My writing process...

Everyone have their own way of structure. This is mine.

Pre-writing phase

In this step what I do is gather information. If my story is going to be somewhat realistic (like the one I am currently editing) I need to get my facts down. You can't have a nurse do surgery. Some people may not know the difference between a nurse and a surgeon, but the ones who does will get annoyed and will probably put the book down. In my current novel I had a lot of astronomy themed research to do. It was very important for me to get it just right, and I actually spend an entire summer doing this.

I guess outlining would also go under this step, since you aren't writing the actual story yet. So I do that. I make a very brief description of the world and characters, and then I do my chapter-by-chapter outline. What I do is I write everything that is going to happen within the given scenes in a chapter.

First drafting phase

This is where I write the actual novel. For NaNoWriMo this year it took me 20 days to finish this step, but last year it took me 44 days. I am not sure how I feel about the first drafting phase yet. I love to write and get the story down, but then again it feels so much better to have written than to write. Doing this phase I tend to follow my outline pretty strict. However, things do change. In my current novel I intended to kill off a pair of brothers, but when writing that part I decided to have one of them live. Because of this I had to change my entire outline so it would fit with this new stream of events. 

Revising phase

When the first draft is done and you've put down the lovely words "the end" it is time to revise, revise, revise! What I like to do is first make a one-sentence summary of every scene within a chapter so I can get a better understanding of what my book is about. After this I print out my chapters and go through them with a yellow marker. I mark every sentence or paragraph that needs to be changed and write the changes down on a notepad. I cross out everything that needs to be taken out of the book, which sometimes is a lot. 

Second drafting phase

Now I am still currently at the revising phase with my current novel, but this is how I plan on structuring the rest of my editing.

In the second draft I will start on a blank page and write the story from beginning to end while implying the changes I made in the revising phase.  Having already written the story and all the changes this step should not take more than half a month. Hopefully. 

Beta-reading phase

Once my second draft is done I should be comfortable enough with my book to give it to a beta-reader. So far all I have is my writing teacher and my best friend, but I will probably ask others. I plan to ask them to write down the emotional impact the book had on them; where they were bored, happy, sad, confused, etc. Things that I can take into account when doing my third (and hopefully) final draft.

Third drafting phase

Same process as the second drafting phase, however, this time I imply the feedback I got from my beta-readers, assuming the feedback was valid and usuable. If they said something like "You should have" I won't listen. This is not their book and therefore I will only listen to feedback build on the emotions felt throughout the reading of my book. In this phase I also make sure to correct all grammatical errors that may have sneaked into my book so it is ready to be sent off to a publisher.

Publication phase

Now this one is not guarenteed, but I this phase also includes the "sending the manuscript off into the sunset- phase". While I am waiting for a response from the publisher, I will start something new. That way if I get a rejection letter I will have something new to send in. At some point they will get so annoyed with me that they'll have to publish me. Simple as that.

If you write, do you have a specific process? Or do you just write for fun and see where it goes?

In any case:

Keep Calm and Write On.

- Nanna.

When they know what they are talking about...

While I am writing this, thunder can be heard from outside my window. Every now and then the dark sky is lit up by the ligthning that you just know is bound to come. I have never understood why some people find thunder frightening; to me it is the most calming weather. I have always been the most creative after 6pm, but I can write at any time of the day as long as thunder can be heard. I guess it reminds me of the night.

Schedule

After having thought about it for a few days, I have come to a decision regarding the schedule of future blog posts.

I am going to be posting on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Reason being; they are the most convevient for me. So far they have been the days, where I have had the most time on my hands, so I thought it would be a perfect match.

Now, I am going to try to keep this schedule every week, but there might be certain Saturdays where I can't make it. In that case, I will let you know beforehand. 

NaNoWriMo preperation process #1

As I mentioned in the last post, I am currently working on my NaNo-novel outline. For a few days I had been stuck on chapter 5, but yesterday I finally crossed that chapter off the list and began on the 6th. So far I think the 6th chapter is going to one of the most fun to write. Let us just say; a lot happens.

I am still not 100 % positive on how many chapters there are going to be in the book, but I know where it will start and where it will end, and what comes in between. This is my first time doing a complete outline of a book before writing it, and I have to say I am surprised. I thought it would be dull, but it is actually quiet fun, and in the end it is going to save me a lot of problems.

A glimpse of the dream

Something I have yet to have shared is that I am taking creative writing classes.

I have been doing it since August this year, and so far I truly believe it has helped my writing. But up till the Fall break all we had been doing were smaller writing exercises. We had not focused on any larger projects. That was why I was excited to hear, at our last class before the break, that we could send some of our own works to our teacher, and she would look at it doing the break. The same day I hurried home and sent her my NaNo-novel from 2012.

Yesterday was our first class since the break, and our teacher wanted to talk to each of us alone. When it came to me, I was filled with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. She could with a few words crush my dream, and that scared me.

I sat down next to her, and she explained, that she was happily surprised by my writing. She told me how I have the gift of story telling and sense of progression.

Something that got me all red in the head was, when she told me about this other manuscript she had been going through from a 22 year old man. Apparently mine was a master piece compared to his. Yes, I had a very big head in that moment.

But the best part was when she said that, if I continued working on the book, she really thought I could get it published.

Now...why is this so exciting? Why is this different from when everyone else say it? 

Because she knows what she is talking about. She is a published author herself, so she knows what it takes to make it. And having her believe that I got it, has just gotten me more motivated than ever before. 

Keep Calm and Write On.

- Nanna.