How I write

Apparently when it comes to my writing, people enjoy reading what I have to type, so I asked some of those people if they wanted some insights into how I write a story.  They said yes, so I’ll talk people through how I do it.

Step 1: Get an idea.

Yes I’m listing this in the entire order that I go through.  Anyway, I’ll be going along at some point and either read another story that causes inspiration or come up with an idea completely separate from everything else.  Every so often, a comment from someone can kick off the story idea, which is what happened in the example I’m going to reference at the end of this.  However, the inspiration can come from anywhere: out of the blue, another artist’s work, or a direct comment from someone can get you going.

Step 2: Come up with a plan of some kind

I may scare a couple of people here but it’s not that bad.  All I do is use notepad to jot down a few ideas for point A, point B, point C and so on, based on the total plotline I have in my head at that point.  Now all I do here is just write a line or two talking about the major plot point for each section, just something that if I read it later on, I’d know what it means.  Also, one thing I do with the planning is if I need a name for what I’m going to write, I take a bit of time to work on that, coming up with a name that sounds fitting for the character regardless of how long the character will be there.

Now for the story I’ll be revealing at the end, I needed a total of six sections in the notes, at least one line for each section of the story to point me in the right direction.

Step 3: Write

This is where you actually get to get going and write the story.  Now you might be thinking that the notes have to be followed very closely and you have to stick to the central idea of the story, right?  No, not at all.  A story that you have a strong enough concept for up to this point should be able to pull you along as you write, getting through the points in the notes that fit the best.  One thing I have always told people when it comes to writing is take long enough to say what you want to say. However, you should also keep things moving fast enough that people don’t fall asleep while reading it.  In my case, I usually write about 9 pages worth of text, very rarely less and very rarely more.  Another thing to keep in mind is every so often you are going to write yourself into a corner. That’s okay too.  I’ve done the same thing myself and the best thing I can recommend to do there is what I’ve done, let the story sit for a while until you feel that you can start in on it again.  I had a story that wound up sitting for about a year before I was able to get back to it and get it finished.

For the example I’m working with throughout this, I had a decent idea of what I wanted to write from the beginning. The writing for the story generally followed the notes but I did get a little stuck at one point.  Fortunately the block on the writing only lasted a week or two and I was able to get back on it again.

Step 4: Editing

It pays to pay attention to your grammar and your spelling; I’ve read more than a few stories that have had some kind of spelling error that really bugs me.  However, I do admit that I don’t edit my own stories well, but I do know one or two people that are willing to help me with that.  When it comes to picking an editor, you need to find someone that is a decent writer as well. It doesn’t help your writing when you ask someone to do editing for you and the story gets worse.  Another thing I’ve found that helps is having someone to edit for you that’s quick to get back to you, doesn’t help to submit a spring themed story in winter.

Step 5: Posting

Yes, I’m sure you think you know everything about this part, but bear with me.  So you got a story done and you’re ready to submit right?  Maybe.  Are you writing a multi-part story?  Are you thinking about chapter 5 as you’re thinking about posting chapter 1?  If so, hold off on posting each chapter as you hammer it out and think about waiting until you have more written.  On all of my multi-part stories, part 1 rarely goes up before I have the final part at least started, and usually I’ll post part 1 when the whole thing has been written and edited.  Of course, after you write all those chapters, it doesn’t hurt to stagger the releases out a little bit. Don’t spam your audience with the entire story over the course of six hours.  One final thought here, link each chapter together.  I need to go back and do that myself on a couple of multi-part stories but usually I try to give links to the other parts as well. Now you could just do what I have seen other people do where if you write chapter 5, you include a link to chapter 4 and chapter 6 when you write it.

I’ll give three examples to explain the point here.  The first one is the story “Gone Wrong” from a couple of years ago.  I posted over the course of about six months with each new chapter going up at the end of the month except for the final part and the epilogue. Both of those parts were spaced out about two weeks.  In that case, I did need to work on the end of the story as I posted the first part but I knew I had plenty of time to finish there.  The second part is a more recent story I did, “Rogues Gallery”.  For that one, I was able to use the scheduling function DA has as I write this to set up parts 2-6 to post each Monday at roughly 5AM US Pacific time.  Sure, they were bunched closer together, but that still gave people watching me a full week between each new installment except for part 1, which was posted on a Tuesday.  Still though, that gave people a chance to try to find time to read each piece, during lunch at work, after work but before going off to an evening’s activities, on a day off, really any block of time that was enough to get through the story.  Finally for the example I’ve been using this entire time, it was only one part but if it had gone to two parts I would’ve spaced them out a little bit.

Final thoughts:

I’m not doing anything extraordinary here; there is no magic or sleight of hand in how I write.  Every single step of the process I use is outlined here.  It’s just being organized on the front end to let the writing flow better, then showing some consideration for the audience on the back end.  Just remember all I’m doing here is showing you what I do. If you have a technique that works better, use it.

The answer:  You’re probably wondering what the story I’ve been referencing throughout this is. It’s the story “Hands On”.