My Writing Process

Katie Ganshert is a guest blogger for Rachelle Gardner today.  She gave some wonderful simple advice for writers who want to improve their work.  The question at the end of the post inspired me to evaluate and share my own writing process.  I go through at least the following five phases when writing.

1 – Outline – Yep, I am one of those boring authors who uses an outline.  Creating the story (by that I mean thinking through the basic plot, characters, and purpose for the book) can take several years or just a couple days.  That creation takes place almost exclusively in my head.  I make notes here or there but it isn’t really a project until I write the outline.  By the time I’m done creating, outlining it is quick, maybe a week.  I outline the entire plot, do all the high level research, decide when to reveal different character attributes, define the backstory, everything.

2 - Story – Once the outline is done I pretty much vomit the 40-50K word story onto the page as fast as I can write it.  As long as my research is complete I’ll write 5-10K words a day.  However, my penchant for learning and getting the details right frequently leads to days of research, slowing the process.

3 - Characters - A wonderful story is great but if you don't give the reader a reason to care about the characters the story doesn’t matter.  For every scene in my book I am aware of what every character is thinking in every scene.  I am even aware of what characters not in the scene are doing at that moment so the story chronology doesn’t fall apart.  Unfortunately, in my rush to get the story on paper, I frequently withhold too much of that knowledge.  So in this rewrite I reveal more internal conflict and solve problems with characters appearing too bland.  This rewrite can take a while because the little tweaks to the characters also massage the story line.

4 – Setting – As with the characters, if I use an existing location (i.e. Lincoln Center) I frequently do not adequately describe the setting for the reader because I see it so clearly in my mind.  That or I am so effusive about a created world the story bogs down.  So I try to fix those mistakes.  Sometimes it takes hours to find the description I want.

5 – Stronger Prose – At this point I feel like the story is in good shape but the writing still needs some help.   I read through the book and every time I find a passive sentence or weak phrase I search the entire novel for similar uses and change them.   This is also when I try to pare down the extra words.  If I’m not careful this can become a near endless cycle of iterative improvement.   Deciding when this phase is done is the hardest part for me.

By the time I start letting a story leave my protective custody, I have written and re-written each scene at least a dozen times.  That doesn’t make me a good writer, or a good rewriter for that matter.  It doesn’t ensure that the story is good enough, but it is a process that I am happy with and I enjoy the results.