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Monday, October 3, 2011

I've been using my head lately...

Granted, it doesn't happen much. But I've been sick for a good week now, stuck in bed and coughing until my lungs hurt. Not much else to do but think. And while I was thinking about the process of writing.
From what I here from other people, it's very eccentric. Mainly it fits into two shaky categories, those who outline and those who wing it. And some common add-on's in those techniques are long walks on the beach or spending hours experiencing what the protagonist experienced in the book (living in their neighborhoods, working at their jobs. I hear for J.K. Rowling it was really hard) or just spending endless hours on the computer. To be honest, I don't believe in there ever being a definite or correct or even common writing process.
It's not that easy. 
If it was, a lot more people would write and I would never have hope for a job. 
Me personally, I'm all over the place. I don't have a schedule and I don't spend hours in front of a computer screen. (Okay! I don't spend hours in front of a computer screen writing.) I will write until I hit a writing block, then go to a different project or create a new one. (In my document folder I have nine folders and  eighty four different projects, yet only about five are finished and only about four go past page fifty.) And believe me when I say that I outline, I outline like there's no tomorrow if I know the entire plot, but the story ALWAYS without fail strays from the outline completely. And yet, I still have not one, but TWO manuscripts finished. So yes, I think my system works.
But that doesn't mean everyone can use it.
Like my friend Alexandra will write in random scenes, like she'll go from the end to the beginning depending on what she's thinking of at the moment. I could never do that, it personally takes away the fun of looking forward to writing my favorite part or the sense of triumph when I get through a writer's block type of chapter. And my other friend Kyla feels that she needs to write to deadlines, it motivates her. For obvious reasons, not many people share her opinion. But hey, it works for them, so who are we to say it's not valid.
I know I'm going on a bit of a tangent, but what I really wanted to ask all you monkeys is, what's your process? How do all you party people give birth/poo out stories?
 

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