So whenever I don’t have a guest blogger, I either put up a giveaway of a favorite writing book or I put up one of the workshops or articles that I’ve written for my TARA chapter. Today, I’m going with the second and posting a workshop I did a few months ago on the writing process. Honestly, it’s my new favorite workshop! I hope you enjoy it and I hope that you’ll share your creative process in the comments. Mostly, I hope that those of you searching for your process will find something that ups your productivity! That’s never a bad thing!
That Thing You Do—Discovering a Writer’s Process that Works!
By Julie Leto
One of the topics rarely addressed in writing workshops is the actual process of putting words on the page. I think this is for two reasons: one, many writers do not take the time to understand their process and two, writers have such divergent processes that giving a workshop on a particular writer’s process might not be useful to someone who cannot work that way.
What I intend to do today is talk about several different processes in an effort to demystify the way we writers do the amazing thing we do.
First, let me be clear that my workshop today is about my opinion, based on a long career. For those of you who don’t know my story, I started writing toward publication in 1988 after dinner and wine (lots of wine) with a friend evoked that age old challenge, “Hey, let’s write a romance novel!”
I’d been writing for years, but only for fun. I completed my first novel in the 6th grade, also written with a friend and our books were sort of a teenage Charlie’s Angels meets the Hardy Boys. Lots of action, lots of innocent kisses. Over time, my writing became more about skits and plays for school, essays and such, until I rediscovered my love of novelized fiction in college, where I majored in creative writing and speech communication.
The “Let’s write a romance novel” challenge came just as I was starting graduate school in English Education. And though I’d studied creative writing as an undergrad, I’d never completed a novel. The program focused on short stories (something I found totally useless until long into my career when I was invited to write novellas.) So I knew nothing about the process of writing a novel.
Over all this time and after writing 30+ books, I have to tell you something—my process is not set in stone. My process has always been fluid. Because of this, I think, I’ve never really had writer’s block. If I’m blocked, I change my process. It usually works.
What is a Process?
For the purposes of this workshop, I’ve broken the writer’s process into five elements: Duration, Frequency, Location, Approach and Success
1) Duration—how much time do you spend writing? Do you measure daily? Weekly? Monthly? Do you perhaps, not measure your writing in time, but in pages or words produced?
2) Frequency—this is much like duration, but it has to do with how often you write. Do you write every day? Every other day? On weekends? During school breaks? During school days?
3) Location—do you write at a computer in your home office? On a laptop on the patio? In a notebook during spare moments at your other job?
4) Approach—ah, the age old question. Are you a plotter? Do you have scenes sketched out that you write, in order, or do you write scenes that interest you most and then put them together in the end. Are you a seat-of-your-pants writer who feels the plot rather than plans it? Do you have a combination of both that works for you? Are you a plot-driven writer or a character-driven writer?
5) Success—this one is the easiest to gauge. Did the other four elements combine to create a finished novel? It’s a yes or no question. You either did or you didn’t. Or, you did or you didn’t in an acceptable length of time. Anything more than a year and I’d question your success rate (depending, of course, on the length and genre of your book.)
It’s my contention that a serious GENRE writer should be able to complete a book within one year’s time, no matter what their process is.
A career in popular fiction demands that an author put out at least one book a year. If your process isn’t allowing you to do that, then in my opinion, the process isn’t working.
I think it also probably goes without saying that you cannot find your process unless you have written.
So the first step to discovering your process is to write. To produce copious amounts of words or pages in a relatively short (year or less) given time. Only after you have used a process can you determine if it works for you or it doesn’t.
For more information on this topic of finishing a book, please go to my website and read the Article, GET IT WRITTEN.
So, let’s talk about some of the processes I’ve used.
Quill & Scroll
On my first two books, I wrote by hand. This was simply out of necessity. Before the age of laptops and Alphasmarts, pen & paper was all a writer had on the run. I was in graduate school at night and working a full time job during the day. I wrote during lunch, during breaks and between classes. At night (and let’s remember I was only 22 and had a lot of energy) I would type in what I wrote and then print the day’s work. The printed manuscript would go into a notebook or folder, which I would bring with me wherever I went.
I wrote a chapter a day, or sometimes only a scene a day. But I wrote every day.
I completed two historical romances with this process. As I was writing with a partner, she wrote some of the scenes and then in the end, I blended them all together. She did not have a computer, so I took her hand written scenes and typed them in the way I did to my own. On the first book, we wrote about half-and-half. On the second book, because I was a much faster writer, I wrote about three-quarters of the book. By the end of this book, we decided our friendship was more important than our career, which at the time wasn’t going anywhere, so she decided to quit writing. She gave me the rights to the books and then moved on. We’re still great friends. She’s still reading romance, but never tried writing again.
Weekend Warrior
By my third book, I was no longer in school and I was teaching. I did not write every day anymore, but I still had the pen, paper & notebook with me everywhere I went just in case. And there were days when I would not write. I had 100 writing and literature students and a course load that required me to teach at least three different classes from Freshman English to Junior American Lit.
Around this time, I got married. I upgraded from an Apple 2e to a PC, which gave me the incentive to write at home. By this time, I’d also joined a critique group that demanded a chapter a week. (I actually joined with the second pen & ink book, but the demands hadn’t changed.)
So I wrote a chapter a week. In the meantime, I was also sending out proposals and queries, etc. By writing only on weekends, I finished the book in a little over a year—still not as quick as I knew I wanted. I went through the submission and rejection process and dallied with other stories during this time, writing one that my critique partner said “worried her” because it was so depressing.
At then end of this process, I took a year off from writing. It was a very conscious decision. My husband had taken a job in Atlanta, but because I was very busy teaching 4 different classes that year (including moderating the yearbook and creative writing magazine) I knew all my computer time would be about my students. But it was a very deliberate, “I get one year off and one year only.” I did not quit.
Fly By Night
By the time I got to my fourth book, my life had changed again. I was now not only teaching, but I was teaching in Atlanta, away from my friends and family and with a husband who traveled, you’d think I was writing all the time. I wasn’t. I blame, now in retrospect, serious depression. And the fact that I was teaching a new curriculum (whereas at my previous job, I had the curriculum memorized.) But I did write on the weekends or when the muse struck me. It was the slowest process I’d ever written under. It took me two years to produce a short contemporary novel that I ended up selling as my first published book.
Oddly enough, I do not consider this process to be successful. Yes, I sold a book…but it took too long and was too filled with fits and starts. I knew I couldn’t continue this process and have a career in category romance. I had to change.
Express Lunch
Soon after that book sold, my life changed again. I was now living in Florida again and working as a secretary—and I was pregnant. This was the most disciplined time of my writing career, probably because I had the least amount of time. I was tired all the time and working eight hour days. I had forty-five minute lunches and I didn’t have my own office, but a desk that faced the customers I had to greet.
But I had one distinct advantage—I was working for my family’s business. So at lunchtime, I would kick one of my brothers out of his office so I could have time to write and privacy and quiet.
This is when I developed my layering process. (Which you can also read about in depth at my website under the article, LAYERING AND TEXTURING)
It worked like this:
For the first ten minutes, I made my lunch. I was pregnant and had to eat! Then I holed up in whatever office I’d pilfered and plug in my diskette to get to work. For the first twenty minutes, I wrote a new scene. Then for the last ten minutes, when I was starting to get distracted and tired, I’d start working only on dialogue and would try to finish the scene. At the time, dialogue was hardest for me—but in the long run, learning to pivot scenes on my dialogue helped tremendously. I’d just write the conversation with absolutely no tags until my time was up. Then I’d save, clean up all evidence of my presence and return to the job.
Then at night, I’d transfer that file into my PC. If I had the energy, I’d edit whatever new part of the scene I’d written, then layer in the emotion, action and description to that last piece of straight dialogue. I completed one scene a day, every day, worked a bit harder on the weekend and in 8 months, I had a book! It was my second sale.
Soon after, I had my first child. I used the time in between the completion of my book (and revisions, etc.) to work on the proposal for my next book, probably in the Fly By Night fashion, writing simply whenever I could or whenever I had the energy. I don’t really remember. I had it critiqued and polished, then sent it to my editor for a possible contract.
Then, I wrote nothing. I had a newborn and I had a proposal that did not have an answer. I called my editor over and over, but she could not get her boss, the senior editor, to approve or reject. She loved it, but at the time, was not in the position to buy without approval.
I waited thirteen months. Then finally, I got a rejection. I was devastated and furious. I’d waited over a year for a rejection? My editor told me to come up with something new. She assured me she wanted another book.
So I came up with something new. Two days later, I pitched her a title. Just a title. GOOD GIRLS DO. I had no story. She and I brainstormed a story to go with the title (this was pre-Plotmonkeys) and I wrote a synopsis quickly. She had since been promoted and bought it as the first of a three book contract with only a synopsis and not even a single sample page.
Before I go on to the process I used to finish that book, I have to say that it was probably very unwise of me to not write for that entire year and just sit around and wait for an answer. (Okay, I wasn’t sitting around, I was dealing with a newborn…but STILL.)
Had I been REALLY smart (and not dumbed down by raging hormones and a colicky child) I would have started something new. But things worked out for the best in the end. I was lucky. Sometimes, things happen for a reason.
Okay, back to the process. Now it was time for me to write a book that I had not one word of with a baby in the house.
Honestly, I simply modified the Express Lunch process I’d developed while I was working, only instead of writing during lunch time, I wrote during nap time. I wrote the same as before…twenty-thirty minutes of solid writing, then another fifteen to twenty of straight dialogue. The next day, I’d edit and flesh out the dialogue and continue on. I wasn’t as militant about a scene a day (which is about 6-to-8 pages) but I was close.
Up to this point, to recap, I’d written six completed manuscripts and four distinct processes to reach The End.
Two were written by hand, typed in later and edited on computer (Quill & Scroll).
The next book was written on the weekends, every weekend with the goal of finishing a chapter a week for my critique group. (Weekend Warrior).
The fourth book was written at a “leisurely pace,” in any free moment I could get, though mostly in the summers and during holidays. This is the first book I sold. (Fly By Night).
The fifth and sixth books were written on a strict schedule during a very limited period of time and when I wasn’t feeling 100% energetic. (Express Lunch).
Six books, four different processes to writing.
I can’t really remember what I did following, but I’m assuming that as my daughter got older and started preschool and I was under contract, my writing returned to the disciplined form that I’d started with. My point of telling you how I work is to show that in my opinion, the most prolific writers are the ones that are adaptive and disciplined. The most important aspect of all these situations was that even before I had a computer, before I had all day to write, I wrote.
I never made excuses, I made adaptations. If I said I can’t write during the week, but I’d write on the weekends, I wrote on the weekends. I said no to lunches out with friends and to housework. If I said I could not write until the summers, then in the summers, I wrote. (After one week off to decompress from the school year, I will admit).
So before you can find your process, you first have to find your discipline. I can’t stop thinking about the scene in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK where Yoda says to Luke. “Do or do not. There is no try.”
This is excellent advice for writers. Maybe you can’t write every day. Maybe you can’t do a chapter a day or a chapter a week, but if you’re not writing at all, then you’re not doing. Thinking about writing, coming to TARA meetings or going to conferences is not writing. Writing is writing. You have to find your discipline, even if that discipline changes with each and every book.
Wasn’t it the movie, Throw Mamma from the Train, where Billy Crystal tells his students, “A writer writes…always.” Maybe not always, but as close to always as you can get, if you want a career as a writer.
You have to be adaptive, but you have to be determined.
I understand that it’s easier for me to be determined when I have contracts to fulfill. But my first two books were written that way and they’ll never sell. The third book was written with determination and though it didn’t sell then, I retooled that idea and rewrote it as PHANTOM PLEASURES, which came out last April.
My fourth book, my Fly By Night book, was the first I sold. It’s woefully ironic that the one book I did not write with determination became the first book I sold…but if I’d kept to that Fly By Night writing style, I never would have been able to handle the three book contract I got a few years later.
One of those three books, by the way, became a launch book for Blaze—one I had to write very quickly in order to be one of the first four authors in the line.
Being a launch author had one interesting offshoot. Because of the attention to the launch, I was invited to write a single title for an editorial house that shall remain nameless. The deal never worked out, but because of the opportunity, I got an agent and wrote my first single title book, MAKING WAVES, which Harlequin eventually bought, but only after a lot of angsty-wrangling that in return gave me the idea for the Marisela books I wrote for Pocket.
Opportunities lead to other opportunities, some good, some bad…but at least I was working and regularly, too.
Which leads to now. Because again, over the past three years particularly, I found that my process once again needed changing.
How did I know?
Same as I said before…I wasn’t producing pages. That is the big indicator!
About four years ago, I had a year when I wrote six books. I think two might have been novellas, but it was still a huge output. The next year, I think I wrote three. The year after…two. Every year, my output was shrinking. Then last summer, I tried a new process.
Gemini Process
The Gemini Process is one I wasn’t really sure would work, but I was learning that my attention span for a book would start to peter out after about 1000 words a day. Instead of fiddling around or staring at a blank screen, I started working on another book at the same time, doing about 500 words of the second novel once the first novel made my eyes cross.
This worked fine until I hit the ¼ mark on both books. This is where the set-up is over and the nitty-gritty of the story begins and I found that I couldn’t concentrate on two books at once. So I dropped the shorter category book and focused on the meatier single title, which had an earlier deadline.
Then life happened, as it is wont to do. I had issues with my daughter’s education that required I spend a lot of time focusing on her rather than on me. I had health issues which led to my recent hysterectomy. To be honest, I was barely writing. A couple of hundred words a week, if I was lucky. That lasted until then end of the year.
At the new year, I took my troubles to my Plotmonkeys. Our process wasn’t working for me anymore! We were discussing characters and exploring plot ideas, but we weren’t really plotting step-by-step, which is something I decided that I needed. I needed to talk through the entire book.
So we changed this step in our process and it was AMAZING. Yes, it takes us longer to work on a book, but it’s worth it. We walk away with a boatload of scene notes that come in seriously handy when life is throwing you into a body slam and you’re trying to work.
With this new part of the process in place, I was able to finish the two books I’d started last summer. I turned the first one in February15th and the second on June 10th.
Then I had my surgery. Five weeks after, with my brain turning to mush from pain killers & too much television, I started working on my third completed book for the year, with my final process I’m going to talk about today.
Again, my process is a reaction/adaptation to my current lifestyle. And I’m happy to report that I have written two books this way. It works for me right now.
Fortune 500
I’ve learned that at 43 and recovering from surgery, my attention span is ridiculously short. I can, however, write 500 words in a relatively quick amount of time. So I make myself write 500 words, 3 times a day. That’s 1500 words a day which is about half a chapter.
This is how it works.
The first 500 words generally come from my reading a previous scene and fleshing it out, then starting a new scene or chapter.
Then I go to laundry, answer email or do something else that engages my mind in a different way.
Then I’m back and I do 500 more on the new scene. This is not layering…I’m writing full out—with dialogue, description, narrative, action, etc.
Then I take another break. Lunch maybe? Do something with my daughter? Pick her up from school, homework, cook dinner, etc.
Then I go back and do my last 500. This is sometimes a struggle to me (and if I was using last year’s Gemini process, I would have switched to a different book) and I write again…usually using the layering and focusing on dialogue. I will flesh out this scene tomorrow morning when I restart.
Most weeks, I can easily get 9000 words on the page, if not more. Two of my upcoming books were written this way and for the first time in forever, I turned books into my editors EARLY.
So that’s it—seven processes that I’ve used over the past ten years to produce over thirty projects for three publishers. The key to my success, in my opinion, is my ability to not surrender to my life circumstances, but to adapt and to apply whatever discipline I can muster until I have a finished product.
Lately, I’ve attempted to apply that same discipline to my diet and exercise regime…and so far, so good!
So…what is your creative process? Post a comment (readers, please participate, too!) and the winner receives a copy of my first single title, MAKING WAVES
By all reports, Julie Leto was a sweet child once, somewhat shy, preferring to play quietly in her room making up stories. However, being raised with three brothers in a loud, primarily Italian household did have its influences and Julie discovered her inner tough girl. That’s probably why most of her heroines kick serious butt. Writing sassy heroines has worked out, as she’s sold nearly thirty books to three publishers featuring strong, confident women. Julie lives in Florida with her husband, daughter, spoiled dachshund, enormous guinea pig and a wide range of relatives all within driving distance.
3 Seductions and a Wedding
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This is a great reminder that everyone writes differently–and that you’ve got to be flexible!
I know I read your layering advice a while back and loved it. Once process that works for me, when I’m stuck and have no one available to talk to, is actually talking out loud to myself (hopefully with no one around
) I don’t know why the out-loud part works, instead of just thinking it through, but most of the time it does.
I do have a question–Do you research any information you’re uncertain about before you write, or after? I find fears that I’m writing something “wrong” (historical) can really bring my writing to a screeching halt.
Wait. You mean I have to figure out what makes me tick? And make it sound coherent? I need more
As I sit here at the computer on this cold, snowy Saturday morning (and being stuck on two different WIPs with two “allegedly” finished projects in desperate need of revision so they can be pitchedl), I realize that I’ve probably used every one of your processes, Julie. For years, writing was a solitary pursuit for me. Life threw some cowpies at me. My writing turned technical. And I stopped dreaming. This was a huge deal. When I dream, I dream BIG. In technicolor, wide-screen, HDTV clarity. I got to know and understand my characters there. I listened to their stories and watched the scenes and dialogue unfold like a movie. The downside of this is I write my novels that way and the headhopping is ferocious. Editing is a real pain.
So…I quit dreaming and the creative side of life dried up. I’m just now, in the past couple of years getting back into the process. I still don’t dream like I used to, but I’m learning other techniques. I talk to my characters now, when I’m awake, and listen to them that way. I participate in National Novel Writing Month. I’ve completed one novel from it (must revise before RWA so it’s ready to pitch), close to finishing a second (must finish and revise, etc.) WIP and now I’m having trouble finding focus again.
Granted, I sold a novel and have been dealing with the revision process. Just when I thought I was back in the head space for the WIP, I’d get another set. Hopefully, I’m done until galleys come in. *crosses fingers*
I write every day. Even weekends. Or at least *work* at writing–either research, editing, or actually putting words on paper. Some days, it might be 100 words. Some days, 1,000 (or more on the REALLY good days). Some days, I stare at the to-do list, panic and clean house. (I hate housework, btw.) With the first sale, I have to get back in the groove. I need to find an agent. I need to have completed manuscripts polished enough to pitch. Needing and doing are two different things. I have a new critique partner and I think that will help push me over the hump. This was a great post, Julie, and one I really need to pay attention to!
Maybe I’ll take today to actually define my process, given your guidelines above. We’ve got a follow-up with the surgeon on my DD’s eye surgery yesterday so I’m a bit too distracted to write anyway. Yeah. That’s my excuse!
Tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll get back to 
Good morning, Gillian! Glad you found this helpful. Yes, talking out loud is a great way to get things going…it must engage some other part of your brain. I used to do this when I was first starting out, but I don’t anymore. I pick up the phone and call a Plotmonkey, LOL! But you’re right, it is a fabulous technique.
Research…it depends. If it’s something easy, I do it on the spot. If it’s something that will take more time and really stop my writing, then I have to weigh how much time I can afford to take, how important it really is, etc. I often turn to one of my writer loops (usually Novelists, Inc, which has the most intelligent and knowledgeable group of writers I know!) to at least get a place to START for my research. As my Phantom books have historical importance, I had to do a lot of research that never made it into the books, but gave me the background for my heroes and was crucial to their characterization.
So I guess my answer is a little of both! Most of the historical authors I know, however, do a ton of research before they even start because it is so important to the way they plot their books, the way their character’s think, etc. One thing I loved about SHERRY THOMAS’s book, PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS, was how she thoroughly conveyed the thought processes of Victorian society. Clearly, she did a ton of research before she ever started because the ideals and mores of the society and its people completely drove the plot. Brilliant book, IMO!
Silver, that’s fascinating what you said about dreaming…and you are RIGHT! I never thought about it before, but I can definitely draw a correlation between my creativity and my dreams. Not that I’m dreaming about my story, but if I’m dreaming at ALL. Ooh, I bet there is a study about this!
This was such perfect timing for me because I’m just lost!
Just when I think I have a plan and a process something throws me off track or I find it doesn’t work as well for me as I thought.
It’s so frustrating and deflating but something that I’ve come to realize is, I don’t have a choice about this whole writing business. I have to do it. The characters keep coming – even f I try to block them. They keep me awake at night – even if I take a sleeping pill. I’ll be driving down the road and damn if they aren’t sitting right there next to me telling me how they want their story to go.
So, I’ve come to accept that I’m a writer, now I just have to figure out how to do it and keep my sanity. And be more efficient at it because that’s a huge part of my frustration.
I’ve printed this out so I can really read it, study it, ponder on it and figure out how to make life easier for myself.
Thank you for doing these Saturday workshops. They are absolutely invaluable!!
Wow, Julie, this is all just fabulous! I’m right there with you on all the changing processes. I think at this point, after writing a half-million words in about 13 months, I’m just so mentally wiped out I’m finding it hard to make *any* process work! So which do you recommend for someone who just doesn’t think there are any words left to write?!?
As a reader, I’d never really thought about the authors process for telling the story they’ve created. It was fascinating to read all the different processes you have used over the years. I’ve heard people say that everyone has one good story to tell. I’m sorry but I’m not it. I enjoy reading other people’s thoughts not my own. The last process you were talking about Fortune 500 is the way I read a book. A read a little here and a little there. Have a great day. I hope if you have to change processes you are still as productive as you are now.
Julie, this article really hit home for me today–right in the center of my creative soul. My process has evolved so much over the last 22 years. At first–when I knew nothing about how to write a book–I sat down and wrote 3 books in one year. Which will thankfully never see the light of a bookstore shelf. Then I joined RWA and Colorado Romance Writers and discovered I was doing everything wrong.
I took tons of workshops and tried all of the processes I heard about from building a plot to creating characters, to dialogue. Then I discarded the ones that didn’t work for me and tweaked the ones that kind of worked and made them my own.
At present, I’m back to the fits and starts stage with my current WIP. A lot of doubts started crowding in involving this project–a wedding planner and a mortician–that I had the ability to pull it off. So I stopped working on it and took some workshops thinking I still had a lot to learn because obviously I didn’t have the writing chops to make this project happen.
After taking those workshops I’m more confused than ever. So I decided to scrape together 250 bucks and send the first 75 pages to Leslie Wainger who currently has a book doctor biz in addition to being the editor-at-large at HQ and find out if what I’d written had any merit at all or should I just hit the delete key and start over. I look forward to and dread at the same time what she will say.
In the meantime, I have two more projects I want to write this year. One is a BLAZE for Brenda and one is an urban fantasy
So I’m thinking I need to redefine and recreate my process because writing in fits and starts ain’t going to get it done. I’m going to go over to your web site today and read your article on GET IT WRITTEN.
Thank you for posting this today
Cher
Oh my gosh, to be creative I have to totally be in the mood. I just graduated from college in May but until then if I needed to write a paper, I couldn’t seem to do it until I was in the right mood.
It also helps to that everything is turned off, I have a huge glass of mountain dew next to me, and I’m warm. Cold toes can really mess with the creativeness!
I’m still learning my process. I know that I really feel good about how much I accomplish when I write on my day off. I work full-time in retail management, which means that the days I’m at work, who knows what time I’ll get off. Actually, I recently changed department stores, and my position as the Fine jewelry manager is not as intense as it use to be. But on my day off, during the week, I’ll write for several hours. I start right away, first thing in the morning, ignoring all my house chores (sometimes evening ignoring lunch)…by about 4pm I’m rushing around like a mad woman making the bed, cleaning the dishes, etc, so that my husband can come home to a semi-organized home. And weather I’m writing a new scene or editing an old one (at the moment I’m revising), I feel that I accomplish a significant amount.
I don’t feel that same sense of accomplishment in the evenings. On the few occasions I do write after I’ve come home from work and prepared dinner, etc, I feel that I’m dragging…I don’t write with a fresh outlook and if I’m revising, the reading process and the thinking process is really slow.
They say your brain is most creative early in the afternoon, and feeling down later in the evening. I guess it’s really true of me.
Lately I’ve been writing on my day off and in the morning of the day that I work the night shift, very regularly…because I’m very determined to make this work for me. I want to write and I want to reach a point where that’s what I do for a living.
But I remember when I would only write when it was convenient and long periods of time would go by without writing…I know all about the characters knocking around in your head and demanding to be heard. I would be distracted by them at the oddest times of they day and drift off to day dreaming, which is really weird and you’re a working adult. I’d be at work, and intense complicated scenes would suddenly work themselves out in my mind…I’d be driving…cleaning…cooking…grocery shopping…etc…and the weirdest thing is that I’d probably be speaking he dialogue out loud to myself without realizing that other people to see my lips moving or even hear me.
I know I have to write.
Julie,
You said that at one point when your baby was born you wrote nothing…But I was planning on getting some work done during my maternity leave…even though I’m expecting two! Maybe it won’t work out, but I sort of envisioned myself writing during the around their feeding/diaper schedule and bonding time. After all, I’ll be home all day. But since this is my first time…I could be fantasizing that I’ll have the energy…though I’m do have the energy write now (I didn’t in my first month of pregnancy…too sleepy).
I wish everyone who has the same desire to accomplish this goal as I do the same luck I wish myself. Don’t give up. I know I can’t.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Debbie
I found this post so inspiring, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m just beginning my journey into the writing field (although I’ve claimed to be a writer my whole life, I’ve yet to produce anything substantial). Right now I’m only juggling college and a social life – and I want to complete at least one manuscript by the time I graduate next year. I had no idea how to start a novel and manage my time because my class schedule is so sparadic…so reading all these different processes has my creative juices flowing. I can’t wait to try each one out to find the few that work best for me right now…
Thanks so much for posting this workshop, Julie – and everyone else for their input!! Have a great Saturday!!!
<3 J
Sorry about all the typos!!! I clicked submit before proofreading.
Debbie
I really like the idea of writing 500 words three times a day. I’m going to try that this week and see if it works for me.
My process? I don’t know…and I’m okay with that.
It’s been evolving. Like most aspiring authors, I originally thought there was a “right” way to write. Tried to find it. Like looking for the Holy Grail. Became frustrated.
Tried pantsing. Have a ms that may never see the light of day. That thing went in so many directions. But, then again, since I really like the story and I’ve since learned a lot, maybe it will one day be my Phantom Pleasures.
Tried plotting. Seemed like this would work for me. After all, I’m analytical, by nature and by training. Plotted out an entire book, chapter by chapter, scene by scene. Wrote a synopsis. Lost all interest in writing the book. Gone.
So now I’m somewhere in the middle, probably smack dab center. I get a good idea and I start writing until I get to what feels like a natural stopping point. Usually somewhere between 1-3 chapters. Then I start fleshing out a high level synopsis, enough to give me a sense of where the story is headed. Then I go back, polish the initial part a little, and continue on. Until I get to the next stopping point, at which I repeat the process, maybe working on the synopsis a little more, maybe writing a few more chapters. So it’s part pantsing, part plotting, part revision. This seems to be working for me. I’ve got two books in progress. I’ll get at least one completed this year, and very possibly both of them, since when I get stuck or begin to lose interest in one–usually because I need to develop my characters a bit more or get out of a plot corner–I can turn to the other until I have a brainstorm.
BTW, Julie, I love your picture. You’re so adorable. I love your smile.
Cher
Julie, I had to miss the TARA meeting when you gave this workshop, so thanks so much for posting it! I usually do a chapter a week following a variation of the Fortune 500–1,000 words before lunch, another 1,000 after. I mostly pants but sometimes plot, yet in every case I can never figure out the resolution till I get there.
Never tried the Gemini–I think I’m afraid it would be like the time in high school when I took both Spanish and German and got the Spanish word for tall (alto) and German word for old (alt) mixed up.
True story.
Alannah, I’m so glad the workshops are helpful to you. I guess the best thing you can take from my confession is that you will find your process if you keep looking. Some will work and some will not, but you have to keep looking!
Les, honestly, I think you need to take a really long break. I know it’s hard when you have deadlines, but I’d say that you need to whittle down your output to the barest of minimums (say 250-500 words a day) and then spend the rest of the day refilling the well, reading books and daydreaming your way back into excitement for the work again. That’s all I can suggest! I’m no expert, that’s for sure!
Roberta, thank you for reading the article even if you aren’t a writer. I don’t believe everyone’s “good story” has to be written. Some just need to be told. I think it’s the oral tradition that keeps our best stories alive, personally. It’s the oldest form of storytelling for a reason!
Cher, I’m glad the article helped. Sometimes, the search for the right process isn’t easy. In fact, I don’t think it’s ever easy. It’s just a constant search. But when it works…ah, bliss.
Rachie, I wish I could wait for the mood to strike, but I lost that privilege the minute I quit my job to become a full time writer! Oh, and I hate cold toes. Actually, I hate cold any-bodypart. :freezing: Luckily, I’m in Florida and we’re quite toasty right now!
Debbie, I shouldn’t have said I didn’t write at all during that year…I did. I wrote about 100 pages of the book that was rejected. But that’s all. It’s very important that you sleep when the babies sleep whenever you possibly can. Esp. with twins. My suggestion is that you arrange time when the babies are awake for them to be watched by someone else so you can get a solid hour of writing a day. Either the hubby or a neighbor. Just an hour when the babies are being entertained, but you have UNINTERRUPTED time to be creative. It’ll be best for all of you…but you need your sleep!
Jessica, I’m so glad the workshop came at a great time for you! Just starting out can be scary and confusing…but it also can be freeing and fantastic! I remember those exciting days with no deadlines, no expectations…just me and my imagination. Oh! Enjoy it!
Susanna, please let me know how it works for you!
Patricia, your process sounds a lot like mine. I’m very flexible between plotting and not. Just depends on the story.
Cher, you’re funny. I’m not sure I like that picture. In fact, I’m hoping to take a new one soon!
Karen, I’m sorry you missed the meeting, but I’m glad I got the info out there. I offered this workshop to another chapter, but they picked a different one…I was surprised! I think this one is SO much better and I told them that, but well, it was their choice! We’ll see how it goes next week. Yes, the Gemini is fraught with dangers. And I laughed at your story. I studied Spanish in high school and Italian in college and I still get a lot of the words confused, which means I rarely will take a chance at speaking either unless I can verify what I’m about to say first lest I embarrass myself!
I am just a reader but I do enjoy reading about what the author’s processes are that they go through to write their books. It seems like you all have your little tricks and ways of doing things. I guess everyone has their little ways of doing things that are different. I know I do when I am making a quilt, I have little things that work for me. :eastereggs:
I hear you on how depression can quell the output. I don’t talk about mine much, but I do know this is one of the biggest reasons I’ve walked away from work over the past several years.
My current process is to write longhand, then type when I get bored, etc. The key for me is to switch it up when my attention falters, which is often.
This has been a terrific post, Julie. Thanks so much. I love reading about writing process. I am a(for the most part)seat of the pants, non-linear. I write whatever comes to mind and then piece it together later. I also write short descriptions of scenes I see coming down the road. I have read and enjoyed your Layering article. I printed a copy and reread it frequently. Dialogue seems to come easily, then I set about adding flesh.
I really miss your Marisela series and was hoping to see more of it. What a great heroine.
Hope that your health is improving daily!
LindaC
Quilt, I’m quite envious of people who can create things like quilts and clothes and the like. I am the least crafty person in the universe! One day, I’ll tell you all about my one attempt at a Christmas wreath. We all have our strengths, I suppose!
Heather, I like your process! Very much like my Quill & Scroll. I haven’t used it in a while, but I might pull it out of my bag of tricks if things get too crazy again. Depression is really hard on creative types…because it totally stops our output. But then, I suppose it does that no matter what the job. Thankfully, we’re all becoming more aware of the effects.
Linda, I’m glad the layering article was so helpful! I am feeling 150% better…maybe 200%. Thanks for asking!
Ok this was the best writing article I have read in a long time! Way to go Julie!
Gosh, I think my writing process is more like a pantser and then sometimes I will use a process. I tend to go back and forth. I like to layout an outline and try to stick to it. It is hard but it works when you have lots of details and timelines to remember.
I wonder if a lot of authors use a chart on a wall or a diagram of some sort to keep all the dates, events, names, and places while they write their books. I would think you would have to when you write a series of books.
I am usually organized about writing but I have my moments when I just want to get my daily quota of words done!
that is al ot of steps great information for evyoen thanks