After pre-writing, I’m ready for drafting!

Drafting

And I’m off. I open the laptop… and I freeze. I stare at that blinking cursor for long minutes, or hours… or days, if I’m being honest. When I finally begin chapter one, it’s out of frustration. “God, I have to start somewhere, and if it sucks, I’ll delete it later.” I usually delete it later.

Once I get started, I try to write fast. I find that if it takes more than a couple months for me to write a novel, it either doesn’t get done, or the last few chapters are like torture to finish because I’ve figured out the ending and I’ve lost interest in writing it down. So I write as fast as I can for about 4 or 5 weeks.

When the novel is done, I cry, I congratulate myself, I drink some wine, and I put the damn thing away. If I have a lot of time, I put it away for a month or so.

Only then do I edit.

I just began the process of writing a new book! This will be the fourth full-length I’ve written, but I’ve also written countless unfinished drafts and several short stories. So after all that experience, I feel like I’m finally learning my process.

I realized I’ve never really blogged about my process, so I thought I’d share it with you. This post got to be like 800 words, so I’m breaking it down into smaller ones. We’ll start with pre-writing, which is the stage I’m still in at the moment.

Pre-Writing

First, I write out the idea in my Magic Notebook. The Magic Notebook holds ever story idea I’ve ever had since I started writing. It also holds notes on hooks and enneagrams, which I use to plot and create characters. I begin by just writing out the idea, however vague it may be. Sometimes it’s just a word, sometimes it’s an almost fleshed out plot. Other times, it’s just a character.

After that, there’s some simmer time, which ranges from a day to years, depending on how excited I am about the idea (or how desperate I am to start something new).

Then, still long-hand in the Magic Notebook, I write out about a page worth of plot summary. You could think of it as the shortest synopsis in the entire world. Then I write out the enneagrams and dominant wings for the two main characters (the heroine and the hero). By now, I’m starting to see how the characters and the plot mesh, and I’m beginning to get really excited. I want to turn on my laptop and go go go, but I make myself wait. The tension builds as I force myself to plot out at least the first two chapters before I begin.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about the drafting piece of the process.