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So, what's your process?

Started by LeeThompson, November 12, 2009, 08:31:45 PM

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Woody

#15
just added the genres to make things clearer.
Wouldn't mind farming this stuff out, just so it gets written.
However, after I'm done with the stuff I'm doing at the mo my next effort is going to be "The Enhanced". Not giving anything away it's going to be about how the government of the day decides to tackle prison overcrowding and the consequences - but keep in mind this is going to be a contemporary sci-fi not a treatise on today's solutions - though the science behind the story exists and has existed for quite a few years!
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Writers Anonymous(http://www.writersanonymous.org.uk)-a source of sinister anthologies
Perception is nine tenths of the look. Brave Dave the Feather in Caribbean Conspiracy

delboy

How much of your writing time do you guys actually spend writing? For instance, this morning, I've spent two hours revising a manuscript. For me that doesn't count as writing. I'm sat there thinking it's Saturday am, no work, pouring with rain, ideal opportunity to get some writing done... instead I'm editing.

Last night I was flicking through a copy of Alfred Hitchcock'csMytsery magazine - researching markets, one could say. But I say, it's Friday night, no work, pouring with rain, ideal time to do some writing, instead I'm researching...

Now I'm here...ideal time to do some writing instead I'm...uh, let's say networking.

All of these things are very important, but none of it is writing.

Derek
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

delph_ambi

I count editing as writing.

As a poet, I can dash off a poem in thirty seconds (I type fast and they're short) but then might spend a further half hour editing and tweaking. According to your definition, I've only spent half a minute writing, but I think I've spent half an hour.

Research, on the other hand, is not 'writing'. It's a necessary adjunct, but it's not the thing itself.

LeeThompson

Derek, I think all of that is good for you. It helps to let your brain work on things naturally, behind-the-scenes while you work on other things--editing, reading, networking, as well as normal focused effort. I only write in about fifteen minute chunks, but they add up throughout the day. But overall still probably on two hours of actual writing. And like Delph, I consider editing as writing, and that usually adds another hour.

Caz

I set myself the goal of not only starting and finishing a story in the space of a week but editing it, publishing it and submitting it as well. So far for the last month I have succeeded in this quest as anyone who follows the flash challenge will have noticed. :cool:
Some may say slaughtered is too strong a word...but I like the sound of it.

LeeThompson


Woody

.
#21
mustn't have my stuff here, ed keeps it.
___________________________________________________________
Writers Anonymous(http://www.writersanonymous.org.uk)-a source of sinister anthologies
Perception is nine tenths of the look. Brave Dave the Feather in Caribbean Conspiracy

LeeThompson

I find that writing questions to myself helps me a ton as well, Woody. It wasn't something I tried until about six months ago, but it has made a huge difference on how I approach each new work. Anyone who hasn't done it should give it a go and see if it works for them.  :smiley:

Ed

I find my best stories come out of a 'what if?' question.
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

LeeThompson

Yeah, that's a great way to get the imagination going, Ed!  :cheers:

digitaldeath

Titles make people pick up. I had a contact in Time Warner who loved my work but said the board just wanted to make money, they like the titles but not new authors. Sometimes the first idea needs changing
Fungus went to Seventh Seal
Kola Bears to Napalm Sandwich
Changing Faces was spot on
Waterstones saw The Devil Plays on Earth as religious, obviously nobody had heard of Dennis Wheatley
My latest are Flushing Carrion and Breaking Camels.
The other thing if you self publish is a cover picture. Being creative I experiment. Bind pages btween two pieces of wood and apply paper glue from a hot glue gun. Melt the cover on with a hot file binder. It is easiest get them machine trimmed but for a promo use oversized pine blocks and an electric plane.
My father was not Heath Robinson by the way.

delph_ambi

'Oversized Pine Blocks and an Electric Plane', the latest international best-seller...

David North-Martino

I tried to write fast but it didn't work for me. If I write slowly I usually have something that's close to finished copy. I find that writing slowly saves a lot of work when I get to the editing process. I try to work on a short story in-between working on an outline or doing research. This way I still feel like I'm writing, because I am, while I get the other parts of the job done also. :)

On the novel I just completed, I started out with a light outline of half the book (I got this idea from Tom Piccirilli's Welcome to Hell: A Working Guide for the Beginning Writer).

When I felt I had reached the middle of the book, I realized that I would probably only end up with a 200 page novel. Then I asked myself who else would be involved in a story like this. I came up with two more characters and some more scenes to drive the plot forward. Once I was done with that I wrote about 4 pages a day. But I wasn't religious about that number. I know when it's time to stop. And trying to fight through that feeling only leads to burnout.

When I started again the next day I read through the work from the day before and did a light edit before beginning the days writing. When I reached the end of the outline I already knew where I was going and I just wrote notes under the scene that I was working on. If I got stuck I would just stop writing confident that my subconscious would figure things out as I slept (I got many of these ideas from Laurence Block's From Plot to Print).

I usually know the ending before I begin and it gives me something to aim for. But I have no idea how I'm going to get there or if it's going to change along the way.

Short stories usually come to me fully fleshed out, but not all the time. I just write what's willing to come out that day and, the next day that I have time to write, I continue after reading yesterdays work. 

Right now I'm working on a short story and then moving to a novella before I try to tackle another novel length story.

Dave

digitaldeath

After writing one of my sci fi novels I wondered where the ideas came from. Maybe they were from outer space and would work. So I am trying to work out how long the material would last.
The Dummies Guide to Time Travel