I’m a sticky beak: can’t deny it, and shan’t even bother trying. Certain things grab my attention and make a peek behind the curtains, a glimpse behind the scenes, a thing of delight. I’m talking specifically about that journey from a glint of an idea through to a polished, published piece of writing.
Ah yes, ye olde writer’s or writing process, the blueprint of how to write.
I love it when writers share their back ends, so to speak, so thought I’d share mine, from go to whoa-ish.
Planning or pantsing: I’m a blend of both. I’m happy if I have a fairly solid slab of planning under my belt when I actually start telling a story, but I’m open to letting myself be influenced and led off the straight and narrow if the inspiration strikes me.
First up: an idea springs. I scramble to capture it either in the notes app on my phone (they always hit me while I’m out running, it seems) or on a scribbled sticky note. I decide that it’s something worth pursing for a couple of tens of thousands of words and then we enter planning mode.
For this, I reach for a notebook and a stack of index cards.
The notebook is where I put all my scribbles and jottings for the project, it’s where I think via handwriting about the book, what it is, the story it’s telling, and who the story belongs to in terms of characters. It’s where I put my notes to self, my notes from any research and conundrums I’m tossing around.
The stack of index cards are where I put everything that could and should go in the book. They’re not always necessarily individual scenes, but they’re ideas and events that drive a plot—what if this happens, then would this be the consequence? So what?
When I have created a stash of ideas on individual index cards, I then move to my dining table and sort them thematically, as well as in a rough narrative arc. This becomes my synopsis which guides my frenetic and unfettered first draft process.
So, we have a synopsis (printed out, because I’m old school), a notebook and index cards. All of this lives in, wait for it, a box, along with photos, charts and mementos. For example, for my current WIP, I have a gift bag from a witchy shop in Mornington because it’s the sort of shop that my protagonist’s grandmother would frequent. I bought some fancy pants archive type boxes on sale many years ago at KikkiK and each of my projects lives in its own box. This means that if I get the urge and the opportunity to nick off on a writer’s retreat, all I need to grab is my box and my MacBook. And some peanut m&ms. And some more sticky notes.
For my first draft (and second) I use Scrivener. I know that word offers many of the same features, but I’m not clever enough or open-minded enough to figure them out. Scrivener has been my go-to for many years, and if it ain’t broke… My first draft process is messy and glorious. Depending on the time I have available, I’ll write in timed sprints, or more leisurely writing when I meander through the day, but I’m happy if I’ve hit at least two thousand words for a day. Some days I have less time, and I might only write five hundred ish, and at other times I’m on fire and can belt out four thousand or so. What helps me to write fast is to have a general idea about what I’m actually going to be writing. Before each session I think about what’s coming up, and I might hash it out by hand in dot points.
I write my drafts fairly consequentially, or chronologically. I don’t really jump around the outline or synopsis unless I’m feeling stuck but I prefer to push through. Sometimes I’m highly aware of structural issues as I’m writing, so I make a note of them to address in the structural edit or draft two.
The first draft isn’t the time for research for me, it’s the time for getting the concept out of my head (or synopsis) and into a story shape. It’s littered with personal instructions such as ‘HOLLY fix this’ or ‘HOLLY when is summer solstice’ which shape the second draft. I try to write at least every day to maintain momentum, even if that means writing by hand on my iPad or in my notebook while under the halo at the salon. The whole intention is to simply get to the end, and give draft two a solid-ish foundation.
I’m a gal who loves a gold star. I hate to think what that says about my psyche, but I use checklists and word count trackers up the wahzoo to get my word count moving. I’m not so good at the reward part of the equation, alas.
The end of the first draft coincides with a mental break from the work, but not before I compile it into a word doc, stick it on an USB and take it to Officeworks to be printed and bound. Then, out of mind, out of sight, in the box, for at least two weeks to give me some distance. I might do some reading around the themes of my story, or play around with an emotional thesaurus to make notes of the physical and internal reactions characters might have to a given scenario, or muck around with a Pinterest board, or add to a playlist (more on that soon!) but I don’t look at the physical copy of the draft.
Once my story is back on my to do list, I work solely off the hard copy draft manuscript. I have coloured pens and sticky notes and I read it through, fleshing out parts on sticky notes, and culling others, taking inspiration from my Pinterest boards and playlists.
About my Pinterest boards and playlists: both are curated to give me a feel or a vibe to match the tones and ebbs and flows of the novel and the plot, and the characters’ emotional reactions to these. The Pinterest boards are about feel but also about setting, so they’re filled with images of food, fashion and locations, usually beaches when it comes to my work. I’m a sucker for a beach scene.
And then I have a messy, chunky manuscript littered with scribbles and sticky notes, so it’s time to open up Scrivener, start a new project and get writing. Yes, I rewrite draft two from scratch. I start with another blank document, with my hard copy manuscript by my side, and away I go, writing, embellishing, cleaning and culling as I go, until I have another completed draft, which, at this stage, is usually ready to go to beta readers. Then comes another round of writing (not from scratch, this time) incorporating feedback, and then, off we go on the ‘please like my baby’ querying train.
This sounds lovely and neat, doesn’t it? It sounds like I have a bookcase full of published works. I don’t. I almost have one (at the time of writing, it’s scheduled for publication later this year) and I have another 3.5 drafts sitting at various stages of completion, waiting (im)patiently for me to get to them.
That’s it!
I hope you enjoyed this peek into my process. It’s been bloody cathartic even writing it, as I thought about how I actually move through the act and practice of turning an idea into a novel.