I’ve broken this up into several posts as it’s not a short process but this is how I get my first (very rough) draft down.
Step One – Day Dreaming
Before I even start writing I generally have an idea that has been rolling around in my head for a while.
Who knows where the ideas or characters come from? But I’m assuming like most other writers that I often think throughout the day, ‘Imagine if that happened?’ I’m also assuming that this is why most writers write, because what would we do with all these thoughts otherwise?
Every now and then one idea, or more often than not a character, will pop in my head and stay there.
This happened with Molly Gardner, Sally Jenkins and Annie Jones. All women that I could see storylines for as if they were actresses starring in their own movie.
It’s at this point of the post that I realise I sound a little…. different!! Writing it down does a feel a little exposing but it is the truth so I guess I’ll just have to own it!
I will admit there are other characters floating around…
• I have three sisters in my head who come from Gilberton.
• I have another single mum who actually lives in a city with her son, Walter and her mum is a hoot.
• And then I have a group of women who work in a magazine company that I would love to do a book series on.
The good thing about these ideas is that by time I finish a book, the next story is jostling it’s way to the front. I like to then roll it around in my head for as long as possible without hitting the laptop. I do this for a couple of weeks at least. I really enjoy going on walks (or being at work!) and daydreaming about how things might play out before committing to writing 60k to 100k on it.
By time I get to the next step I have a really good idea of where I want things to go or at least where to start.
Step 2 – Free Writing
This is by far the funnest step. It’s where I have the ideas and it’s time to get them down and see where they go. I do like to write to a plot but for this first bit I allow myself to write with abandon and not be tied to any sort of structure. I tend to write a lot of dialogue to see how characters interact. A character might say something that will send me off in another direction or give me some insight into how that character would react in a situation and why.
The other thing I love about this step is setting word targets.
Nothing feels better than meeting a 5000 word a day target or a certain number for the week.
I do rely heavily on my goal setting, time tracking and planning during these weeks because life does happen and it’s easy for everything else to take precedence over the writing.. But if I’m prepared I know I won’t be disappointed come the end of the week.
I generally only do this free writing and targets for a month sometimes using Nanowrimo to keep me motivated. By the end of the month I will have about 50k words at least and I am ready to reward myself with a break.
This, for me, is draft one.
It’s very much a jumble at this stage with lots of different plot lines doubling up and heading off in different directions but better to have mumbo jumbo than a blank page to start the next step – plotting.
What about you? Does your writing process look similar or completely different?