"If I were psychic, you think I'd be writing? Writing is HARD."

[apocalypsos]

So a few of you have asked me about my writing process. I am sorely tempted to throw out Chuck's assessment of HIS writing process, "I get a headache. Aspirin doesn't work, so I drink until I pass out," because ... well, I've had writing days like that.

I feel a little guilty complaining about how I'm not getting enough done to make me happy because, seriously, I do get a lot done, and more than other people, and it kinda makes me want to snuggle with the stuff I am getting done. But ... yeah. I do have a bunch of tricks by now to help spur me on creatively.

-- I try to save every idea I come up for novels, even if I'm positive I'm never going to do anything with them. The one thing I'm always really good at, regardless of how well I'm doing with actual writing, is letting my mind wander and getting new ideas. I do a TON of people-watching. Even when I don't get anything written at Panera, I usually spend the entire time coming up with backstories in my head for the people walking past me. Somewhere along the line, I trained my imagination to constantly be running and it's worked wonders.

-- I usually flesh out the characters I'm going to use first in as much detail as I can. I cast them with actresses or models or reality stars to give them a face, I make tons of lists of what they like to wear and what hobbies they like and how they talk and their pasts. Right now I'm decorating Mary's dorm room for The Hollow Girl. I keep meaning to walk around Target or something and take pictures of things I think would be in there. (Although, really, I should go to the flea market, since that's more her style. ANYWAY.) I get a lot of each story and each character built that way.

-- I talk out the story in the car when I'm driving around, whether or not I've got a voice recorder on me or not. I do it a lot in the house, too -- talking about it out loud, even if it's just to myself, sometimes helps me sort out problems in the planning I wouldn't have noticed early, for some reason. I seem to do better in the car, though, maybe because the scenery's different.

-- That brown shipping paper I put on the wall for each new story? Helps a LOT. It usually turns into a catch-all for everything associated with the story. My Hollow Girl set-up has a "family tree" of sorts for the characters, the first semester calendar, Mary's class schedule, a list of things someone should bring with them when moving into the dorms, and copies of the posters that go on her and her roommate's walls. And I've got a lot of space for anything else I need to put up there. Next up is designing a couple of other places in the story. That comes in handy later.

-- When I'm plotting it out, I basically make a list of 30-35 scenes that I either want or need to see in the story. Then I write them down on index cards and put them in order. Usually each index card counts as a chapter, but as I'm writing the list down in a file that sometimes changes. I do fill in a lot of the holes in the plot while I do that, and in the end I've got a complete list of what's going to happen.

-- Having said that, I try not to write in a line. I usually write out the first chapter just so I know where I'm starting at, but after that I usually skip around. Writing in order means that if I get to chapter two and hit a wall, I'm screwed, so I write whichever scenes my brain wants me to when it wants me to. Usually with me, that ends up being the first three or four chapters, and then a bunch of scenes in the middle, and then the ending, and then I string them all together. It gives me a destination that I know I have to get to, which helps. It's like how my dad taught me to find places when I've never been there before. "You know it's that way. Just keep driving that way until you see signs." It actually works out a hell of a lot better than you'd think it would. ;)

-- I write the dialogue first for some scenes. I'll usually curl up with a notebook and my MP3 player and let the scene play out in my head and just write down what the characters are saying. It's basically dictation on a really weird level. Then later on, I write the action around it. It's like building the frame of a house.

-- I can't sit in silence while I'm writing, so I do listen to music. I try not to listen to music with lyrics in English or any lyrics, if I can help it. Hearing someone else talk when I'm supposed to be listening to my characters gets distracting, so I usually stick with opera, classical, or movie scores anymore.

-- When I'm really blocked, I make up a playlist of songs to put me in the mood for the story, put on a blindfold to block out my surroundings, and just let the characters do what they want in my head. What really works well is if I try to picture a movie trailer for the book or if I try to picture a character's home or workplace in detail, put them in it, and see what happens. Sometimes just wandering around a character's house in my head gives me ideas.

-- I am absolutely NOT allowed to edit until I finish the first draft. This is exactly why I'm in the loop I am now with The Hollow Girl, which I keep meaning to show to other people OH BUT LET ME EDIT THIS AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN. I haven't moved from that third chapter in months for a reason. It's also a rule because that plot outline I write? I rarely completely stick to it. When I get halfway through a book and decide to kill someone off who was already alive in the ending I wrote before, or I change someone's backstory, or whatever, I tell myself I can always go back and change things later. Finish now, edit later! HMPH.

-- If all else fails, I open a file and write the first sentence that comes to mind. The last time that happened was with Sunflower Seed the other day -- "The last two things my mother gave me were a brown paper bag with a tear in one corner and ten minutes to pack." The Grand Prize Winner is another one that just started out as a sentence and nothing more -- "Davis Street shopped for most of his magic supplies at the Smithsonian." I let myself write opening sentences with no plot, characters, or title to go with them all the time. Sometimes I toss them away, sometimes I don't. *shrugs*

-- Oh, and that graphic where I crossed out the chapters as I finished them? That's a new thing but that helped encourage me a LOT. :)

-- And I do get myself a present when I finish a first draft. Because I'm five and spoiled. Heh.

Comments

[opportunemoment.livejournal.com]

"Davis Street shopped for most of his magic supplies at the Smithsonian."

That is GENIUS. And thanks for sharing, this is all really interesting. I'm caught between plotting two things and writing a third right now, so this was awesome related procrastination. :)

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

I write linearly, though I keep notes of what's meant to happen later as it crops up, because otherwise I write all the scenes I want to write first, and then don't bother writing the rest because they're "boring".

Then again I haven't really *finished* that many projects. I get fed up with something if I know already how it's going to end and how I'm going to get to that point, there has to be an element of uncertainty.

I'm guessing your way is better on account of you having actual finished drafts of more than one bloody, book, though. ;)

[sabotabby]

This is really cool and useful.

I also do the playlist thing. (Also imaginary casting and drawing the characters.)

[emella.livejournal.com]

Wow, okay, that's pretty cool. It sounds like a lot of it is persistence and patience and just letting the ideas work. I really like the idea of the index cards and skipping around to different chapters when you write. The next time I can sit down and plan something out I really want to try some of your methods.

Thanks so much for posting this, hopefully it will help! :)

[faithintheboys.livejournal.com]

Do you use everything you come up with? Like you said for The Hollow Girl you had a class schedule and other things for the novel and do you actually use these things? How do they fit in?

And I try not to go in a line either but then I end up with a bunch of unconnected scenes.

This actually helps to hear what works for you. Thanks!

[velocityboy.livejournal.com]

I completely do the same thing regarding cut-out pictures of celebs that fit the character as closely as possible in your head... like say Nicole Kidman, only with a chronically runny nose & Lauren Bacall's voice... This comes out so much more elegantly than Anne Rice's purple prose of how they were the most pretty that ever pretty & everyone wanted them, when my purple prose can say "Dude, Nicole Kidman, deep, raspy voice, and constant Kleenex... you know you want it..."

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

I'm itching to ask about your file system, because I dither with this stuff to a ridiculous extent. Like... Google Docs, yes/no? One doc per chapter, or a single doc that you add into the middle of?

(*sigh* I'm so classic ADD it hurts, I was the kid with a different planner/organizer every freakin' SEMESTER trying to find one I could stick with for more than a month. Now it's me trying to keep up with my fiction files instead of my homework pages.)

[phluphee.livejournal.com]

yeah. i prefer chuck's method. lol good tips on writing. i use some of them myself. especialy the no editing rule and the music playlists...if it wasn't for my music i don't think i'd write a single word.