The Writing Process

I recently read that key to good writing is rewriting.

I can only agree.

First drafts are rough by definition. A first draft is the story pounded out, capturing the idea, capturing the characters and what they do and why. It is hurried, and scatty, poorly spelt, grammatically challenged and rough. It is why it is called a draft. It is by no means the finished product nor should it be sent anywhere.

The rewriting or redrafting process is going to be different for everyone. Some ideas work for some and not others. One published author I follow via her blog does one rewrite/redraft and she is done. Another published author I have met pounds out her draft and sends (unread) to the publisher.

The whole idea makes me cringe. Perhaps it is because so much changes for me over the first draft. Perhaps because I write over a longer time period – with a day job in the middle. Perhaps I just lack confidence.

Whatever the reason, I rework my stories. All of them; short and long.

I read through the entire story making notes both on the pages and on a separate sheet of major problems, name changes, place, making sure the story is consistent with where I want it to be.

I then rework it, moving through page by page to ensure the story is smooth, the description is adequate, the characters have depth, the grammar works and the spelling is improved.

I let it rest. I read through again. Then rework again. And I do this as many times as I need to, to make it good. Or at least as good as it could be. There is a point where this needs to stop.  For a novel I may work through the entire piece three or four times. I may only go through twice.

This is my process and it may not work for everyone. But then everyone writes differently. I start writing from the spark of an idea and see where it goes. Then I’ll think about how to make it into something special. That is where the planning comes in. Others like to plan right from the start.

You may remember a previous post about mapping out a trilogy on index cards. This has had to wait a bit while I continue with my current story, but it is still there. I have the first novel mapped out. I hope to have the following two at the same stage before I start writing. That will be a change in process for me and I’m keen to see how it goes. It just has to wait until I have finished my current fantasy novel.

Happy Scribbling

The To-Do List

I continue to battle to get it all done at the moment.

I did manage to send my novel out into the world again. This could up to six months for a response, or non-response as the publishing houses are tending toward at the moment.

My writing journal has been very helpful. It is also a great reference to flip back through the pages and see how I’m going and where there may be repeat problems. A problem I have discovered is planning the next session. Not that planning is a problem, but when I do it is.

At the end of each session, I need to map out what I want to do at the next session. If I don’t, I stumble. Sometimes I can get straight into what I want, but mostly I fiddle and check emails and so on before I get down to what is important and then find I have little time left.

Given the amount of study I’m trying to do, I am sticking to my early morning writing times for novel writing. If I miss the session it is hard to make it up during the day, unless I’m organised and can write at lunch time. But it rarely happens. This adds to the pressure and pushes out the deadlines. I can’t be too hard on myself though or I won’t get anything done. I need to take each new day as a fresh start.

I am attempting to follow a suggestion from Scott H Young about planning and to do lists. I may have mentioned before that I love lists, but they can become as much of a procrastination tool as a time management one. Scott’s suggestion is a weekly/daily list.

Start with the weekly list which shows all the things to be achieved that week. Then using that as a reference write, out the daily to do list for the following day. At the end of the day write the next day’s list and so on. Each day taking from the weekly list to ensure it all gets done.

My weekly list looks a little daunting at the moment, but my weeks haven’t really changed that much over the last few months. Perhaps it is linked to my energy levels. I need to keep moving though if I’m going to achieve all that I want to this year. I may be feeling the pressure but I am enjoying every minute.

Happy Scribbling

Glass slumping and the procrastination monster

When I feel overwhelmed by all I’m trying to do I find my mind doesn’t quite function as it should. And I’m a little overwhelmed at the moment. Partly because my day job has been exhausting over June and I’ve had little creative energy left for anything outside of work.

When I get stressed I tend to start thinking at strange tangents.

So the little creative energy I have had I have been using to find something artistic to enrich my life. I’ve researched glass and ceramic classes and considered getting the camera out again and focusing on photography.

But it took some time to realise that I am already doing something like this – my writing. And these ideas take from my writing time, that researching classes robs my writing time.

In my search for some stress release I found I was procrastinating, and in many ways only adding to my stress.

At least I am able to see this for what it really is.

So instead of taking up a new hobby I have taken some time to refocus on why writing is important to me and what I want to write. Which it turns out is not very different to what I have been thinking about and working towards for some time. I just needed a bit of a kick.

I have looked over a variety of advice to beat procrastination (again, and yes that is in a way another form of procrastination). I have decided to try using a writing journal. This will be a notebook where I map out the aim of my next writing session, then how well I thought that session went and how close I came to meeting the session goals.

This may help cut down the email checking I do before I start writing because I only have an hour of a morning before the getting ready for school madness starts and a clear plan/aim/goal for that hour would help guide me straight into writing.

Happy Scribbling

First Written Rejection

I'm so excited to share the news that I have received my first written rejection.

My first rejection was by non-response. So this one has been tacked up on the study wall.

Part of me doubts my first novel will ever be published but I am going to send it out again into the scary world to see what happens.

In any case, I will continue writing.

Happy Scribbling

The Connection Between Reading and Writing

My current subject at Uni is looking at the importance and the connection between reading and writing. That is that one does not or cannot exist without the other. It is an interesting point and timely.

My mother has chastised me recently for not having enough faith in my own writing and not sending it out into the world.

‘But I have,’ I whined.

But not enough I whispered to myself.

The only way I can really call myself a writer is when others are reading my writing. My reading my own, apparently, is not enough.

So, I hear you sigh. She is going to refocus, again.

Well, yes I am; and no.

In light of where I want to be, that is a published writer, people will at some point read my writing. I am most comfortable with novel length writing, but I also need to work a little on short stories and memoir. Other forms in general, let’s say. Poetry has had its run methinks.

Part of this change has been spurred by my assignment this term - to write something for publication in the university magazine. I have thought about this previously but this form of writing has taken a backseat and my novel writing has taken over. I do think there is room for both – I just need to watch even less TV and try not to read so much.

Reading is important and I feel that I learn a lot from the books that I read; both those I enjoy and those I don’t. Writing more than reading I think. If I’m not getting my book written because I am too busy reading someone else’s novel – well it’s not good. Balance is the key.

I have some new points to focus on with my study – confidence and my powers of description (which are currently lacking). The more I write the better I get, so more writing it is. And that was my aim all along.

Happy Scribbling

Overflowing Ideas

I have had a problem with new ideas recently. They seem to be invading my thinking nearly all of the time and I blame my writers’ group. Yes, it’s your fault. All of you.

Little sayings, little phrases are sparking ideas at the moment and drawing my attention away from where it should be; firmly focused on my fantasy novel which seems to have stalled in a way, again. It is being written, and edited, at the moment and I’m getting lots of fresh ideas for that too.

But in a recent day dream of all the stories I would like to write I started to think about those I have planned or started or had ideas for. An action style women’s fiction I started some time ago, that is still in the planning stages has been haunting me and the ending came into focus in the car the other day. Another women’s fiction idea, still in the very early stages of thinking about seemed to float back to the surface too and I ended up doing half a day’s research for it.

All distractions from my current work.

Coming back to my writing group; imagine the cheek of some people, actually inspiring writing in such an environment. But they have (and they do regularly) and a couple of phrases are starting to grow into bigger ideas. I think for the moment they are short stories but I have had to stop and ask: is it worth me writing them now?

All of this thinking about stories, and more stories and parts for old stories and unfinished stories is good in some ways. It helps my confidence that there are that many stories locked away somewhere in my head. And that my muse is working and I may never run dry for ideas. Yet it distracts from what I want to finish now. Again with the unfinished work.

I want so much to finish my current fantasy because I want to see how it ends, and because then I can legitimately get on with other stories. I will have to write down the little ideas, so I don’t lose them, and focus, focus and focus some more on one project at a time.

Happy Scribbling

I spoke earlier in the year about some exercises or activities to help with creativity, skill and enriching writing.

A search of the internet will provide a lot of exercises or activities for different levels and different interests. I have pulled together some from different sources that appealed to me. You can adjust or adapt any of these for your own needs.

1.       Dream journal – keep pen and paper by the bed and write down dreams when you wake, or a story of the images that come to mind. I can’t always remember my dreams clearly but sometimes an idea of the dream leads to some very interesting stories.

2.       Google image prompt – or review favourite websites for pictures, and one as a prompt to write a short story.

3.       5 minutes of blind writing – I’m not so sure about this one but it works for some. It is what it sounds like, blindfolded write for five minutes.

4.       Eaves dropping – take part of an overheard conversation and write a story.

5.       Describe your favourite place in detail, capturing what makes it special.

6.       Detail a memory from the past – it could be yesterday, it could be years ago, big or small.

7.       Writing off the page – take a line of poetry, or a famous saying, or line from a book/film/tv and continue writing.

8.       Colour – choose a colour, go for a walk and then write about everything you see that is that colour or reminds you of that colour.

9.       Take something already done and twist it – such as a funny story, like Home Alone and make it scary, or take something scary and make it funny, like Dracula.

10.   Take a well known story or character and make it modern – What would red riding hood have to face on her way to grandma’s house today?

11.   Use a crossword – use all the down solutions in a short story.

12.   Take a headline – rearrange the words and then write the new story.

Happy Scribbles