The Writing Process

[Slugbaby]

The writing process: Fantasy fiction

How do you write your book?

Well a question that many people ask, now I’m no expert but I do follow a process that seems to work well for me. I thought I’d share it with you, or at least with those who are interested.

I work fairly blind and my stories tend to have merely a loose direction, I think it adds to the fun of writing and keeps a creative element that I may lose from too ridged a plan. I then write the tale with little if any regard for the grammatical issues. After all the father of western literature, Homer was illiterate but he still had a fine tale to convey. This is where I believe the fun really begins; the story is the most important aspect to get onto paper, even if it’s a literary disaster. So enjoy the journey follow your feelings and let your imagination run riot.

With this initial process I keep a journal, here I add flow charts for character plots, story links, timelines and a whole host of things in order to maintain a cohesive link throughout the story (and not become lost in your own creation). The journal becomes my bible where I can check-up past events to ensure I’ve got the right character or place for the next idea. I keep a record of where items such as swords were obtained or lost; which person was riding which horse and all the little details that together make the plot more tangible.

Once I’ve got the story on paper (on computer actually, I only write the journal with pen and paper,) I relax, forget the story and the book for a while and do other things, DIY mainly (unfortunately, cause I hate it, but we’ve all gotta live.) I then return to my story (normally a couple of months later,) then read and self edit. This is where I correct obvious mistakes and transform my babbled tale into a transcript that resembles English. With this process I find often as not the chapters expand and the break from the story allows a fresh eye to advance the workings. I use the thesaurus on my computer quite a lot and spell check; after all I’m no BA or PhD. Once I’m happy with my self editing the manuscript is ready for the editor.

The editor’s input is crucial; they see your work from an unbiased point of view and will advise in areas they feel should be changed, omitted or added. Together you arrive with the finished product; so after much relief that its all done you can start on your next book, it gets addictive, and why shouldn’t it, its fun right.

Happy writing, enjoy the trip and tell your tale!

All the best
Paul Tonks

Author the Mapping of Markesh

P.S. Any other methods out there? Thoughts?

 

[novella]

Your process sounds pretty workable.

I also keep a flexible chapter outline handy that I update occassionally.

And a file listing characters, with their short imagined bios and other things about them. Physical descriptions, etc. These never appear in the story.

I also keep a Discards file, which is where I put text I might use for something else but don't want to use for the piece I'm working on. My Discards file is much bigger than my working-copy file.

And I keep a Sketches file, which is where I stick bits of text that I want to use but haven't found a place for yet.

I also like to use the Word document map function, which gives you an interactive table of contents at the margin of the document, so I can jump around from one section of the book to another easily, and also see exactly where I am in relation to the rest. This is very handy after the first draft is down, when I want to move things around and work on different sections.

When I used to edit professionally, I always kept a Style Sheet on the first read-through, which sounds a lot like your journal. It was for noting all the special terms and circumstances that would have to be consistent, special spellings and names and chronology, etc. All editors use those, in conjunction with a style book.