My Writing Process

When I taught elementary school, the writing process took a seat front and center.  It was loud, demanded a lot of management from me, and generally didn't get along with the students. "Look at me!  Look at me!  I'm im-por-tant!" the writing process would brazenly claim.  We dutifully followed orders from the writing process, and dressed it up in 5-paragraph-essays.  But it never seemed to work well with the kids.  If I could grade the writing process, I would've given it an N for Needs Improvement.  But isn't that the point?

Writing is hard.  Messy.  And different for EVERY writer.  Some people prewrite by doodling, writing poems, or even, yes, blogging!  My writing process is to begin by freewriting, until I have uncovered a gem of truth.  My truth.  Without my truth I have nothing to say.  Then it's a lot of filler, trying to put ink on a page and call it "finished."  Without my truth, why write?  I have a lot of other things to do.  If you don't agree with my truth, so be it.  Maybe my truth sharpens YOUR truth for you! 

So, I write freely, uncover a gem, then a character is created.  Depending on who this character is, he/she may punch me in the nose or quietly tip-toe behind me and gently tap my shoulder to get my attention.  And this character may pull me away on an adventure or show me inside his/her home and life for a cup of tea.  And perhaps a confession.  Respect the character.  That's what I've learned about my writing process.  Allow the character some room to breathe.  To make decisions.  Mistakes.  And to learn.  Don't be pushy with a character.  As a writer, I'm invisible.  If you can see my hand moving the character around then it's false and mechanical.  And readers can tell the difference between organic and genetically modified stories.

So I write, find a truth, am led away by a character, and then I begin to think about structure.  This isn't in the sense that I'm leading the story, but instead that I am choosing which parts of the story to tell.  There are lots of boring parts of a story... I hope to skip those.  ANYTHING can be made to be exciting in a story, depending on where it is placed and the question that arises from it.  But ANYTHING can also be made to be extremely boring by poor storytelling and leaving nothing to the reader's imagination. 

By this time, I've already written many drafts.  Starts and stops, I call them.  To me, a draft is something finished.  Why tinker with it when it's finished?  Unless I have notes.  And that's the last phase of the writing process for me.  Sharing and receiving notes. 

I think I'm a pretty good editor, but for some reason I work best on other people's writing and not my own.  This is the part of the writing process that is most difficult for me.  And that is to allow someone else to read... uninterrupted and without my comments... my writing.  And if I've done it correctly, they are reading my truth.  Getting to know me in a way I don't normally let people know me.  Being vulnerable.  Then, I accept comments and criticism, and usually the reader will like what I liked and dislike what I had a nagging feeling about anyway.  Sometimes, the editor (just a term for a person I'm being vulnerable with after I've written a draft, not necessarily a professional in a tie and high heels--what?  You didn't know editors wore ties and high heels?  Not together, silly!) will give me notes I had already deep down given myself but ignored because they were too hard to take... I KNEW something was wrong but didn't know HOW to change it or make it work better!  Then I think and think and work and work and manipulate the draft I have to make it behave better. 

Finally, I have something worth reading. 

And that's my writing process:  write freely, allow a character to show me around, decipher a story, be vulnerable, take notes, and wrestle the beast to the mat until it relents to changes and I have a story worth reading or listening to. 

Easy. 
Ha!  I wish!

Happy writing,
Rachel