How a person writes is as individual as they are. Everyone’s process is different. My process has evolved into one that works for me. As an author, we are and should be constantly growing in our craft and learning new ways to be more efficient as well as more effective, so here’s how I go from ideation to completed book.
Usually a scene pops into my head about someone or something that’s been nagging at me. I may read about a person in history of whom I was not aware, and that sparks an idea. Or I may have experienced or heard about an injustice, and that creates a desire to explore it and see if it might be what I call “novel worthy.”
Once I lock in on that idea, I research. First, has this been done before? If I am still dead set on writing it I find an angle that hasn’t been done. That’s how I got the idea for my debut novel, As Gray As Black & White. Prejudice was not a new topic, but creating a character who had never experienced it and was forced into seeing it from a different perspective made the book fresh.
I love creating stories from little-known historical facts. If I come across something that intrigues me, I create characters who I can place in that period and have them act out what I think might have happened during that time, but make it a personal struggle.
Once I have the idea, I lay out the plot: what is going to happen and why? Who am I going to force into this situation, and how will I allow him to overcome it? Once the plot is set, I create all the major players. I don’t usually add side characters until I’m in the writing process. I add them as I need them.
Then during the writing process, as things develop, I make adjustments to the journey until I am satisfied that the story says what I want it to say.
And that, in a nutshell, is it. Once the first draft is done, the real work takes place. The revising and editing and rearranging until I take it as far as I can. That’s when I know it’s ready for the public.
As a reader, what do you notice about an author’s process? Can you see it in the work? Let me know.
Leave a Reply