My Writing Process.

My Writing Process.

I’ve never met a novelist face to face as my two careers - cooking and antiques - didn’t bring me into contact with artists, unless you believe cooking is an art, which I don’t. So when I started to write, and as I have problems reading, I had no experience of producing a novel. I don’t know how other writers and authors write; all I can tell you is how I do it.

I’ve come across different views on the Internet on writing a novel and there seem to be two main camps: plotters and pantsters. I fall into the second category. I write “by the seat of my pants”. I never had any intention to write, then one night I had a dream and had to write, from that night on I feel I have no option: I must write.

When I write I see the action in my mind’s eye. It’s a bit like watching a video. I then become the character I’m writing about - I live their life for a brief moment in time, I see how they see, I think how they think, then when I change to another character I do the same. Unexpected things happen to my characters. Now, I know that sounds a bit daft but as I am walking along the road as one of my characters, a thought pops into their – my - head. I wonder if all writers do this?

I believe I write in this way because I do not read. I’ve not read anything very much. Even when I was young I bought comic books but only looked at the cartoons. I watched television and on TV the story unfolds as you watch. Sometimes you think you know what is going to happen but you are often caught out.

I wrote my first novel in just over seven weeks, I then found an editor Steph, 

www.edit-my-book.com.

I first asked her to critique my novel not knowing if it was OK or a piece of garbage just fit for the waste bin. After a short while Steph got back to me with mainly kind words. She suggested I cut a big chunk out of the novel - to cut the 93,000 words down by 20,000 words. This was a bit of a shock. But of course she was right: it was too big a sub-plot and it took away from the main story.

After I rewrote the story, Steph copy-edited it, then proofread it and it ended up a better story which I am quite proud of.

I would be interested to know how other writers perceive their writing.