My Writing Process

Hello hello hello! I was working through a first draft of a novel the other day and it made me think about my writing process, and how it’s kind of a convoluted, messy path. Particularly for a full length novel, things tend to get a little hectic. So I thought I’d give you a peek into the chaos. 

 Let’s dive in!

A good book always starts with an idea. I mean, that’s kinda obvious, right? You have to think up something to write about. For me, the ideas come whenever they feel like it, usually at the most inconvenient times. So I have a running list of everything that pops into my mind –actually, a few. One on my phone, which gets used the most. But I also have a notebook where I do most of my planning, and a lot of random lines end up in there.

Most of the time, these fragments of ideas aren’t enough to write a whole novel, so I’ll pull a few of them from my lists and smash them together to see if they work. Once I’ve got a working idea that I have enough to write off of, two things could happen. If it’s a side project while I’m working on something else, I’ll write a few snippets of it. But if it’s my next main project, I’ll work on the characters. I’ll figure out three things about them: What do they want, what are they afraid of, and how can I stop them from getting what they want? 

Now, that’s not nearly enough information to write a character, so I’ll putter around with them for a while. Write out descriptions, delete everything I just wrote, go make a collage (See my post on why I always do that here https://charissajfranklin.com/why-i-always-make-character-collages-or-pinterest-boards/) and repeat. Eventually I’ll have a page or two about the character, hopefully enough to start writing. 

And for me, that’s the next step. To just write. I am a self-proclaimed pantster, which means I don’t believe in detailed outlines, or if I do write them, I go completely the opposite of what I spent three hours planning because I like this new idea more. Sometimes I’ll grab my notebook and hide in the closet to brain dump everything I think could happen in this next book and everything I want to take place. That’s as close as I get to an outline, and I’m beginning to use that method more to rein in the madness a bit. 

Now I’ve got an idea of the characters and a messy idea of what direction I’m going. Then I write. I write and write and write until I’ve got a first draft. That usually takes between two and four months. Now that draft has probably taken a hundred different twists that I didn’t expect along the way, so now I leave it alone for a month or two. If I didn’t do that, I would probably lose my mind.

I let this first draft go in whatever direction it wants because I’m trying to figure out two very important things: the characters and the themes. Draft number one is basically a big ole get to know me party. Once I emerge the other side I’ll know what themes I’m tackling, and what the characters are like. ‘Course, there is the problem of not having a well-developed character till halfway through the book, but that gets fixed in the next stage. For me, drafting is the easy part. It’s editing that’s hard. 

When I edit, I have to go back through and figure out which of those hundred little twists I’m gonna keep, and which ones have to get tossed. This is a nose-to-the-grindstone, grit your teeth and keep going process that takes at least two to three months. I’ve probably been on the edge of my head exploding several times during those months, but that’s how I know I’m doing it right. 

Once I emerge on the other side with a good draft, there are options. Oooooh. One of them is flexible in where it goes in this process. I post my books chapter by chapter online in my writer’s community for people to read. I’ve done this both in the first draft stage (Do not recommend, but it was fun at the moment) and in the second draft stage (This one was much better, do this if you post). I’ll do this in the editing part, because it helps keep me motivated. There is a delicate balance here, make sure you aren’t stressing to get a chapter edited and posted. I’ve done it, do not recommend it. But no matter where the post-for-reading stage happens, after I finish the first edit, I hand it over to the Alpha readers. 

I like to stay pretty involved in the Alpha stage –I post one chapter a week for them to edit. But aside from that, I don’t look through the feedback until the whole book has been posted and/or critiqued. And then it’s really just a lot of editing. I’ll find what the Alphas said was problematic and fix it, then give it back to them and ask if this works now. Hopefully I’ve cleaned up all the big problems in the first edit, and all that’s left is smaller stuff, usually character issues that still didn’t get cleaned up in the big edit. 

After I’ve gone over the draft a thousand times and I’m relatively satisfied with it, we get to yet another fork in the road. I could post the book again for beta readers, which would probably be a good idea. But instead I generally format the book for private copies and order about ten of those. That’s my version of beta readers. I give these to people who a) are interested in the book and can provide solid feedback and b) people who are willing to read the book and provide feedback. 

Actually, usually both of those groups provide reader feedback, but at this point, that’s what I need. 

And after that, the book goes on the shelf! I add it to my stack of copies that I’ve ordered for myself. Now, this is for the books that I don’t intend to publish. Since I’m slowly edging out of that category, I’ll add new stages. Such as actually implementing that reader feedback instead of just writing it down for when I’ll eventually come back to this book.

And that’s my writing process! I hope you enjoyed getting a peek into how I write a book. There are a few stages that I left out, the like Mental Breakdown During the Last Seven Chapters of the First Edit and the Mid-drafting Character Crisis, but those aren’t essential. What is important is that you write and capture those ideas when they come. You never know if you have a winning novel on your hands until you write it.