My Writing Process

Hi all,

Thought I would share a little on how my writing process works.

I keep an ongoing list of story ideas so when I'm ready to write I always have somewhere to start.

I start a story by brainstorming ideas, exploring who the characters are and where the conflicts are.

Once I have a few pages of notes I start outlining and creating plot points.

I take these key plot points write them out in a Word document and I start writing using each plot point like a guide point. I start at one and write to the next. I don't always start at the beginning either.

I am always surprised how much I discover while writing that I didn't come up with while planning and outlining. I am always happy to embrace these new ideas as long as they are true to the story I'm trying to tell.

I like to think as the first draft in two parts. The first is a really rough "outline draft." I write was quickly and furiously as I can trying to capture the story by its tale without stopping to worry about spelling or grammar errors, or if it is even legible to anyone but me. Part two is cleaning up what I wrote in my first draft making sure I have everything I wanted to say and seeing if anything new that I came up with still "gels" with everything else. I look at it like carving a statue out of a piece of stone. Each draft is like a pass over the stone, refining and refining, letting the story take shape until you end up with a piece of art.

When I'm done with the first draft I usually show it to people and try to get some feedback. When this is done I go back and write the third and usually final draft with any needed corrections.

This is my writing process, what's yours? Please feel free to share.