I wrote for many years before finally getting lucky enough to find an agent and a publisher. I’ve never been trained to write. Instead I’ve learned a lot through trial and error. While there are many stages in the writing, you can break the process down into four main steps.
Stage One: Find Your Story
What inspires you? What makes your heart flutter with joy or your blood pound with rage? What moves you? Writers spend many hours getting to know their characters, developing the worlds they live in and navigating the challenges their characters will face. Writing about a subject or idea that you’re excited about makes the process easier. If you’re having trouble nailing down your inspiration, try writing something that you would want to read. There’s no point in writing a story about a fifteenth century astronomer if you’re really passionate about the fashion industry. You have to write for you, not what you think will sell or what other people will think is cool. Your enthusiasm will come through in your writing and make a richer, more compelling experience. Your readers will get caught up in the energy you put into your story. Think about your favorite books and you’ll see what I mean. That passion is what keeps us going back to the books/authors we love.
Stage Two: Write, Write, Write
It seems obvious that you need to sit down and write to, well, write. But staring at a blank computer screen – empty white space yawning before your eyes, begging to be filled with words – can be daunting to say the least. All of sudden you’ll find yourself compelled to clean the house, do your taxes or wash the dog. Anything to avoid that empty screen staring back at you. Starting a story can feel overwhelming. When you think about all the things that have to happen in order to get your character from the beginning to the end of the story – it’s exhausting. It’s enough to make you want to turn off the computer and take a nap.
Every writer goes through that, not only when starting a project, but repeatedly throughout the writing process. Writing ain’t for sissies! But before I turn you off from writing completely, remember what Lao Tzu said: the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. One step at a time is what will get you through your project. Commit to writing a little every day. Your story will start to flow the more time you spend with it. Some days I stare at the screen, trying to think of what to write. It might look like nothing is happening, but I am actually making progress, even if it’s just knowing what I don’t want to write. Like anything in life, the more you write, the easier it will become to organize your thoughts, put your thoughts into words and put those words on the screen (or paper).
There’s so much more to say about this part of the writing process, but for now I’ll leave it at this: just write.
Stage Three: Revise
So you’ve finished your project! You’re flying high, popping bottles and celebrating your great literary accomplishment and telling everyone you meet. Think that’s the end? Nope.
Once the dust settles and the champagne bottles are put away, the dreaded editing phase of writing begins. Revising your project can be the most excruciating part of writing. Many writers would give anything to avoid it. But the painful truth is: none of us is Shakespeare. Hell, I bet Shakespeare wasn’t even Shakespeare on his first draft. First drafts usually need to be pared down; if you’re anything like me it also needs lots of grammatical corrections. I know every sentence, every word feels precious, hand-picked to create your perfect story; any deletion would be devastating to the project as a whole. But the cold hard truth is that usually less is more where writing (and accessories) are concerned. Too much exposition, too many adjectives or description can kill the pace of a story or weigh down your characters. Your readers are smart people; they don’t need to have their hands held. Much like sanding down a rough piece of wood or filing a nail, editing a story is the best way to polish a project, making sure your audience has the best reading experience.
Stage Four: Share Your Story With the World
If every step in this writing process seems harder than the last, then congratulations! You understand the writing process. Just like going through school when the classes get harder as you learn more, each stage of writing is a little harder than the previous one. Sharing your writing with other people is both exciting and terrifying. It feels as if you are showing a little piece of your soul to a stranger. In a way that is exactly what you are doing – coming up with an idea, nurturing it into a story, then revising and reworking that story until you feel it’s perfect. It takes a lot of energy. The risk of rejection is real; you can’t control what people think. But if you really took Step One seriously you wrote from inspiration, something you wanted to read. You wrote for yourself, not others. It would be a shame to spend so much time and effort on something and not share it with the world. It’s every writer’s dream to be praised for their work, but we all know rejection is part of the game. Ask any writer…most would tell you they would write regardless of being published. It’s the writing itself that is the reward.