dude looking for his process

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As a longtime writer, I’ve found facets and depth in that word, Process; especially when I realized it means something different for each writer.

One big chunk of my own Process involves a constant battle with the ever-present Resistance, which deserves a blog post all its own. But beyond that, I believe even marginally successful writers develop their own habits, tools, and practices that help get them from idea to completion more quickly.

Process seems to be a constantly evolving critter that is unique to your own personality and work style. That said, I’ve found it helps to try other writers’ processes along the way to expand and invigorate your own. I’ve tried a bunch of writing strategies and tools from far more established writers than myself along the way and gleaned a little or a lot from each. So I thought I’d share a handful of the ones I found most intriguing and useful over the next few weeks.

I’ll try to remain as subjective as possible (concealing my own personal preference), so I don’t bias your own evaluation of them. Your process must come from you. I’ve found in my own research into process that it seems almost mandatory for a writer writing about writing to sell their process as “The Process,” perhaps from pressure from their book editors; but it is obvious they all can’t be right.

Process posts so far

Go ahead and try out different ones, but take them all with a grain of salt and observe how it affects your projects’ productivity. You’ll know when something works for you, even if it is just a small piece of their puzzle. Don’t let anyone bully you into going only with their way of doing things. Take it from me, I’ve wasted bunches of time wrestling with being “pure” to someone else’s complete process. You have to be true to yourself.

If you have a favorite process or tool that works for you, or would like me to investigate one here, please leave a note in the comments below. In the meantime, take in as much as you can from other writers and let your subconscious piece together its own Method of Success. It usually knows what it’s doing.

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I’ve just been told tomorrow they will be removing the furniture from the coffee shop where I write, to keep people from hanging about the place. I will be forced to work at home, where all the distractions lurk.

I can understand the logic behind the preventive practice they’re calling “social distancing”. I can even see people quietly doing it on their own: I’ve noticed them giving each other a little extra room in line at the register. Cashiers leaning back a little, with that subtle nervous look that seems to say “how healthy does this one look?”.

The speculative fiction writer in me is quietly playing with ideas of bad people high in government, plotting to separate people using disease, sowing distrust to keep people from uniting together against some unexpected power play. It’s not my kind of story to write, but there’s a lot of interesting–and unfortunate–source material happening in front of our eyes these days.

Meanwhile, back in reality, it seems even writers are being affected by our current world situation. I wish you luck against your own distractions, if you are similarly stuck at home. I also wish you the best of health and safety out in the world. If you are out in the world anymore. Hopefully this will end soon.

We are social creatures after all. I would hate for this “distancing” to become a permanent feature in our societies.

I’ve heard that “Interesting Times” thing was originally a curse, by the way.

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When asked “What does it take to force a reader to read?” …

I don’t like that word “forced”. To force them is to kidnap them, kicking and screaming, dragging them someplace they don’t want to go.

Instead, I prefer to trick the reader. Lure them in with a pretty cover, a sexy title; then hook them with the very first sentence, a sentence that would keep them up at night staring at the ceiling, if they didn’t continue reading. Now you’ve got them–and under their own power.

The challenge is: you have to deliver on the promise of that first sentence. Not only does the story itself have to pull them into your world, you have to keep throwing more “hook” sentences out there at sneakiest moments. Like at the ends of chapters, or in quiet moments when they think everything is okay again.

But it’s never okay! Bwahahahaha!

You have to put the reader in the hot seat, make them realize: These characters they’ve fallen in love with will not survive without the real hero–the reader–getting them safely to the end of the story.

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My short answer to a recent writing site prompt asking, “What is the purpose of backstory.”

For me, there’s two flavors of backstory…

If the backstory is part of the story, then it is where the hero’s Problem lurks, the one they trip over in the inciting incident and must battle throughout the story, until they finally see it and stomp on it in the end. Although stories seem to be about a battle with the Antagonist, in the end it is usually winning the battle with some part of themselves that allows them to win against the bad guy.

If the backstory is not shown to the reader, then it’s often used as a bible of sorts for the writer to follow to inform who their character is as a three-dimensional, fallible–and often broken–person. It helps them know what their character will do and feel in any situation the writer throws them into.

It pays to get to know your characters from beginning to end. The more “alive” they are, the more they will bring your stories to life, too.

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(A response to the prompt “What’s your favorite way to start writing?” when you don’t know what the story is yet.)

Although it doesn’t often work out this way, the most enjoyable part of my writing process happens when I’m scribbling longhand in a notebook somewhere pretty outdoors, about whatever I find interesting or silly or disconcerting at that moment, until … an idea forms. Excited by the possibilities, I continue scribbling until a story begins to evolve. Eventually, witnesses will report a crazy person running home to the computer to see where the ideas take her.

For me, paper is slow and good for thinking;
The keyboard is fast and good for writing.

You might want to try this yourself if your ideas have difficulties gestating. Perhaps it will work for you, too. Tell the police I put you up to it.