It's My Process Man!

I'm not doing Nano this year - at least not officially - despite starting a brand new story as of yesterday. And since Nano tends to make people think about their process a lot more and since Maisey did an awesome post about writing process and being fast, I thought I'd totally copy her and do one about my process. Mainly because it's kind of been the opposite of Maisey's experience (and also because I was scraping around for a topic to blog about).

I've always been a fast writer but I didn't realise quite how fast until I started writing to get published. Before, I would go on writing binges and write for days on end, then stop and not write for months, so the last story I wrote before I actually committed to writing romance took about a year. Then again it did end up being 320k so there's that. ;-)

But when I started writing for publication, I found that  if I wrote every day, I could do a 50k story in a month. Or even 2 weeks if I planned it well enough. Which I found very pleasing. However the fatal flaw in the works was that because I didn't know much about character or conflict, or plot, or anything really, that 50k wasn't a very good 50k. So I used to end up having to rewrite over and over. This, I thought, was my process. That what I do is write my way into my books, I write fast to get it all down, and rewriting fifty million times was just part of it.

Since then, I've found that actually it's not and that my process has changed. Now, I know I haven't been published very long but one thing I've noticed is that subsequent to publication, I feel like I write slower (unlike Maisey who's got faster). This is kind of frustrating but I know that I'm writing slower because I'm thinking much more about character and conflict and pacing that I ever used to. Not in a conscious, second-guessing way. More in an analytical way as I complete each scene. It IS  frustrating, but the up side is that I don't have to do multiple drafts anymore. My Dirty Virgin Hero book - which I felt took ages and ages for me to write - I'll probably do a bit of editing with but nothing like the full on rewrites I used to have to do in the past. It's pretty much done in first draft form. 

The other thing I do now that I never used to do before and probably saves me from lots of rewriting is that I actually spend a lot of time thinking about the characters before I start. Yeah, I know, I should have done that years ago but I was always too impatient to start writing. These days I actually CAN'T actually get very far into the story until I have a feel for the character because I've learned what happens to a story when I don't (pants happens in other words). I do have to tell myself it's okay to spend time thinking and not writing, but never underestimate the power of a good think while you're doing the laundry or walking or having a shower (showers are especially awesome!).  It's helped by the fact that I now know what I have to figure out about each character, which 'why' questions I have to ask. And that I also have to go with my gut on some things and not second-guess, and that sometimes I have to let go the vision I had about a certain charater and let them be the way they want to be.

I hope this process will get faster the more I write and the more I learn, because it feels slow to me at the moment. Though some books are slower than others because some characters are harder to pin down and conflicts more complicated. What's for certain is that your process isn't set in stone and you can change it. This may happen naturally or it might be something you consciously do.

It just depends on how you want to write and how comfortable you feel about doing it.

So how does everyone else do it? (and I mean that not suggestively hehe, though feel free to share...).

The 'I Hate My Story' Syndrome

I've got a general theme this week - first my stupid process and now I'm hating my stupid story. First draft blues in other words. I should know by now that at a certain point in the first draft - usually about 3/4s of the way through - I start to doubt everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. The characters, the conflict, the plot. Everything sucks. Sucks in a 'I can't stand this stupid thing, what's the point even writing it?' way.

I don't know why this happens but without fail it happens to every single story.

And I'm at that point now with the WIP. It feels like there's vital bits of conflict still to put in and I'm at 35k already. Vital bits of backstory. Conversations the hero and heroine still haven't had. I'm worried that the character arcs won't be clear enough. Have I put in enough 'romance'. Are the motivations clear. Does my plot actually work....

Basically it just sucks. Inevitably, once I've finished, I read back over it and I realise it's actually not as bad as all that but having to go through this particular doubting process is SUCH a drag. It's at times like this where I wish I was a first-time right kind of writer. Where your first draft, with a once over lightly edit, is pretty much the finished product. But I'm not, I'm a 'spew all your words down first, then edit the crap out of it later' kind of writer. And right now I'm thinking that there's way too much crap to edit out.

Maybe it's just the mood I'm in. Maybe my story really actually does suck bigtime. Maybe I need to bin the whole thing and start again.

So does anyone else have this syndrome? What do you do to keep yourself writing? Any hot tips???

It's Not A Rolls Royce

Just got back from an Easter trip to a place called Pauanui, where all the nobs in Auckland go to spend their holidays by the beach. Strangest place. You might get a vast mansion with a helicopter out the back and a huge boat in the garage and then right next to it will be an empty section with only a rusty caravan parked on it and tents with people sitting in deckchairs. Presents possiblities perhaps? :-)

Anyway, got some great thinking time in. Have come to the conclusion that I need to change my process. Yep, the way I write has been great for twenty years but if I want to write something for publication, I need to do things differently. Not radically so, I hasten to add. I'm still a pantser at heart and probably always will be. But the thing I need to do is concentrate on my characters before I begin to write. Normally I have a scene in mind and I dive right in, only to come up against the 'what would he/she/it do now?'. And I stop right there because I don't know my characters well enough to know what they would do. For months I've been thinking that it's the conflict I haven't sorted but it's not, it's the characters. I know who they are in the present - when the story starts - but I don't know their pasts, what made them the people that they are. And when you're writing character driven stories, you kind of need to know those details.

The ways you can get to know your characters are many and varied - character sheets and interviews and writing out scenes from their lives - but I've tried them before and they've never actually worked for me. Thinking does though. When I'm in the shower or folding the washing or just tidying up, I've found that thinking about my characters, their childhoods, their relationships with others, the kind of people they are, really works. For example, I'm rewriting a story I wrote two years ago but the conflict never gelled and neither did the characters. But I spent a lot of Easter thinking about the hero and heroine, trying to figure out what their conflict was and whether it fitted with who they were at the beginning of the book. Normally once I'd got one aspect right, I'd quickly whip onto the pc and start writing. But I couldn't this time round and it's a good thing, because I thought I had it all sorted and then realised I hadn't considered another aspect of their backstory which then didn't fit with the actual premise of the book. Sigh.

I don't find this easy. I'm a very impatient sort. I want to get to the good stuff, the real, emotionally wrenching stuff. I love the torture and the black moments. The joy and despair. I don't want to write the set-up and introduce the characters and their conflict. But of course that part is almost the most important part of it because if you don't do it properly, how are your readers ever going to be invested in these characters? How are they ever going to care about what happens to them and their story if they're not fully realised people?

Dr Jax has a great saying that he is fond of when he's building or preparing something:
"It's not a Rolls Royce." This basically means not to sweat the details, it doesn't have to be perfect.

I've always really liked this saying - it suits my impatient personality. But I think that if I want my stories to be good ones, I'm going to have to change my thinking around them because when it comes to writing, the details do matter. And when it comes down to it, I want to write Rolls Royces not Daihatsu Miras.

Anyone else ever changed their process? Did it work for you?

The Van Gogh Process

Doubt crows be circling today. Pesky things. When will they ever leave me alone? Aaaanyway, I have finished the Hammer Pants ms. Need to rewrite the last chapter - again - but yeah, it's done. While writing it though, I was chatting with the CPs and happened to let slip that I had done six drafts of this particular ms. They were aghast. Hehe. It's seems quite a lot, I know, but it doesn't mean I have rewritten the ms six times or anything.

You see my process works with me writing a very fast quick and dirty draft. I have to do this because if I stop and agonise over every word and plot and whatnot, I will become stuck and won't finish the story. So I have to push myself to keep going and get it down quickly. Then I go back and edit, rewrite, change stuff etc. And because I like to keep old versions just in case a change I make doesn't work, I make it a new draft every time I change something major.

It may sound odd but it works for me. And this ms is a tricky one because it's one I wrote a year or so ago before I'd really got to grips with conflict, and it's a reunion story and I think reunion stories are actually quite hard! I've changed the conflict about five times, the beginning at least three, the ending twice, and all the bits in between more times than I can count. It's kind of like painting a picture or something, you sketch out what you want to paint first, then the rest of the process is filling it in with colour, painting out some bits or emphasising others. Or in this particular case it's like scrapping three canvases and starting all over again each time. :-(

Anyway, six drafts is pretty much par for the course. I do a lot more plotting now than I used to and this helps with changing things but I'm still a pantser at heart and like to give the characters their head when the opportunity presents itself. You may - or may not - be interested to know that I have a deleted scenes document for bits I've taken out and that word count on that is....wait for it...60k. The ms is 47k. :-)

So what's everyone else's process like? Do you do take the Van Gogh approach like me? Or are you the one draft sculptor type - you carve it out and once it's carved it stays carved?

The 17 Step Method

Why is it that the more you know, the harder it is to write? A couple of years ago, my process was this:

1. Have an idea.
2. Write it.

Excellent huh? But then came along this pesky thing called craft and things changed, and so did my process. It became something like this:

1. Have an idea
2. Work out the conflict.
3. Sit down and write it.

Nowadays though, I know more. So at the present time it's like this:

1. Have an idea.
2.Work out the conflict.
3. Figure out the backstory.
4. Figure out the characters.
5. Determine character arcs.
6. Think about a vague synopsis.
7. Sit down and write it.
8. Stop. Realise you haven't thought about the backstory deeply enough. Repeat Step 3.
9. Continue writing.
10. Stop. Realise you haven't really got a handle on the conflict. Go back to step 2.
11. Keep writing.
12. Stop. Realise that your beginning sucks and you've started in the wrong place.
13. Start again.
14. Stop. Realise that your conflict actually sucks.
15. Try to keep going despite it, hoping it'll all work out in the end.
16. Stop. Realise that it's not going to work out and your whole story sucks.
17. Give up, go get a martini and watch Spartacus instead.

No doubt, in another year or two it'll go something like this:

1. Have an idea.
2. Decide to bypass all the crap by proceeding directly to step 17.

Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me?

Stuck

Stuck in the mire of self doubt at the moment. Working on polishing up my next sub but am doubting basically everything about it. At least the thing I'm pretty sure I've got right is the emotional connection between my characters - at least, I think I have. Famous last words huh? And if that's not bad enough, I now have to write the suckopsis and that is filling me with gloom. The ed takes my synopses very seriously so it has to be right. Another reason to stress.

I think my process is not helping me sadly. I am a pantser. Yes, I do have a vague idea about plot and characters but often the characters don't settle for me until I'm halfway through the ms. Sometimes I'll write a quick and dirty draft, realise it's utter pants while I'm editing it and then figure out a better way for the plot to go. Sometimes this takes me through several drafts before I get it right. The problem with this of course is that if I am editing a ms I've already subbed the partial of, I can't go back and change those first three chapters, which is often the part of the ms that changes the most. This happened with the last sub. In the process of editing the story, I realised what was missing from those first three chapters and hoped I'd be asked for the rest so I could go back and change it to match the rest of the story. Sadly not.

Clearly, with a process like mine, I need to finish and edit the ms completely before I send a partial. Which makes it difficult because if you're asked to revise, revisions are much more easily incorporated into a draft than a finished, polished ms. Plus there's the whole worry about expending a lot of effort on an idea that won't work at all for the editor.

Of course, the ideal for me - since I find that I can't treat a partial in isolation from the rest of the ms - would be just to sub the full straight off. Cue hollow laughter. Yeah like that will happen. :-)

Anyway, how about the NV competition? So many great entries! Going to press ahead with IT Girl at least. It would be fabulous if she got through to the next round but if not, I'll sub her anyway. But first I have to write the whole thing so I can get to know her better. :-)