Last week I talked a bit about my writing process. I mentioned how I don’t allow myself to edit as I go, how I reread at least a few chapters before I write more, and how I can’t write and edit in the same time frame. I also mentioned that I work on multiple manuscripts at the same time.
I’m an organic writer, or what some would call a pantser—someone who writes by the seat of their pants as opposed to plotting out the story beforehand.
I don’t have an outline of what’s going to happen. I don’t have character sheets full of details, from everything from what that character looks like to their favorite food. When I sit down to write I typically have a character in mind and a vague idea of the world the inhabit. That’s it. I might know who their love interest is if I’m working on romance or what their goal is if I’m not. But a lot of times I don’t even know that. I just sit down and let that character tell me their story.
I’ve found that the writing goes faster if I have no expectations. It’s like watching a movie for the first time when you haven’t even seen a trailer first so you have no idea what to expect. I see things unfold in my head and I do my best to write it all down. It’s that simple and that complicated.
Once my conscience mind kicks in and starts thinking, what if we did this or maybe they should do that, then things usually stall out for me. Because instead of listening to my characters I’m trying to make them go where I think they should and it never works out well. It happens with every book. Unless it’s one of those stories that I can write the first draft in a day or two—which is something that rarely happens—I know I’m going to hit a point where my conscious mind decides it knows better. Working on more than one book at a time allows me to step back and to immerse myself in another world, another character. In doing so my conscience mind shuts off again and when it kicks back in I switch to another manuscript. By the time I go back to the first one it’s usually been long enough that I can’t remember what I thought should happen and so I’m able to just listen to the characters again.
I’ve tried having multiple works in progress in the same genre or even the same series before, but anytime I’ve done that I ended getting things confused. So I find it easier to work on completely different stories. So I might have a contemporary romance, an epic fantasy, and a sci-fi romance going at the same time. Not only does it allow me to keep writing when I stall in one book, but it also keeps me from getting bored with my writing.
If I get bored with a story, then I don’t want to work on it anymore. For me, writing is something that is work but shouldn’t feel like work. Writing is something I do because I enjoy it. Once it begins to feel like work, like something I have to do, then it becomes something to avoid. I know this about myself and so I’ve figured out ways to combat this. It’s taken me years and I’m not always successful, but I am more often than not these days. And sometimes that’s all that really matters.