Thread on my writing process:
I'm not a discovery writer *at all*, or more accurately I do all my discovery in the pre-drafting phase. You know how everyone is either an architect (extreme planner) or a gardener (extreme discoverer)? I'm the quintessential architect
I'm not a discovery writer *at all*, or more accurately I do all my discovery in the pre-drafting phase. You know how everyone is either an architect (extreme planner) or a gardener (extreme discoverer)? I'm the quintessential architect
Of the time it takes me to write a novel draft, easily 50% of it is research (TONS of books), plotting (mostly me going for long walks, playing with ink, and generally letting the plot come together without trying to overly force it), and outlining (scene by scene)
The remaining 50% is the drafting--I can take as little as 3 months to write a full novel draft, which feels like not a whole lot. But crucially the only reason I'm able to do this is because I spent all these other months laying the ground for the draft
I can write, say, three scenes in two days BECAUSE I have a scene by scene outline. Because I don't have to wonder what the next scene is or who it'll involve.
Obviously there'll be a lot of minor details and stuff I need to fix: the outline isn't the novel! But having that security of what I'm doing next is a. good for my brain (which doesn't do uncertainty in novelling terribly well) and b. good for speed
If the novel diverges from its outline (which happens quite a bit, I'm not infallible at pre-draft stage!) I've found it's much easier for me to re-outline rather than go discovering.
And on the surface it looks like I'm making a lot of speed and a lot of people tell me that they'll like to go as fast as I do? But the truth is none of this would be possible if I hadn't put the time in before. I don't write faster, I just put the time to a different use
The other advantage of having outlined is that I don't need as much intense concentration while I'm drafting and can do it in bits and pieces (which is *vital* because of the "two young children at home" thing).
And a final thing I realised I was doing (thanks to using pacemaker pacemaker.press ) is frontloading, ie I write a LOT in the beginning and then markedly slow down as I move towards the climax of the book
That's mainly because I'm unable to leave things hanging in a draft: I have to have minimal coherence, and when I make a change like "oh, after all XX is going to stab YY in chapter 2" I *need* to go back and write that scene the proper way.
I also write mostly chronologically: again, I find it hard to write out of sequence/with gaping holes in the book--it's easier for me to grasp what's going on with a novel if it's more or less presented the way the reader will see it
Is this the right thing to do? Obv not, everyone does things differently! It's just the way drafts work for me, and the way that I come to terms with a novel--it's highly idiosyncratic!
