Friends have asked me recently about my writing approach. I don’t use a formula, but a process that seems natural to me. Of course this is for writing stories, long or short, but doesn’t apply to poetry or essays as much.
First, I find a conflict that interests me. Usually the main characters are determined by the nature of the conflict. I write down as much as I know about the characters. In the beginning, I know their central issues and usually their talents and follies, but I get to know them better as I write. I keep track of names of ALL characters, (if I name a servant, I record that name at the front so I can refer to her later and not have to search.) I record birth dates and genealogies as they become relevant to the story.
Most of my writing is done while I’m doing dishes, cooking, baking, driving or waiting to fall asleep at night. I imagine the scenes, the dialog, the events etc and watch it act out in my mind. As ideas come, I’ll find connections and motives that will move toward the resolutions. Sometimes I’ll quickly write a key word or two so that I retrieve it when I sit down at the computer, but not always. Usually it’s vivid enough in my mind that I don’t need a reminder.
I allow the story to change as I go. I always know the conflict from the beginning, but I rarely end up with the resolution I had in mind at the beginning.
As I wrote “The Masterpiece” (a manuscript that I will market once That Thy Days May Be Long has been published) (I want it published as historical fiction, not Christian fiction so that it reaches a bigger audience,) I knew that something important needed to impact the main character. It had to be hard enough that he was motivated to make the “mighty change” he needed to make to resolve his problem. I decided what the tragedy would be and was working cheerfully along. One night, as I imagined the next scene I would write, I realized that the story would be ten times stronger if a different tragedy occurred. I was heartbroken. As I wrote the new tragic scenes, I bawled and bawled. But I couldn’t go back, knowing that I owed it to Daniel Feinstein (the main character) to give him enough pain that his eventual forgiveness would make a new man. I have rewritten and edited the manuscript about 5 times in the polishing process and I STILL bawl like a baby. I guess part of it is guilt for what I did to these “people” that I love, and part is plain old grief, since I can’t undo the deed! But it transforms the book from a good book to a “masterpiece” and I just have to live with it. You’ll have to wait for it to be published and see what I’m talking about.
Once the story is finished, it give it time for the leavening to work. I let it sit for a few months or weeks, (depending on the length of the project) and then I go back. I can see what is trite, what is overdone, what is weak, unclear, boring etc. I go through and mop up the debris and add or subtract scenes to strengthen weak areas or characters. I like to give it a couple weeks to sit after this process, longer if possible and then I go back and do a plain edit. I try to improve the diction, structure and grammar.
Next, I give it to a reader for a response. This is usually my daughter Tricia and/or my Mom. (Tricia has a Masters in Literacy and my mother has a dual Bachelors degree in English and Education) They find errors, grammar mistakes, misspellings (usually homonyms) and suggest word or phrase changes. Tricia is bold enough to suggest additional scenes to better motivate or resolve problems too. I go through and respond to all their suggestions and lastly will run a spell and grammar check on the computer twice. I’ll do specific searches for the different spellings of ‘there’ they’re and their’, its and it’s, whose and who’s, and other punctuation mistakes I know I am prone to. Then I format it according to the instructions from whomever I will send it to first or default to the guidelines on Terry Burns (literary agent’s) site.
You may be tempted to conclude that only the first two steps of writing and rewriting are the writing process, but the better it is edited and rewritten in the third, fourth and fifth stages, the better it reads and I consider this part essential too. Most self published books I’ve read have skipped this arduous process and it is obvious. Sadly, errors persist even after all that work, so I’m merely trying to minimize that issue.
I’m interested to hear how others approach the writing process. Feel free to respond!