The Writing Process
People often ask writers about the writing process.
Where and when and how.....
Some writers sit in a special chair or at a special desk or in a special room.
Some writers drink from a special mug or listen to certain music or light a special candle.
I don't really do any of those things. But I do have my routines and I'll share them here.
Where do I write?
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Well....I had a special office with a desk, bookshelves for my writing books, and cute little twinkly lights.
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Unfortunately, we had to move Avi the bird into that room, and he is very loud and kind of messy.
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I don't write in that room anymore.
My office before Avi moved in.
After Avi kicked me out of my office, I found an old-fashioned roll-top desk and I fell in love with it. I bought and put it in our bedroom. I thought I would write at it.
Unfortunately, it's kind of small and I have lots of papers everywhere when I write.
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I still love it, but I don't use it.
So here is how my writing routine really works. First of all, I watch my grandsons four days a week. The only time I can write on those days is when they nap. So, as soon as I put them to bed, I run to the dining room table and I start writing. I try to get as much writing done as I can before they wake up.
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On the other days, I write more frequently...maybe a few pages in the morning, a few more pages around lunchtime, and a few more pages later in the day.
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I don't listen to music. Music distracts me. And I don't like coffee, but sometimes I'll drink tea. Usually I just drink water, though. Ice water. I like really, really cold ice water.
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I write by hand on binder paper with my favorite pens. About once a week I sit down at the computer and type up all the pages from that week and then I print them out, hole punch them, and put them in a binder. When I type them up, I usually do a little bit of editing and revising, but not very much.
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Eventually I send pages to my critique partners and they help me figure out what's working or not working. And I'll go back into the story and make changes and fix things up. And after about a year or more of this, I have a finished book!
My spot at the dining room table.