My Writing Process

Ah yes, actually physically writing, the agony of most writers. Completing a manuscript takes a lot of planning, dedication and hard work, but it’s an enormously gratifying process watching your idea form into the bones of an actual book. We all have different approaches and methods when it comes to writing, in much the same way everybody studies differently; some people can write a manuscript in six months, some in two years. Some people write better at night, some during the day. Some of us are devoted planners, and some of us are pantsers. There really is no hard and fast way to go about it. But it’s probably safe to say that the thing almost all writers will struggle with is getting the book through the first draft, and being able to finally type THE END. I feel I’m getting quite a bit better at this, as I’m sure many people are during lockdown; since COVID hit, I’ve managed to produce two manuscripts which I am pleased with, and I know I’m not the only one. So here are my methods and tips to help break down the daunting process; if they help you, great, if not, that is also completely fine. Everyone’s brains are wired differently, and the book industry would be so boring if they were all wired the same.

1)The Ideas. The moment where inspiration first sparks; you hear a song, you watch a movie, you’re talking to a friend, or you’re one of those lucky people who’s just been on one of those mythical things called a ‘holiday’. Your first idea could be a theme, a character or multiple characters, the plot, or even just the aesthetic. Regardless, it makes you take out your notepad, or go on a walk to have a mull over the concept. Or maybe you’ve just had a whole new angle on an old WIP or character. But it’s cementing the ideas into a proper story concept that is the most brain wracking step, and one I am really struggling with at the moment. It feels like you’re solving a Rubik’s cube, and you’re so nearly there, all the pieces are almost aligned, and this could be such a great Rubik’s cube, but you’re just a few squares off. So here are a few things you need to have concrete (for now), before you start your outline:

.Your blurb – it doesn’t have to be pretty or book-cover-ready, but you need to have a paragraph that does the job of a blurb. Who is the story about, and what does the plot follow? You should know this from the get go, so you don’t end up straying of task.

.Your central characters – for me, this is usually where the plot will come from, as my books are usually character driven. I recommend having around three or four CCs, and make sure you know them as well as you can before you start writing. Understand their lives, their personalities, their relationships, their arc and their role in the plot. For more of my advice on character crafting, read my 10 Tips to Help You Craft Great Characters post. My current issue with the novel I am planning, is that I have too many characters, with too much going on, so I am torn between splitting the overcrowded book into two different stories, or combining characters. Looks like I will be at the drawing board for some time to come…

.The central conflict – what fuels the story, and changes your characters? What event connects every corner of your story together? For example in Catherine Steadman’s ‘Something in the Water’, the plot revolves around the protagonist and her husband discovering a bag of riches on their honeymoon, and how they deal with this discovery.

2)The Outlining. This is the section of your planning which will determine the structure of your novel; its pace, its length, your POV characters, first person or third person and chapter quantity and length. This is one of those times when writing really does become an artful blend between the emotional and the technical. And it can make or break your entire manuscript.

. Be prepared to sacrifice half a forest’s load of notepad pages, to the scribbles of scene ideas and ordering. Nothing in its early stages looks pretty, but having your plans on paper makes it so much clearer than holding them in your head.

.Make sure all of your scenes are a service to the story in some way. Yes, we’d all love to throw our characters a cute slumber party and watch them play spin the bottle, but I highly doubt that’ll do anything but bog the pace down.

. Decide what your POV situation is – most of the time, third person is the safe answer, and if you have a cast of complex characters, there are a lot of benefits to multiple POVs. But be careful not to overdo it, and stretch out your reader’s investment paper thin. In some situations, first person POV is the best option, if you feel that the new level of intimacy is a service to the tone or the themes. It’s also important to determine which chapters should be from which characters perspective; who is the most affected by what occurs in these scenes, who has the most interesting and refreshing take on the events unfolding, and who will this scene reveal the most about?

. Get out your post-it-notes and clear a space on your wall! These are invaluable, and so easy on the eye. Have a post-it-note for each chapter, and use colours to order them as you like; for example green for David’s POV, and orange for Jennifer’s. Now you have a planning board, which you can edit so neatly and easily!

3)The First Draft. This is usually the stage where a lot of people give up and burn out. And it’s not surprising, because it’s by far the most tricky stage. Not only do you have to unfold all of your planning, and confront what works and what doesn’t, you also have to now think about language and prosaic style. And not to mention, it takes a significant amount of hours, which as I mentioned, varies from writer to writer.

. Remember to enjoy yourself – if you aren’t passionate about what you are writing, and you aren’t having some fun along with all that work, it can often show in your writing. And not only that, it’s just an unpleasant experience for you. And if you find yourself not enjoying it, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a love of writing anymore; just because you had one bad trip abroad and got food poisoning, it doesn’t mean you aren’t up to being a traveller. We don’t hear this enough, but enjoying writing your first draft should be the priority, before marketing potential, before originality before anything. If you feel you have a few issues such as this, look at it later when you’re doing editing and rewrites. For now, just enjoy being in your element.

. Don’t be afraid to let the story evolve beyond your outline – often, our best ideas and character points don’t come until the actual writing gets underway. You can’t get the real feel for a house from the particulars, you have to go look around, and you never really know a person through online chat, you have to meet them in person. It’s the same with your plot and your characters. This goes for themes and messages as well; in fact, you rarely find the real depth of these until you get well into the novel and you know it back to front.

. Have a writing schedule, but don’t beat yourself up when you inevitably don’t always stick to it – writing is tiring, and often requires a certain mindset. If you wake up on a planned writing day feeling like you’ve just been hit by a boulder, or you’d rather have a day out than behind a computer, that is more than fine. Do not beat yourself up, and I speak as someone who is notorious for doing just that. If you are dedicated enough to be so overly strict with yourself, your book will get done. Trust me.

4)The Break. You’ve just finished your manuscript, and you’ve accomplished more than so many by just doing that. Yes, it won’t be perfect just yet, but it’s your baby. You made that. So you deserve a break to revel in your achievement. Take weeks, months if you want. However long you need to refresh yourself.

5)Rereading and Rewriting (The Second Draft). This is not so much of a linear process as the planning, outlining and writing, and can often blur with the break. The break is also valuable as casual thinking time, to mull over your story and to think of anything you need to add, alter or remove. Maybe there’s a character that feels flat or one dimensional, or maybe there’s a chapter that was too rushed. Your thoughts will be confirmed or denied upon rereading your work after the break.

. Make sure your prosaic style is as consistent as possible; the style of a romantic comedy written in modern day London, is going to be utterly apart from that of a regency romance, or maybe you’ve shaken things up and mixed the two? Either way, make sure your style is consistent, and that it flows. If there’s a sentence or a paragraph that doesn’t fit, altering it can make all the difference in regards to the reading experience.

. Make sure all of your secondary characters are necessary, and give them a sprinkle of complexity if possible. This was one of the biggest factors I changed when I altered my summer WIP, as there were a few characters that just felt a little too difficult to understand in their cruelty. Never create a person who is wholly good or evil, even if they are mostly one or the other. This elevates your novel from one that is black and white, to grey and more open to discussion and opinion.

. Make sure all of your subplots are resolved, and that they complement the main plot in some manner. There’s nothing more unsatisfying that a conflict that never amounts to anything or an issue or person that is forgotten about. Remember Arya’s face changing ability in Game of Thrones? And how she never used it in the final season, and it was utterly irrelevant? Nobody wants to be in that position.

. The redrafting process for me is usually one that is drawn out for almost as long as it takes me to do the first draft. It takes time, the advice of others, going away and coming back, and rereading and checking again and again. In this stage, you’re never really finished, and that’s no bad thing.

6)Editing and proof-reading. Despite the cost of ink and paper, I highly recommend printing your manuscript off at this stage, if you haven’t already. It’s not only just more pleasant than staring at a screen, it enables you to make physical notes, which you can then apply to your document. You are never going to get every single grammatical, or punctuation error, especially when your eyes know what they want to see. But you can polish your work as much as possible, as dull and laborious as it may seem. At this stage, you may also want to format your manuscript, if you wish to send it to agents or editors. Here’s the basic formatting for a Word document manuscript:

. Font size 12, Times New Roman

.Line spacing 1.5

.Three asterisks (***) at scene breaks

. Page breaks between chapters

. Begin the chapter half way/two thirds of the way down the page, and capitalise the chapter heading. If there’s two headings e.g. CHAPTER ONE, THE CLIFF, leave a line space between the two headings and another between the headings and the text.

. Make sure all your paragraphs are indented at the beginning, apart from the one at the beginning of a chapter.

. Make sure there is no line spacing between paragraphs.

. Create a cover page (for the sake of page numbering, remember to select ‘Different First Page’). Put your title in the centre in capitals, space, ‘by’, space again, then your name in capitals. In the top header (not capitalised) put your book title, name, address, phone number and email. And in the bottom, put your word count and genre.

.Page numbers – again, make sure to select, ‘Different First Page’, before clicking on the Page Number button. Then, when you click ‘Insert’, ‘Page Numbers’, unselect the button that says ‘Show Page Number on First Page.’ Then go into ‘Format Page Number’, and change the starting number to 0. Then go and put your page numbers at the top of the page (I do top right), and they should start from your Chapter One page, the page immediately after your cover page. Then add your last name and book title before the page number (e.g Smith – The Dog / 1).

. And remember to add THE END at the bottom of your last page 🙂

Well, that’s my writing process! I hope it helped you in some way, but if you have a different process, stick with what works for you! It’s your book and your baby, at the end of the day, and I wish you the best of luck with it.

Written by,

Rowan Speakman

For great writing tips, check out best-selling author Jenna Moreci’s YouTube Channel!

(All images sourced from Unsplash.com).