Writing Process
One approach
This month I released my debut novel and devoted a little time trying to give it wings to fly. To date, over 120 people graced me by downloading the free copy I offered on Amazon, and another two dozen actually paid for it. I am taking that as a success, though it would sit easier if a lot of those readers would hit the review button. Dream on, novice author, dream on!
Last week I began to put down words for a standalone sequel. As has become my new habit, I don’t actually start writing anything until I’ve let the idea stew in my brain for awhile. It’s not fully formed and by no means cast in stone when the words start to be laid down. With any great idea, it does no good until one acts on it (unless the great idea is to do nothing), so I set a small goal to write 5000 words per week. I hit about 75% of that, and I won’t beat myself up, because that will do no good, it would do the opposite. I’m holding firm on few bedrock principles :
Do No Harm But Take No Shit. Choose Kindness. Progress Over Perfection. And as always, Naps Are Fine, except while driving.
It’s always fun to start writing those first words and sooner or later, I stop and zoom out. I’m more of a pantser than plotter, except for a few things I do early on. I don’t so much make an outline, but I begin to make a vision board of sorts. Visuals help me imagine the world I’m trying to create. This is also about the time, in the zoom out moment after I’ve written a couple thousand words, that I will just free associate, a mind map of sorts, a collection of bubbles and thoughts, connected in some general way. I might even order them numerically to indicate which beat or section of the story it will fall under. I put it all down on a blank pieces of paper. It’s a mess, and no one except one or two close friends who understand that silliness ever get to see this, but it goes into the folder or gets taped to the blank wall in front of my desk. Thus it becomes not only a guide post for the journey ahead but a reminder to GET TO WORK and put some words down.
Because I only have a few subscribers, I thought I would share this silliness with you. If you are a writer, I would love to hear about your process, what seems to help, what are some of your bedrock principles and how was the experience of releasing your first book?