The Writing Process, A Primer
A few months ago, I did a workshop for my TARA chapter about the process of writing. The workshop covered all of the various processes I’d used, both successfully and not so successfully, since my first book. I’m planning on turning that workshop into a series of blogs, but I, unfortunately, lost half of the speech through a computer glitch. I have it all printed out, though. (Hey, if anyone wants me to send them a copy and they promise to retype it all out for me, that’d be an offer I’d take!)
I recently discovered, though, a step in the process that was amazing and wonderful and I couldn’t wait to share it. I learned a secret from no less than Stephen King, a master of genre fiction if ever there was one.
Before I embarked on the revision of KISS OF THE PHANTOM, the third Phantom book which will be out next June (as you all know, PHANTOM’S TOUCH is out now…have you bought your copy yet?), I re-listened to Stephen King’s book, ON WRITING: A Memoir of the Craft. This is, by the way, a brilliant book. I love listening to the audio version because King reads it himself and since it is half memoir, half craft book, it’s super-cool to hear his voice. Anyway, I listened particularly hard during the revisions section and he said something that struck me.
He said that once an author finishes a book, he or she should put it away for SIX weeks. They should work on something new—preferably something that they could write in six weeks—before the writer returns to the original work to do the revisions.
The stars had aligned, because for the first time in recent memory, I had six weeks to revise. AND not only that, I had a short story I had to write…one I could do in six weeks. (Usually, I’m so behind on deadlines, I don’t have much time between when I turn a book in and when I have to do revisions. This time, I’d gotten the book in on time and didn’t have anything pressing…it was like back when I was unpublished and had the freedom to work on books as necessary. Very refreshing!)
So I took King’s advice. I put KISS OF THE PHANTOM out of my mind (made easier by the fact that my editor was reading it for revisions) and I started working on the fairytale-themed novella I’d contracted for Blaze. The story, which had been plotted with the monkeys back in July, was a joy to write.
Six weeks to the day, I received revisions from my editor. They were relatively light, but she had a couple of issues that were more than valid, but they were subtle…meaning they were going to require some thought. I went to the manuscript, did the easy fixes, then let the other changes float in my brain until I got a handle on exactly how to approach them. It’s easy when an editor says, “This character is a jerk. I hate him. Fix him.” (Which no, she didn’t say!) It’s hard when an editor says, “This character has changed a lot since we first met her in book one. Is there a reason for the change?”
Well, yes, there was a reason. And yes, the character was supposed to change. The trouble was, I expected the reader to understand the process of change and clearly, the reader (my editor) did not. I’d dropped the ball. I needed to fix it.
So when I went in, the prose was practically new to me. The six weeks had given me exactly the distance I needed to find the problem almost immediately and to not only fix it, but to also tighten up the prose and, as King also repeats Faulkner’s advice to Kill Your Darlings. (Am I the only person who thinks Faulkner didn’t heed his own advice?)
But I cut. I sliced. I skimmed the froth off the book and came up with something really lean and delicious. I’m so happy with the results of the revision, I’m wishing it was June now so that everyone could read the book! But alas, you must read PHANTOM’S TOUCH first, which I also think is a great book. And in six months, you’ll get to read KISS OF THE PHANTOM and we can discuss the process all together.
Of course, by then, I’ll probably have written the next Phantom book. I’m totally planning to work in the six week waiting time into my schedule and I even have the “in between” work planned.
I mean, King can’t be wrong about much, can he?
So…tell me about your writing process. What works for you?
Hi Julie great advice. I haven’t found my writing process yet :biggroan but love the saturday blogs trying to find it. I have recently joined RWA and am currently reading a book about writing by Christie Craig and Faye Hughes.have a great weekend.
Obviously, I am not a writer, but when I was doing papers in college, I always had to put it away the paper for awhile and then come back to it because it gives you a ‘fresh’ perspective. Yes, I was one of those obnoxious people who started term papers the day they were assigned….back in the beginning of the term.
Julie, I’ll be happy to type that up for you. Seriously.
Writing. I think I’m an ADD writer. I have so many stories and characters clamoring for attention that I can get distracted easily. Get writers block? Put the manuscript aside and jump to the next project. Needless to say, I ended up with half-@$$ed semi-completed novels cluttering up my files. I was so proud of the ones I DID finish that I thought they were perfect. (Wow, I only used “that” twice and probably could edit both out…
)
Friends introduced me to National Novel Writing Month three years ago. 50,000 words in 30 days. It’s insane. But it’s an insanity that taught me to focus and to push through writer’s block. The process taught me to write more words than I need so I have lots of words to play with when it’s time to edit. For example, I edited a manuscript down from 84,000 words to 65,000 to met requirements for a Silhouette line. I was terrified. Think about it, I was “deleting” about 1/4 of the words. Yet I was determined to make it work. It did. The full manuscript is up for consideration. *crosses fingers and repeats a mantra of pleasepleasepleaseplease*
My goal with NaNo this year was to write the sequel to that novel, but rather than padding words for the total count, I wanted to write a tight, concise story. I “won* with just over 50K words. When I stopped, my heroine is in jeopardy. She must free herself, catch the bad guy, reunite with the hero and get the HEA. I have 15K words to play with. What a luxury! Unfortunately, I had to put it aside while I worked on revisions for the novel that has sold to The Wild Rose Press. OMG, don’t even get me started. That book? Dang. I’m amazed it sold. Lots of red-button editor flags while I did the self-edit – many of which, btw, I learned here from you four and the guest author bloggers. THANK YOU! Uhm…yeah. ADD. *focuses*
One other note – I mentioned about all the stories and characters dancing in my head? Since November, I’ve had three more books demand to be written. One I actually opened the file on and jotted down the opening scene. It was too good, too intense to let get away. Usually, I just do a sticky note with the idea and tack it to my writing board above my computer.
Eventually, I’ll finish those partial projects. Eventually, I get around to at least starting all those ideas from the sticky notes. I hope. So putting a completed project aside for six weeks is a done deal for me. I “hang up” on it and all those “calls on hold” start beeping at me.
Great blog today, Julie, and I’m serious. I’ll happily transcribe your speech. We’ve got :freezin moving in over the weekend so I’m off to finish some holiday shopping and then I’m baking cookies all day!
Hi, Everyone! I”m on my way out to my TARA Christmas party, but I’ll check in again tonight!
Silver, I’m taking you up on that. We have several things to discuss anyway, pursuant to the Jo Leigh auction, LOL!
Michele, do pick up the King book. It’s incredibly enlightening!
katie, yes those people are annoying!!!
Have fun at the party, Julie! And yes, we do.
I also have SK “Memoirs” as an audio book and love listening to it. His sense of humor is incredible…however, don’t listen to it with children in the car.
I’m also trying to figure out my process. But, from the few ms that I have completed, because I tend to bounce back and forth between them, I can definitely see how that time off between is an advantage. When you go back and read it again, it’s like looking at it for the first time and certain things just jump off the page.
Have a great time at the Christmas party!!
I’m not really that methodical, but I pretty much do the same thing. I write a book, and then set it aside and work on something else. Usually, though, I won’t pick it back up to do revision for about a year, which I realize is probably not the best way to do things, but I just really HATE revisions
After a little while, I’ll have my novel group take a peek at the book and give me a little feedback and then I’ll work on it until I’m happy.
But I don’t work under deadlines…since I’m not published or anything. So I don’t have to worry about that.
Great blog this morning, Julie! I have Stephen King’s book on my shelf and it is fabulous.
My process: I get an idea for a book, discard it. Get another idea for a book. Discard it. Get another idea for a book. Discard it. I keep doing this until I think I have an idea that will work, an idea I am excited about, an idea that sings. Then I start thinking about characters and their backstory, their story arc…then I go to plot and think about scenes. Sometimes scenes come easily out of the ether and sometimes they don’t which is most of the time.
When I start writing I usually have a false start. So I hit the delete key, start over. Write something new. Hit the delete key. Start over. I continue doing this until the beginning feels right. Then I can write the rest of the book. The beginning MUST feel right before I can continue. I have tried to push through a bad beginning and keep writing but I just can’t.
Once the book is done, I let it sit for a few days before I read it through and revise, edit and so forth. I do this ONLY if I have a contract in hand and a deadline. At present I have no contracts or deadlines so a book will sit longer while I piddle around, come up with some other book ideas, maybe take an on-line class or three, do some laundry, play Free Cell, check e-mail and other non-essential stuff before I get back to that book.
Than of course the doubt creeps in and I start second guessing myself and my abilities and comparing them to other much more stellar writers, NYT best sellers, Nora…well you get the idea. Then I tell myself, screw it, and send out the ms. No pain, no gain. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Right? Of course right!
Have a great day all,
Cher