With that having been said, I’m intending to independently publish at least 2-3 books a year, so I’ve been working out a system which I can use to write the best books I can in as timely a manner as humanly possible. I'll always put quality first, even if it means delaying a release. It generally takes me 4-6 months to have a book I’m happy with. But that doesn’t take into account uncontrollable circumstances (like being knocked out for a week with flu) or - the thing I dread - creative paralysis, in which the words just aren’t coming. So I’ll overcompensate by getting things done months ahead of time, just in case. With independent publishing, this can hardly be a bad thing!
So: here are the steps.
1. *sudden idea lightning storm* - this ALWAYS happens when I’m in the middle of drafting something else - it’s a law of the universe. :P
With the Alliance series, the concept, plot AND characters came into my head at the same time. My original notes say something like, "An organisation who stop monsters from other universes escaping onto Earth. Two main characters - one investigating a murder, the other sneaking around the Passages helping people flee a war in her own world until she's arrested by the other main character - CUE DRAMA". That's actually a lot more detailed than my initial ideas usually are, which might have been why I planned it so quickly!
2. Revisit ideas later, decide which one to work on, and brainstorm like crazy! In particular, figure out the central conflict, plot, and main character(s). I use Writing the Breakout Novel to accompany the brainstorming and figuring out important things like stakes, originality and emotional appeal.
Often before starting a new project, I go through old notebooks looking for ideas to join up with the ones I’ve already written down (this is actually how the Darkworld series started!). And I’ll take my time with this stage. If I really love the concept, I’ll be thinking about it all the time - I just have to remember to write everything down!
Mostly, I made sure I loved everything about the Alliance series, and it made the world of difference when I started drafting. That doesn’t mean put everything you love into one book - just make sure you're writing characters, plot, story world, etc. that appeal to you. A plot that you'll never get tired of (especially across a long series), characters who are endlessly intriguing with scope for development, and worlds you want to explore yourself. See also Susan Dennard’s post about magical cookies for making every scene exciting to write!
3. Snowflake method… of a sort. I write a one-sentence pitch or logline (the actual book often ends up completely different, but just having the main conflict down works as a starting point!). Then a paragraph-long summary of around 5 sentences. Then I do the same for the key characters with a focus on goal, motivation and conflict. And then I write a synopsis (using this post!). This is the point where I figure out how many books there’ll need to be in the series (I almost always write series, because the conflict’s inevitably too big and world-spanning to be resolved within one book!). And I’ll also plan the protagonist's emotional arc. This is something I used to struggle with, and I’ve found this series of posts really helpful with plotting both story and character so that they work together!
4. If I get stuck, I worldbuild. And research. The Alliance series wasn't the first time I'd created a whole universe (or Multiverse!), so I already had a lot of helpful resources bookmarked. This is the part where I really dig into the potential conflicts in the story's world and how they can wreak havoc, and make lists of all the cool details I want to include in the story (hover bikes! Scary monsters!). This is the fun, Pinterest-board-making stage, and I usually work on this while drafting another project until I have enough material.
The first thing I do is figure out the rules. So I nailed down the three principles of magic fairly early in planning the Alliance series. Then I worked out the rules of the Alliance itself (on Earth) before delving into the various alternative universes the story takes place in. I also took a trip to London in the middle of the planning and wandered around staring at walls and trying to figure out where to put a fictional giant building and a secret entrance to the between-world Passages.
5. The proper outline! There’s a reason I don’t show people my outlines: they would make no sense to anyone except me (and even I get confused sometimes. :P). I have a word document with the Save the Cat beat sheet spreadsheet combined with various character and plotting guides I've gathered (see my "writing resources" tab above), and I’ve divided it into sections so I can cut and paste my own outline into the gaps when I put it into Scrivener. I'd already written fourteen novels before the Alliance series, so I had a better idea of my own writing process than when I was starting out.
It also saves a lot of time to outline the whole series before I start the first book. Firstly, this means I can move from one draft to the next without having to stop to outline the next book. Secondly, it means I can check in advance if the continuity/rules are consistent across the series, and I can plant clues/foreshadowing in the earlier books. I posted last month about plotting a series!
I don’t stick to the plan exactly and it invariably changes as I write. I can’t write without a structure, even if it only becomes a loose guideline in the end. I tend to second-guess myself a lot in the early stages, and almost always experience a mid-draft crisis and have to rework a significant part of the original plan. This is because no matter how much planning I do, I always find the best way to get to know my characters and the world is through the writing itself. If the outline's causing me trouble, I'll put it aside make a list of plot elements and important information and refer to that as I write.
6. Now I actually write the draft! I find the first scene is the hardest for me to write and it takes a few chapters to get a real grasp on the characters and their world if it’s a new project, so I allow for that. If I get stuck, I step away and brainstorm. If I get really stuck, I backtrack and read over what I’ve written. I normally shy away from editing mid-draft, but it has saved hours of wasted time (for example, I had to do this with the second Alliance novel to find my way out of a huge plot hole!).
I use short-term goals to keep on track. When drafting, I try for a minimum of 2000 words a day. If I write more, I have leeway with less productive days, which happen despite my best intentions. Having said that, I wrote the six-book Alliance series in six months, averaging around 70-80K words per month - which is twice as fast as I usually write! I generally plan for 1-3 months per draft.
7. When the first draft’s done, I export the document from Scrivener to Word and change the font for a first read-through. I note down general issues in a list, and make line-edit corrections on-screen. I’d like to separate big-picture edits and line-edits, but I have a compulsion to fix incorrect grammar...
I fix plot and character issues first, because they have the most potential to knock a story out of sync. In this edit, I make sure the plot actually makes sense, the events flow, and the characters' actions/motivations are consistent. I also keep an eye out for missing scenes and unresolved subplots. This is the big picture error-fixing stage - plot, character, tension, and stakes.
Then I look for things like slow pacing/lack of tension, places where I can add foreshadowing/description/emotion (these are things I always have to work into later drafts), cutting infodumping/excessive explaining, clarification, showing vs telling, etc. Those are my particular weaknesses, and if I checked for all those things while drafting, I’d never finish. Someday, I’d love to write a clean, inconsistency-free draft, but alas, I seem to like things complicated.
And then there are things that make NO SENSE, and I wish I could travel back in time and ask Past Emma what on Earth she was thinking when she wrote them. *headdesk*
I'll usually go through at least two or three self-edits to deal with all these problems (referring to a list). Then I’ll use “find” and “replace” to search out certain words I know I overuse (my list is now two pages long!). This can also be helpful in finding adverbs and filler words. Every time I make significant changes, I'll save the document under a new name. (That's why I usually have 6 or 7 "drafts" done before I even send the book to other writers for feedback - each "draft" usually means I've worked through the document start to finish. Sometimes it takes more than one read-through to solve a particular problem.)
This stage can take from 1 week to 2 months, depending on the level of editing needed, and I don’t necessarily start as soon as I finish a draft. See my editing post for more detail!
8. I send it to beta readers and CPs with a list of specific questions. And then start something else, while trying to avoid the voices in my head telling me I wrote complete crap (the nerves ALWAYS kick in the instant I send off a draft!). It's essential to get new eyes on your work, and I usually ask for feedback on whatever I'm not sure about. If I don’t have a new draft to work on, I’ll start planning a new project or revisit an old one. I usually send the draft to one or two readers at a time, so I can have fresh eyes on each revision. While this is happening, I’ll book freelance editing and also cover design, if I haven’t already.
9. Repeat again! Most of the time, I’m editing one book while working on my current draft. When I’m inspired, I’m brainstorming or researching future WIP’s!
With the Alliance series, the planning took two months (while I was working on another project). Then I fast-drafted the first book, and put it through multiple rounds of edits while working on the other books in the series. After eight months, the first book's published, the second's almost ready, and the others are drafted. So the advance planning definitely paid off! Of course, writing can be unpredictable as anything else. As I said, it's rare that I get an idea that I love enough to turn into a novel, and I couldn't pull a plot out of thin air and start a book the next day. I admire people who can, but that's just not the kind of writer I am. I need to think over an idea first. I think the Alliance series happened so quickly because I'd been thinking over a lot of ideas and they just happened to collide in the right way.
Obviously, this kind of manic power-drafting isn't for everyone, but here are a few things that probably didn't hurt:
- I planned ahead. A lot.
- I kept a list of things I loved about the project.
- From the start, I could clearly visualise the finished book(s).
- I'd already written 14 novels, so I knew my own process, weaknesses, etc.
- I started out writing Adamant for fun, without worrying what people would think. But I also knew I wanted to self-publish, so I didn't have the usual worries about query letters, synopses, subjectivity, marketing categories etc. Fretting about all those things stunted my productivity for the first half of last year.
- I also put querying my MG book on hold, which also reduced my stress (not to mention constantly refreshing my inbox...).
- I took my netbook everywhere, including holidays, so I always had the series in my head.
- After the first book, I knew my characters well enough that a large portion of the sequels wrote themselves, because I always knew which decisions my characters would make (even if they surprised me sometimes!).
- I was (and am) obsessed with the series world. Even when I wasn't actually writing, I was thinking constantly about it.
- I should probably also say that I work from home (so I could arrange my hours around writing time), I live in my parents' attic, I'm in a long-distance relationship, I don't have children, and I've been horribly neglectful of my friends (sorry, guys!). :P
And I also have to really love what I'm writing - I could never write just for the market. I want to write my best, every time. In fact, I want each book I write to be better than the last. It's a good job this is a lifetime obsession!
Wow, so much work! You may not consider yourself super-prolific, but the speed with which you manage to plan and write never fails to amaze me. I wish I could be that productive! (I'm too slow for my own good. LOL.)
ReplyDeleteI think everyone works at their own speed! :) My first novel took ten years, so I've had a lot to learn along the way.
Delete