My Process

A lot of writers get asked about their writing process, which I think can potentially be helpful to people who write or want to write but haven't quite been able to figure out how to go about it. I figured I would go ahead and share with you how writing works for me.

Inspiration can come from nearly anywhere for me, but once I've got enough of an idea of what a story is going to be, things usually follow roughly the same pattern. At some point I spend an hour or two picking out names for the main characters and then move on to writing descriptions of these and other characters. Normally these descriptions are rough notes or endless lists of things separated by commas and full of misspellings. What is also normal for me is to alter or add on to these notes as ideas come to me about the characters while I am working on writing the story.

Typically I write out rough ideas of what I want the story to be about or how I want the plot to develop, and depending on how much inspiration I have, I might write out semi-detailed descriptions for scenes or dialogue that I want to show up at some point in the story. Often, due to characters or plot developing in different directions than I had originally intended or foreseen, it is not possible to work all of these notes into the story.

Once I feel I have enough of a rough idea of what I want and when I feel driven to work on that particular story, I start writing. I just start from the beginning and go. I keep a running tab of notes at the bottom of the document I am writing in so I can scroll down and check things as needed. Inevitably I spend an hour or so putting my notes in chronological order--and this is about as close as I get to actually outlining the plot. I never outline the plot. I know that a lot of people say that it is really helpful to do so, but I have tried it once or twice, didn't get much out of it, and decided to keep doing as I had done before.

There really isn't more to it than that. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

Tschüs!