What Works for Me

My buddy and CP sent me a link to a wonderful blog post by Tess Gerritsen about how to write called: Any Way That Works For You. It seemed like quite a timely post, since my CP and I were discussing that very thing in email recently.

Since I'm at the beginnings of two separate novels, I thought I would share a bit about my own writing process. First, let me say that I'm one of those people who would love to be an outliner, but for the most part, I'm not. (Oh, sometimes I do outline, but I never seem to be able to outline at the beginning of a novel. I have to have some general beginning before I can see the rest of the path.)

I do something that I'm guessing would be a little bit strange. (Or maybe not, you tell me.) I get an idea for a book - usually something very amorphous, like a rhetorical question I ask myself or a vague idea of a general plot - and I sit down to start writing it. Before too long, I'll hit a brick wall. If all I have is an amorphous blob, I can't really get too far. I need some kind of idea where the road is going before I can get too far along it. At this point, I don't outline. I sit down on the couch with a spiral notebook and a red pen. (I don't know why I chose red, but I did and I can't seem to work as well with blue or black. It's just me.)

First thing I do is write the working title at the top of the first blank page. I do this because I never know what ideas I'm going to have at any one time, and if I don't notate what I'm brainstorming about I know I'll get confused when I go back. (One page of notes about AWJ and the next about my other WIP, with no notation? Ack.)

The next thing I do is I ask myself the one question that's foremost in my mind. For instance, "Who is the villian?" or "What am I trying to accomplish here?" or "What is this about?" Then I set about trying to answer my own questions. I have a lot of maybes and perhapses - "Maybe the villian is a ex-patriate doctor with an axe to grind" or "Perhaps he's a twisted soldier looking for revenge". This often leads to more questions. Usually I write a big fat WHY? in the middle of a page. It all depends on how complicated the story is, and how foggy the path of the story has become.

When I have all of my questions answered, I can come back to the computer and begin writing again. Of course, there are no hard and fast rules about sticking to my notes. Sometimes I stray far off the path, and then I head back to my old notes to figure out where I went wrong. Sometimes I go back and figure out that I didn't go wrong, I just took an alternate path.

Occasionally, I'll get stuck. Then it's back to the notepad and the red pen - asking questions until I find my own way out again. I have several pages in each of my past books where I simply wrote "WHAT IS THE POINT?!" (Sometimes of the novel, and sometimes of the whole writing thing, but that's a subject for another day.) Each time, though, I walk away from the notepad with a better idea of where I'm headed and how I'm going to reach the ultimate goal (i.e. climax of the novel and eventually 'THE END'.)

Ms. Gerritsen is absolutely correct. What works for one writer doesn't necessarily work for the next. If your way is working for you, stick with it and screw want anyone else says. However, if you're stuck, sometimes seeing how other people write and trying something new could shake you up enough to loosen the creativity clog.

This is what works for me. So, tell me, what works for you?