My Writing Process and Writing Update – 6th June 2012

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So, just a quick update this afternoon to let you know the latest with my work in progress: Spirit Of Fire.

I’ve been working on this novel since February 2012, and I’ve nearly finished it! Indeed, today I hit the 100,000 word mark. To be precise, I’ve just finished writing Chapter 24 and the total word count  of draft 1 is: 102,908 words.  (Well, actually I’ve just written 189 words of Chapter 25, which isn’t included in the above total word count.  And I still have Chapter 25 to complete, and to write 26, then Bang! The first draft will be complete!

Now, a couple of days ago, I went back and rewrote Chapter 1, adding in extra stuff, and giving the whole book a new, more exciting ending. So that chapter went from 4103 words to 6212 words. I also had a little look at chapters 2-6 and have decided that they’ll all need A LOT of work done to them, adding in extra stuff, taking scenes out. So, I guess, at this stage, it’s all about tightening the plot, putting more clues in e.t.c.

Here’s my typical writing process:

Planning – When planning I get to know the characters, plan out possibly conflicts, do a lot of researching and more of getting to know my characters, because this is really important. I may also draft out a couple of scenes as they come to me. This part of the process can take me anywhere from a 2 weeks to 2 months.

Draft 1 –  about getting the initial ideas down and writing exciting scenes (they end up a bit choppy), and basically writing what I think the book will end up like. It’s this stage that’s one of my favourite stages, as this is the more creative parts, and characters surprise me. So far, with Spirit Of Fire, I’ve been working on the first draft for just over three months, although I haven’t been writing every day that I would have like to have been, due to other commitments. It mainly started off with only writing at weekends, but I’ve managed to fit some writing time into evenings as well, and have written every day for the last ten days. When I write, I like to write a whole chapter at a time, or going over previous chapters, editing (even though I’m not on the editing stage!). I tend to average out at doing 3,000 to 6,000 words a day – the length of a chapter. Indeed so far, my shortest chapter (not including the prologue which is 1061 words) is 2649 words, with my longest being 7,958 words. This averages out at about 4,500 words per chapter, which is what I aim for as a typical length, but if a chapter needs to be shorter or longer, so be it.

Draft 2 – For me, draft two is about taking another look at reorganising the plot.  What I’ve found, just by looking back at the earlier chapters (1-6) of Spirit Of Fire, is that I have so much happening at the beginning, and not enough explanation, that it all becomes so exhausting and confusing; two things that you don’t want any opening to be. To solve this, I’ve written a new chapter one, which links a whole let better to the ending, than it previously did, and I’ll be  rewriting the other five chapters or so, putting more clues in them, but also ‘toning down’ some of the events. Also, I’ve noticed that by writing the book I’ve come to know my characters way better than I did at the beginning, so a lot of characterisation work needs to be done on the first half of the book. Indeed, I’ve decided to introduce one character slightly earlier than before, and others will be introduced in different circumstances and situations.  It is also at this point that I have to spot and continuity errors (eeek!). Once I’m completely happy with the plot and events of the book, then I move onto draft 3.

Draft 3/Revisions/Edits – I like to think of this part of the process as more technical. It’s about rewriting the actual words to make them make sense better, adjusting tones and atmospheres – hopefully not making any major changes, although I can still write in a whole new scene at this stage. By this point, I feel that I know the characters extremely well, and it’s really about making the writing better; correcting grammar, spellings, looking out for over-used words, varying sentence lengths where needed.

Draft 4 – I may go over the whole manuscript a fourth time, mainly spot-checking for errors. But I do this after I’ve taken a break from this story and have written another one or two short stories, or another novel which I’d have got to the draft 3 stage.

Readers – I then send the MS to some readers, most likely one of whom will be my dad, as he’s an author too and a good critique. My mum and brother would also get to have a wee look too. But, it would likely be Beta readers that have a look as well.

Final changes – I’d then make any final changes and amendments.

Submssions, Queries (and Agents?) – The submission process begins!