Damn, I'm tired. And writing.

[valis2]

For some reason this has been a ridiculously sleep-deprived week. I feel like I haven't slept at all. I've woken up a million times, and, because of La Luna and Her Magical Effect on Women, I've also been incredibly tired and cranky from the start before the sleep unhappiness.

I need to finish my merry_smutmas piece too.

I don't know about all of you, but I've finally figured out what's going on with my head and how I write.

1. I have to go through a long process of thought incubation first before I can write a single word. If I can't get it to logically make sense in my head it goes no further. This is the longest and most difficult part of the writing process for me. I think of several scenes and explore them, sometimes multiple times.

2. Outline. Very important. Often teamed with thinking more of the daydreamy stuff, but more focused. I outline in a way that makes sense to me, with snippets of dialogue. Well, the point of the dialogue. It often looks like this:

• Chapter Forty-eight: Pity
o SS POV: Severus’s room, Friday evening, September 31st
§ Severus dreams about ghosts leaving Hogwarts, Sarah leaving, he suddenly feels lonely
o ST POV: Sarah’s room, Saturday morning, October 1st
§ Dreaming of places she has lived, the manor, the forest in Poland
§ Severus wakes her
§ She realizes he could have just taken the artifact, realizes she should really trust him
§ Apologizes
§ He accepts, is a little clumsy for a moment
§ He says I’ll come back to reapply...

So you see what I'm talking about. The dialogue isn't exact, it's just the point of the dialogue. Everything gets fleshed out later.

3. Actual writing. If the outline is there, and the thought is there, it goes fast. My problem shows up when I haven't spent enough time on the daydream phase. If there is any point in the outline where I haven't detailed everything I often get a little stuck. It's happened with tLS a couple times, where I had sections of the outline with no material and I had too many ideas to sort through.

By this point I've actually "written" most of the major scenes in my head, sometimes several times, which makes the biggest scenes simpler to write when the time comes. Often it helps to point out new little details that I can indulge in because I'll start the scene in my head at the same moment over and over again, and sometimes the scene will proceed to a different place, especially if I spend a moment in another character's head.

4. Polish, beta, polish. My favorite part, though sometimes frustrating. This goes fast too.

Anybody else have a process to their writing they'd like to share?

Comments

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

I'm not actually all that happy with my process as it currently is. It needs an overhaul.

I start with an idea. I let it ferment in my brain for a week or two. A few scenes come into focus during this time, and then I write those down. Usually, that produces an obvious need for more scenes, which I then write. At this point, I go back and outline. I figure out what I need, fill in the gaps, and I've got myself a first draft. I leave it alone for about a week. Then I read it through, and make some decisions about which parts need work. I tinker, edit, add scenes, remove scenes. I repeat the leave it alone/read it fresh step a few times until I'm satisfied with the thing. Or nearly satisfied. :)

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I'm always afraid to write a full scene down before I've reached that point in the fic.

I have this superstition about it, really. I hate thinking that it might be wasted because I change my mind about something before I get there. I also hate having to read it and pay tremendous attention to it because of the possibility that I've contradicted myself somehow. I always write from beginning to end (at least so far).

The way you're describing it, however, is the way that I've heard that a lot of professional writers write. They do some sort of outline, and write the important bits first, and then link it all up.

Fascinating! Thanks for commenting.