If you write and you hang around published authors for long enough, they’ll spout advice to you that usually goes like this: “protect your process.”
They mean well. They really do. What they’re trying to tell you is this: write the book your own way. If your own way means hanging upside-down like a bat from three to five a.m. while writing longhand on a brand new legal pad with a purple Sharpie, by God, don’t let any other writers tell you that their process is better.
If you like to plot your book first, they say, then plot. If you like to fly by the seat of your pants and discover what happens as you’re writing the scene, thereby letting large chunks of the book be a surprise to you, then fly, little bird, fly.
And don’t worry that Nora Roberts or Brenda Jackson or (INSERT FAMOUS AUTHOR NAME HERE) does it some other way. The right way for you is the way that gets the book written. Period.
Isn’t this brilliant? Doesn’t it make perfect sense? Doesn’t it give you the freedom and permission you’ve been searching for so desperately all this time?
*SNORT*
What they never tell you, all these wise and wonderful authors, is that:
1. You may not be a pure plotter or pantser but rather some weird hybrid of both;
2. You may not discover what your process is during the actual writing of the book, but only months later, after long periods of introspection;
3. The process that helped you write THAT book may not help you write THIS book; and/or
4. Your process may up and change on you without prior warning, leaving you floundering and desperate as your deadline approaches.
Let’s examine these points in more detail using an author chosen at random.
Anyone? Anyone?
No? Well, then … why don’t I volunteer?
Here’s how I used to write a book:
1. Come up with an idea and a blurb.
2. Outline the whole book on enormous sheets of paper and/or storyboards using colored markers and Post-It Notes.
3. Make laborious notes on the characters’ archetypes so I’d know how they should behave.
4. Write a synopsis from all these notes.
5. Begin writing the book.
6. Start at the beginning and write until the end, editing the previous day’s work in the first half-hour or so of each writing session.
7. Write every day while the kids are at school AND after dinner AND on weekends.
8. Demand absolute silence while writing because I can’t stand noise and focus better in silence.
9. Print out the first draft and edit it.
10. Write a second draft (or, in the case of RISK and TROUBLE, umpteen drafts).
11. Print and edit subsequent drafts.
12. Send it in and pray.
13. Start working on the next book.
THAT was my process, and it worked just fine for my first five books (including my first, unpublish-able, book).
But then things changed. I’m not quite sure when they changed, how, or why. All I know is that they DID. Here’s what I do now:
1. Come up with an idea and a blurb.
2. Play with colored markers and paper.
3. Outline parts of the book on the computer (or not) using the highlight function with different colors as needed (or not) for different subplots.
4. Wonder what happens in the numerous blank spaces on the computer screen.
5. Begrudgingly work up a synopsis and hope neither my editor nor my agent notices that there are plot gaps big enough to drive a caravan of semis through.
6. Write the first fifty pages.
7. Send the proposal off and pray someone buys it.
8. Wait an excruciatingly long period of time while continuing to pray someone buys it.
9. Panic when someone buys it.
10. Think, what was this book about again?
11. Re-read the first fifty pages and synopsis and remember the characters and plot.
12. Begin at page fifty-one and go till the end.
13. Write every WEEK day while the kids are at school.
14. Write at my favorite coffee house because I waste too much time at home.
15. Listen to my iPod while at the local coffee house because I can’t write in silence and focus better with noise.
16. Think about writing every night after dinner but ultimately decide against it.
17. Think about writing every weekend but ultimately decide against it.
18. Wonder what should happen in a scene as I begin to write it.
19. Resist the urge to check my e-mail.
20. Decide what to do with the scene.
21. Resist the urge to check my e-mail.
22. Write the scene and do something totally different than what I’d decided to do with it.
23. Don’t print the manuscript.
24. Edit the first draft on the computer.
25. Edit the second draft on the computer.
26. Send it in and pray.
I have, as you can see, gone from a silence-loving, at-home-writing plotter to a music-loving, coffee-house-writing semi-pantser.
This, then, is my new process, which I expect to last for only about three days now that I’ve figured it out.
God only knows what my next process will look like, or when it will show up.
Would any other writers out there care to share their CURRENT process?
Great post, Ann! I TOTALLY know what you mean about things changing on you. I started out a pantzer, morphed into a plotter after I sold my first couple of books, experimented with various planning methods…and wound up with a hybrid plan that mostly works for me. I don’t do charts or character interviews, etc., but I do take plenty of notes before writing the synopsis (which tends to be looong). The trouble is the lag time you mentioned between sending in a book idea and actually writing the manuscript! I’d much rather be writing the whole thing while the idea is still fresh and exciting…but instead I have to sit on my hands (and usually work on something else) while waiting for approval. I’m so happy writing, but after more than two dozen books, there’s only one thing I’m sure of: Things are only going to keep changing on me.
by Lisa Plumley January 29th, 2008 at 9:24 amWow! You can resist checking your email?? I bow down to your greater strength.
Seriously, though, I always start my book by writing longhand in a spiral notebook, trying out different names and short descriptions until I get the characters right. Then I write the synopsis, craftily outlining the beginning in great detail. and then briefly mentioning the middle before skipping on to a vague description of the end. Needless to say, I’m on the pantser end of the pantser-to-plotter scale.
by Alexis Morgan January 29th, 2008 at 9:28 amI also write the opening paragraphs of the book itself in a spiral notebook, editing until I have it right before I can face the blank screen of the computer. Other parts of my process might vary, but that never does.
I also have to have music playing–I can’t concentrate when it’s quiet.
BTW, thanks for making me smile this morning–now back to my revisions.
Alexis
My previous process:
Write book, pretending I know how to do so. Charge forward, giving no thought to abject failure.
My current process:
Look back at written books, wondering exactly how I did that.
Sit in front of computer, mentally tallying days until deadline. Cold sweat. Decide tea is in order, as I am either fighting the flu or am a fraud. Hope for the flu.
Prepare tea. Drink tea.
Contemplate career at Starbucks, as I am obviously not cut out for writing novels.
Type a scene, find it works. Allow ten seconds of back-patting and self-congratulation before trying to figure out why I wrote it and where it goes in book.
Worry it has no place in actual novel. Begin worrying about deadline again. Cold sweats ensue once more. Flu? Failure? Fraud?
Agonize over each word choice. Contemplate own mediocrity.
Self-talk. Get started. Don’t stop. Begin writing, scene takes life. Charging forward, working, working. Can hear characters speaking, see scenes in full detail. Type faster than the doubt, never fast enough.
Interrupted by alarm. Time to retrieve son, of course, just in the middle of a really good groove. Spend a minute fantasizing about small cabin where am left completely alone. Decide lack of cabin is only thing holding me back, as my mediocrity is momentarily forgotten as I bask in the glow of “the groove.” Go retrieve boy. Get on treadmill. Think about book.
Try not to compare self to others, try to think bigger, try to think of ways to grow the novel, more sweep, more tension, higher stakes.
Repeat for 5 hours daily (and after dinner, and on weekends) until book is finished.
Ann, darling, you are not alone.
by Tracy MacNish January 29th, 2008 at 9:28 amYour new process is scarily similar to mine.
And yes mine changed. Why did it to that? I don’t like change, lol.
Ok, here’s my “now” process.
1) Come up with an idea and write a blurb
by Janette Kenny January 29th, 2008 at 9:39 am2) Play with character names until something clicks, and give each character a three adjective description.
3) Write first 50-60 (or 100) pages
4) Start synopsis
5) Panic and stare at white screen
6) Listen to music and sing along until the panic subsides.
7) Somehow get a synopsis written
8) Go over chapters and synopsis and panic again, because “ta-da” they aren’t close to being the same story.
9) Rewrite, using the idea that grabs me the most–this is never the easiest option.
10) Send it off.
11) Pray. A lot.
11) Battle impatience because I haven’t heard beep on proposal
12) Start working on a new book in hopes of hanging on to my sanity. (Yeah, laugh.)
Wow! Thanks for the thoughtful comments!
Twenty-four books, Lisa? That’s really great. But I did NOT, in fact, want to hear that things still change on you after all that writing.
Alexis, there does seem to be something about writing longhand, doesn’t there? But I can’t do it for too long. My handwriting is atrocious.
This is soooo true! Like lightening struck that one time, but it’ll never strike again! And of course, you always think everyone else writes better. Ah, the insecurity…
Janette, I really do think we all go through this same process, to some extent. And for God’s sake, don’t compare the synopsis to the final book. Ai, yi yi!
by ann January 29th, 2008 at 10:46 amGreat post! I do much the same—write the first 50 pages or so, get in so deep I am forced to write a synopsis.
When I wrote my first book, DARK RIDER, I swore I wouldn’t do it that way again, that I’d be more organized, more methodical…but ya know, I’m waiting on the copy edits of my second book, SHADOW RIDER, and still revising to the last minute. ;-)
Kathrynn Dennis
by kathrynn dennis January 29th, 2008 at 1:03 pmOther authors have a process???!!!
Who knew…?
I don’t have a process. I have a panic attack. I just sit my butt in the chair, put my fingers on the keyboard and hunt-and-peck my way to a manuscript (I have no idea how to type). I don’t plot. I don’t even know my characters names. I just sit and write and pray that what comes out is coherent.
My synopses are incoherent, with plot holes the size of Greenland. I wish I knew how to be a plotter. Maybe it would make this whole writing gig easier if I knew where a book was actually going (or maybe not).
But one of my editors gave me absolutely brilliant advice…he said that you just have to know when to let it go. So I write the book, then set it free and move on to the next project.
And Tracy, I hear you about looking back at written books and wondering how you did that. I do the same thing,
Eve
by Eve Silver / Eve Kenin January 29th, 2008 at 3:07 pmKathrynn wrote:
Kathrynn, I don’t have this problem. I’m usually ready to kick my boring old characters out and make room for the thrilling new ones who haven’t annoyed me yet.
Eve, Eve, Eve … as I’ve told you on more than one occasion, your process makes me CRINGE. I’m all for freedom of process, but just sitting down at the computer with NO IDEA what’s going to happen is … I can’t even … words can’t describe …
*SHUDDER*
by ann January 29th, 2008 at 5:32 pmOh my word, Ann! Our writing processes are eerily similar, especially the staring at the blank spaces and the praying parts.
Great post.
I’m still at the stage of making copious lists and charts: the 20 Things That Have To Happen in this Story; the Hero’s Journey; the Goal/Motivation/Conflict charts. They’re my security blankets.
Then I outline the first three chapters, light a candle and pray.
by Patricia Sargeant January 29th, 2008 at 6:54 pmCan’t argue with a security blanket or two and a lot of praying–Help me, God, help me–can you, Patricia?
by ann January 30th, 2008 at 9:07 am3. The process that helped you write THAT book may not help you write THIS book; and/or
OMG isn’t that the truth and Alexis I’m totally cracking up.
I’ve been really lucky that, for the most part, I’ve gotten to dip into ideas I already had info on (lately), because the one thing I do know is that my ideas need time to cook. Even if I come up with plot/character etc, they still have to have time to ferment *sigh* so I always have something “brewing”.
I actually came up with the idea for my current wip a year ago (and plotted it) and then said, “there’s no way I can write this book. I don’t have the skills.”
The further along I get the more of a plotter I turn into but I ALWAYS freak out at the 2/3 mark. ALWAYS. I figure it’s just part of the process too
by Amie Stuart January 30th, 2008 at 9:13 am[...] Third….Kensington writer Ann Christopher examines the writing process. I got to meet Ann in person at the RWA conference and she’s so COOL! So go check it out. Posted by Amie • 01.30.08 • [...]
by Amie Stuart ~ On the Back Porch » BWAAAAAAAAAAAAA January 30th, 2008 at 9:19 amAmie Stuart wrote:
Ain’t that the truth?
And thanks for the link!
by ann January 30th, 2008 at 9:50 amDe nada!!!!!!
by Amie Stuart January 30th, 2008 at 10:21 amCute post, Ann! It almost makes me wish I was a coffee drinker. But then again, it’s too cold here to go out.
Here’s my current process:
Get inspiration, usually one sentence. Immediately add the idea to my idea file, i.e., “Lifelong friends who spent their earliest years in the projects of Chicago, turning 50 with plenty of strife in their lives.” Promptly forget about it to work on current project.
When it’s time to start getting a book proposal together, I’ll go through my idea file, pick the one I feel the strongest about (that means the one that’s easiest to write) and write a scintillating synopsis. The characters begin to take shape in my mind, physical, personality, circumstance, and dilemma. (Pat is the prosecuting attorney who never married and is still in love with her high school sweetheart, Susan is the one who married well and is now dealing with breast cancer and her husband’s disinterest in her sexually, Elyse is the one who built a good life with her older husband, who now seems to be slowing down, and Grace is the teenage mom who got her degree and became successful, but after two divorces fears she’ll grow old alone. If I’m lucky here (and I was), the synopsis will only take about three weeks, simultaneously while working on current project.
Send synopsis to agent for the “agent test.” If I’m lucky, the agent will love it and will point out one or two areas of clarification (I was, this time) and she’ll submit it. If not, she will ask me for more detailed revisions.
If I’m lucky, my editor will like the idea and give me the green light (if on existing contract) or offer a new contract. (Lucky again.)
Start writing. Keep one eye on the calendar at all times. Keep track of my progress, so I don’t find myself with two weeks left to write a third of the book. Edit as I go. Send chapters in bunches to my “personal” editor, who helps me “keep it real” and who points out things like I’m using the wrong character name, have re-named the character’s children or other minor characters, and other indications of an overworked imagination. Start working on other projects as well.
Submit manuscript on time. Editor sings my praises because it’s so clean, then asks me to come up with a different title.
Therefore, the lucky project I originally called The First Fifty Years will be out in May under its new title, Once Upon A Project.
The next project is underway. I only hope it’ll be as smooth as the last one!
by Bettye Griffin January 30th, 2008 at 12:44 pm#14, 19, and 21. definitely. aargh.
by Alyssa Day January 30th, 2008 at 1:47 pmxoxo
alyssa
Bettye wrote:
That’s the platinum standard, isn’t it? Congrats on the smooth process this time!
Alyssa, I’m feeling your pain, definitely.
by ann January 30th, 2008 at 5:23 pmHysterical! What does one do when her process is an amalgam of the two you described and she hasn’t published a thing yet?!
I learned a lot about “my process” on the last manuscript, much of which I’m throwing out and replacing with something different on the current manuscript. So I’m not sure I’ll ever have a process so to speak.
Let’s just hope that somehow I keep getting these manuscripts done (and eventually someone starts buying them)!
by PatriciaW January 31st, 2008 at 11:24 amPatricia W. wrote:
Patricia, I’m thinking that’s your process right there: write and replace, write and replace.
See how it works?
As long as you keep writing, you’re halfway there. Keep the faith!
by ann January 31st, 2008 at 11:32 amYou can resist email?
You are stronger than I am.
by HelenKay Dimon February 2nd, 2008 at 11:24 amHelenKay, I should have written “TRY to resist the urge to check my e-mail.” That would’ve been more accurate.
And congrats on the TOP PICK! and nice pub/ad in RT–just saw it today!
by ann February 2nd, 2008 at 2:50 pmAnn, this is a great post.
I am an aspiring author and as such, my biggest problem is/was worrying that I am “doing it wrong”. I am organized to a fault (believe me, it’s a hinderance at time
) so I find myself struggling with when to let go of the tight rein I have over my process, and just letting go and getting to it.
On a good day, my process resembles you first one, on and off day, it resembles your second one (lol).
Thanks for this post, I truely need confirmation that someone else is out there struggling with resisting the urge to check their email while “working”.
by La-Tessa February 6th, 2008 at 8:53 pmLa-Tessa, thanks for commenting.
This is the thing I want aspiring authors to know: we’re all in this together, and we all struggle here and there. Just part of the process, and entirely normal.
Good luck!
by ann February 7th, 2008 at 4:59 pm