Every writer has their process. It’s as unique to each of us as the tone of our books. And eventually if you sit back you begin to see the pattern in your own work, the steps you have to take to make the magic and transform that brilliant idea into a book people can read. Writing is a lot like putting together IKEA furniture. At first it seems like since you’re a relatively intelligent person who can read and walk upright that you’ll be able to do it and then after a while that little cartoon man begins to mock you and you end up in a heap on the floor with a splinter, a half-empty bottle of wine and mascara streaming down your face.
As a writer, I’m fascinated by other writer’s processes. Perhaps because I’m always looking for new tools to add to my bag of tricks, and partly because there’s that need to justify the way I do it, to make certain I’m not a complete hack. So if you’re ever around a group of writers, you’ll hear things like this, “What do you write? Oh, are you a plotter or a panster? Oh yes, don’t you just hate synopses…”
Not that anyone asked, but here are mine…
Idea – either I spontaneously get an idea or a manufacture one, either way, pretty exciting stuff.
Brainstorming – this is just the rudimentary brainstorming, not really specifics, just possibilities, again exciting. This has got to be one of my favorite parts. Perhaps because in the midst of brainstorming (which can truly be quite magical if the ideas are working) Emily and I get to gossip a lot. But we only ever talk about nasty people.
Character work – while this part can be challenging, it’s also fun, it consists of finding the right picture to use as my inspiration, so I get to spend quite a bit of time on-line looking at sexy actors. Ryan Reynolds, or Johnny Depp or Hugh Jackman, pick your poison, it’s research, I tell the Professor. It’s my job to find out what *other* women find attractive. I also work on archetypes, Myers-brigg, GMC, conflict and connection b/w hero & heroine, character arcs, etc.
Plotting – the story rises from the characters’ GMC, their relationship and their growth, again, this part can be challenging, but is also in the fun category. I use Scrivener, real index cards, post-it notes, Excel, sometimes all of that, sometimes only one, just whatever I need to get the book into focus.
Proposal – this is the three chapter/synopsis stage and this is where it becomes painful. While working on the synopsis, I’m never more aware of the fact that I’m just making stuff up (I realize that is the case ALL of the time, but it doesn’t always feel that way). The synopsis is certainly not easy, but I find this exercise so useful because it takes the jumbled mess in my head and it puts it into a semi-organized state. It also forces me to look at the external plot a bit more – I tend to build from the internal stuff and forget there has to be action going on. When I hit the chapters, sometimes the opening scene is clear in my head and flies onto the page, but frankly this is rare. Most of the time it takes me much longer to write these first 3 chapters than it does any other chapters in the book. They are daunting to me. I know the characters, or at least I know things about them and I know how I want them to come across, but I haven’t yet let them loose to walk and talk on their own. And with the series, it adds even more complexities of taking a secondary character who thus far has only had dialogue and digging into their internal thoughts. I often call my critique partner to whine about the fact that I’ve forgotten how to write a book, I’m a total hack and I’ll never get done. This stage is hard, and painful and really not all that fun, in fact it’s my very least favorite part and it’s my very slowest stage. It’s like swimming through molasses while a mound of fire ants chase after you.
Rough draft – the pain from the first three chapters usually lasts until chapter 5, possibly 6, and then I begin to hit my stride. I get into the fun part of the book, the middle. I know, some people call this the sagging middle, but for me, it never sags, it flies. Not to say it’s easy, hardly, but I tend to know more of what’s going on, I get to really get that relationship going and it’s just the best part of the book. And then I hit the ending, the last 2 chapters for me usually go at lightening speed during this draft, sometimes only ending up 10-15 pages worth of material. I rush it, I admit it. Because by now I’m just ready for it to be over with and I know the ending will probably have to change. I should mention that at some point during this rough draft (possibly more than once) I make a frantic call to Emily for emergency brainstorming (okay this isn’t the only time she gets a frantic call, it happens all the time) because I’ve realized that I’m missing something huge (almost always my big, black moment, which I swear I had at the time of synopsis writing, but it has since shrunk to a small, slightly grey moment). I should also note that I do not revise as I write, so the rough draft is full of notes, questions and blanks for me to catch during the next round. This used to be my favorite part, but not so much anymore, but it has its moments.
Read-through – this is what happens after I’m done with the rough draft and usually ends up with another phone call to the critique partner where I whine and complain that the book is total crap and I won’t be able to fix it. But during this read-through, I make notes to myself on everything, big (new scenes) and small (punctuation or word choice). Then I write a revision letter to myself. This part is not fun.
Revisions – these are my revisions, not those from my editor. This used to be my least favorite part, but I think that’s because I didn’t know what I was doing. Now I kind of like it, but I’m only just getting used to saying that, so don’t make me repeat it. I’m a layer-er – which means that I go through the manuscript 4-5 times at this stage. The first two being the biggest moves. I add new scenes, I delete stuff, I fix all the things that are inconsistent with character, because now I really know them, I layer in emotion and texture and make sure I’ve been clear about all the elements of each character’s GMC, I look up research questions that I left blank in the first draft, sometimes I rearrange stuff. It’s major surgery. My rough drafts are often 100+ too short, so the layering really is significant. So begrudgingly I say this is the fun part.
Critique – I have a few readers that get the whole thing at this point, the first time they’ve seen it and they give me feedback. I sometimes take it and sometimes ignore it, but it gives me reassurance having other eyes look at it before I turn it in. This part is just fine.
And then I’m done and can turn it in. At this point, I know it’s the best I can do, but I’m still nervous as hell that it’s awful. But I’m still feeling happy that it’s over with and I’m beginning to fall in love with my next idea which is sure to be easy and wonderful…
So why am I writing all of this? Well, I’m working on revisions right now and they’re going far too slowly for me. And I’m certain the book is terrible and I should scrap it and come up with a new idea. But I won’t do that because I know from my process that all of those emotions are normal for me at this stage. I also know enough to know that how I’m feeling about something is not the same thing as the reality of that something. Oh, there I went and got all philosophical on y’all.
In any case, if you’re a writer, tell me about your process so I can steal your cool methods. And if you’re a reader tell me something interesting about what you do, are you an organized person or do you fly by the seat of your pants and wait for the day to take you where it will?
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It makes me smile even thinking about the book. It also has me thinking… We all have at least one “Liam” lurking in our past (even if it didn’t lead to a happily ever after). Tell me about your “Liam.” Did you ever see him again? Did it end up working out or did it remain a case of unrequited love/lust? I will choose one lucky winner from those who post to receive a copy of Kristan’s UNTIL THERE WAS YOU so you, too, can get lost in this fabulous book.
I’
) to announce that I’m also going to be working on a new ro
mance series set in 1920s Long Island (likely with a spin-off series in 1920s Chicago). It was very difficult to decide on these two projects when I have so many ideas, but they’re the ones knocking on my heart the loudest right now and I hope you’ll love them when they’re done.
