One question writers often ask (themselves, others, sometimes the Divine when things aren't going well, etc) is What's My Writing Process? What gets me writing - and not just writing, but quality writing. Writing I can feel good about. How do I do that?
Well, you've come to the wrong place to learn what you should do in order to accomplish that goal. What I will do, however, is talk about my process (that more or less does work for me most of the time) and then talk about why it may not work for you.
My process. Very simply, it's these three steps:
- Observing
- Scribing
- Editing
I'll talk more about each of those steps if future posts, but in general I spend a lot of time Observing (which in other words is imagining, daydreaming, doing stuff that frees my head to contemplate, and overall doing a lot of not thinking about what it is that I think I should be observing). When I'm ready, I Scribe (i.e. write it down). And lastly, I Edit.
I do have a schedule I kinda sorta follow. Observing can (and will) happen more or less anywhere and can (and will) happen at any time. Yes, even then. And then too.
Scribing happens more or less only when I'm in my spot on the couch and when my mind is active (oftentimes before I can Scribe, I need to play chess and go through emails and stuff like that in order to have the brain box warmed up for paying attention to what I could call my Draft That Is As Thoroughly Observed As It Needs To Be Right Now). If you have an abbreviation for that, do let me know. I write in a journal with a fountain pen.
Editing occurs as I take what I wrote in that journal and type it into a word processor. There are times I'll really work over a work (A Building of Sorts took me two weeks of fine tuning to get it right. But the episodes for My Witchy Life only ever received light editing).
So that's my process. Why might it not be yours? Because there are a bazillion different ways to do anything (especially creatively) and only a handful of ways that will work for you. Note that there are no right or wrong answers here - we're in the land of Guidelines. But there are definitely effective and not effective methods for every person and most methods land in the not effective pot. As a math instructor used to say, there are an infinite number of ways to get a problem wrong but only a couple that will lead you to the right answer. To adapt that just a bit - there are an infinite number of ways to have a non-effective method and only a couple of ways to have an effective one.
But the cool thing is - this is something you can figure out for yourself. And you'll get immediate feedback. Did you do something that led you to writing? And the writing was good? Then you've found something that works. Well done. If your current method doesn't work, try changing something up.
There are writers who dress up smartly before writing. Some just get into the flow and write for hours at a time. Others only work for an hour or two in a special room or office. Some need to eat a meal right before getting to work. Others drink during the writing.
So rather than trying to emulate another writer's process, ask yourself what you think would work for you. Then try it. And adjust as needed. (Observe what you think might work. Put it into practice - kind of a Scribing step. Then Edit as needed.)
