Do you set aside a time each day to write? Do you write five pages stream of consciousness then trim it down into something that makes sense? Are you a planner? Do you write in a notebook? Do you write once, edit once? write twice, edit once? Write once, edit thrice?
I don’t have a consistent process. I’ve been experimenting with writing in a basic markdown editor, maybe 500 words at a time, then stringing together multiple entries as best I can. What I find is I have lots of ideas and thoughts that are separate, and critical to my ability to form complex thought is correlating multiple seemingly unrelating things, which then creates a new more complicated and hybrid whole. I can’t sit down and write 5,000 words on one thing, but I can write 500 words on ten things, and then use that as the basis of a mosaic piece that (when edited well) comes together into a unique whole.
For OP, if you sit down to write 500 words on ten things, to me here on the backseat that seems like spreading yourself too thin. Take three or four projects and alternate between them. Unless you mean you work on ten different parts of the same novel? That is an interesting concept, and I’m curious on how well that works for you.
While writing my first novel, I wrote after my daytime job as a software developer, but that was not viable due to stress and I changed the system for my next novels to only write on weekends and vacations. I’ve now managed to keep that system going for 6 novels. In my experience, for a lot of people, myself included, the most vital part is experimenting with ways of working and finding the system that actually gets you finishing novels. Routine is king, and routine can be learned.
My process is to spend about a month on worldbuilding and outlining, then write the first draft in about 3-5 months, then take a two week break, then do a draft analysis and write a second draft over the next 2-3 months. Then I do a feedback session with other novelists, and while that’s going on, I start working on the plan for the next novel. Eventually, when the feedback process is done, I do another draft analysis and plan a third draft, at which point I usually have an almost-ready novel done. Then it’s one more round of feedback / betareaders.
Strictly out of curiosity, what genres do you prefer to write?
Fantasy and scifi mostly.
that’s pretty cool. I have an ever-growing list of ideas for (mainly) scifi stories but that list is where they’re born and die. once I put pen to paper, I can never get too far before I back out because I cant stand where I start heading with them.