just let the story tell itself.

[Dave]

I come up with a rough idea of the story I want to tell, and then write the characters into trouble. Then I figure out the source of the problems and how they fit with the idea I had for the story and outline (roughly) from there.

I use discovery writing (or pantsing) to create my problems and then outline to resolve them.

[Marc]

In general, I have what I guess I can call a 'vector' process, a starting point and a direction. The starting points can vary. In one case I had an image, in others a first line. My most difficult book started as a plot idea which then gave out, but only after I'd come to love the characters. The direction often stays the same, but by the time I get there it doesn't mean what it did when I thought of it. I can't possibly outline, since I don't know what's going to happen on page B until I've written page A.

[P.I.]

I wouldn't call it sacred, more like organic. It almost always happens at once: characters & their names, setting, plotline, and story arc. Whatever I start with, line, action, dialogue,it develops on its own and I agree with your great description "plot without thought"! I don't call it that, I call it pantsing but it's the same thing really. As for process,simple. I sit down and start typing.
Patti

[Stephen]

I will often have a long period of gestation of ideas floating around in my mind before I write a word, then at some point, I will write a detailed treatment of the story and character descriptions.

I then rewrite the treatment numerous times until I feel it is tight. Sometimes I'll work on something else, then come back and look at the treatment with fresh eyes, as nothing helps get a fresh perspective than time and distance.

Once I'm happy with the treatment, and am itching to get started because the book is vividly alive in my mind, I write the book. If I get a flash of inspiration and the book takes a turn I hadn't foreseen, I will rewrite the treatment to make sure I'm not heading down a dead end. Once I know the plan is good, I keep writing.

The most important thing for me is a plan from start to finish. Trying to find the book while writing is a recipe for overwriting.

When I finish the book, I rewrite numerous times, then I get some feedback from test readers and rewrite some more. I'm a great believer in the old adage, writing is rewriting.

When I can't change a word in rewriting, I'm done - and then I need a holiday!

[Feliks]

Yah for sure. Got to have that plan and map laid out beforehand to know you're not throwing away effort on ideas that can't lead you anywhere. My treatments are fully-fledged too--every important story-point set down. It shows there's no loopholes and that it makes sense and hangs together.

[Niall]

Generally I start with a character, or an idea of what the start and end will be like. I create character sketches (as in, I build a model of the character in a 3D package so that I know what they look like, and work over their basic character traits, skills, abilities.

Then I start writing. In all probability I should go back and rewrite some of these early sections to clear up some aspects of character which change as I work out who these people are, but I generally don't do that over much. And then I keep writing until I get to the end. This frequently involves discovering that the characters want to do things I hadn't planned, and the ending can work out differently from what was intended.

I do seem to have a weird ability to plot things out without knowing it. There are 11 books in the Thaumatology series and things in book 1 tie in and predict things in book 11, but I swear I didn't know where the series was going until I got to book 5 or 6!

A month after the first draft, I do an edit. That's a proofread and clean-up. I don't do rewrites after the first draft. I do scrap things half-way through and restart, but once the first draft is done, the book is set. There's another check over it about 3-4 weeks after the first edit. Book goes to my proofreader immediately after that. Book goes to "print" on Amazon and Smashwords once I've been through the proofread manuscript.

[Carol]

I always have an outline, but find that the story generally has a life of its own, and end up with something quite different.

[Carolyn]

Stephen said --- " Trying to find the book while writing is a recipe for overwriting."

AMEN to that! I like to work out the story in my mind first, where I'd describe it as organic. At this stage especially, much research is done eg I needed to look up how to make gunpowder from scratch. (and expected a call from US Homeland Security!)
Months later you can feel it's ready, you have sort of 'labor pains', the story demands to be born. It's just all there. Or rather, the opening scene, is, very vividly, all senses full on.

I like to 'live' inside a character's skin and see and feel as they do. What they're focusing on, only, is described. Most importantly, the story must (for me) have a detailed outline. It can take new turns, small ones, dictated by a character who insists he/she wouldn't do it that way. But the mainframe can't change, the holding points of plot, start, middle and end remain as is. Often, I write with pen and paper first, then do a rewrite as I'm typing and keep on polishing several times. (But not too often! You can get caught worrying about every word when it's the character moment, catching the life of the scene that's most urgent) Satisfied, the scenes will be built into a chapter which undergoes the same process of checking and polishing for continuity.

The book comes together chapter by chapter and finally requires rigorous rewriting, preferably after having been read by several experienced writers who can catch any out of character moments, plot inconsistencies, and writing style errors.
And it's The End. And promotional work begins. And it all costs you money , you don't make any. So you really really need to love writing and most of all be in love with the world and characters and CARE what happens to it and them. You no care, reader no care, reader no read.

[Jim]

I am not a prolific writer. My one and only novel was published three years ago. That said; this is the process I utilized at the time.

I made a list of the characters by name and wrote brief notes beside each pertaining to specific personality quirks, temperement, speech characteristics, and physical features to reference whenever the character appeared in the story to ensure consistency and continuity.

I also made a list of all the separate locations visited in the story; noting size, physical layout, outstanding features, customs, and population (size & unique attitudes).

From there, I wrote, proof-read, re-wrote, had others proof-read, re-wrote again, then polished. It took fourteen months to convince myself that I had produced a completed, polished manuscript.

Several weeks of working with the layout design artist, copy editor and conceptual editor, assigned by the publisher to help convert my manuscript into a commercially viable book, gradually brought me to the realization that the completed, polished manuscript, of which I had been so proud, was not yet complete nor polished.

The book was finally published Aug. 9, 2011.