Good Afternoon Gorgeous People,
The writing process is generally the same, though it slightly differs from person to person and so it is always changing. That can also be said for my particular writing process. My process changes on a daily basis and from piece to piece. Each story I begin to tell changes my writing process slightly even if I do not notice. Writing is always changing and evolving.
With some manuscripts, I plan out the relevant details and with others, I wing it completely. I go into the writing process with only the knowledge of my main character’s name and the rest comes along with the words. It’s like I am reading the book for the first time as I write it, figuring out details and finding out truths.
So, sometimes I know the endings and other times I have no idea what is going to happen until it does. My writing fluctuates and I am sure that it happens to other writers too, even those who believe they have their process down-packed. Because each story you begin to tell has it’s own specific process needed for completion.
The Phases
Most writers begin with a pre-writing phase. Where they jot down notes, create outlines and do characters sketches and so on. Some writers do choose to skip this until they have finished their manuscript in rough, then go back to it to fill in the holes there may be while they edit.
Then the actual writing where they plan through their plot and do the “heavy” writing work. This can be considered the most time-consuming and most difficult phase of any writer’s writing process.
This next phase is editing and revising where you begin to chop down things that don’t quite belong or need to be there and add in things you missed the first time. This is fairly easy, though can be a struggle especially if you don’t care much for editing. But is always a must in any writer’s writing process.
Now, this phase differs quite drastically from writer to writer. Some call this phase their publishing phase and others call it the polishing phase. For me, this would be my polishing phase where I take weeks or months to just continue going over my manuscript until it is as perfect as I think it can be, but this by no means is the end. Once there is nothing more than I can do, I must go to someone else for help. Someone with a fresh pair of eyes to help me continue the editing/polishing process.
So, for me, there is probably a point after these phases, after the writing process where I create a new process where all the extra fixings are fixed up before it is ready to be read by others and for publication.
I have pre-planned before, but I have also skipped it until the very end. For me, either way, works depending on the idea and how complex it is. The more complex the idea, the more planning needed. My process is relatively the same, though differs for almost every book I work on because each has its own needs.
Celine Rose Marie