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Learnings on the Writing Process

Writer's picture: Ben McKenzieBen McKenzie


I have had a lot of time to think about my writing process after book one went to the editor, and as I look back to when I first started taking all this writing more seriously, it has made me realise a couple of things.


Lot’s of people will ask you whether you're a plotter or a pantser, and sometimes I sit there and ask myself which one am I?


The simple answer is that I am a bit of both.


I have switched from being an avid plotter, which I believed was half the reason I never finished anything previously, I plotted myself into a hole where it took all the fun out of writing.


Then pantsing I never finished anything either because I dived into writing with the smallest idea and realised that I had no idea what was happening, who everyone was or how they connected together.


So it was when I started this project, that I knew I had to experiment with what was going to work best for me. This led me to my joined up approach.


I have a google sheet with all chapters on that I will create a couple of sentences or even a paragraph of what each chapter will contain. Then on a separate google doc, I break that down into further bullet points of key things that will happen chapter by chapter, this helps me ensure I am on track and not getting stuck as often.


With that all being said - that doesn’t mean I don’t deviate from this outline. This happens so often, because as we all know that when we start writing, your characters tend to do things on their own. So I never have a fully concrete outline, I allow myself to move and sway in line with how the writing goes.


This method takes the pressure off myself, something that a lot of writers can feel is this overwhelming sense that we have to get everything right first go, or we have finished this book in the quickest time ever. None of that is true, the more we pressure ourselves, we are only stifling the creative juices we need to actually get things done and done correctly.


I can remember thinking back to my first draft, it took three months. It was over 100,000 words of garbage, but my god I was so proud that I had finished a novel. No matter how bad that first draft was, I had finished a book and knew that was something to be so proud of.


Now when I read it back and realised MAJOR changes needed to be made, I did a total rewrite for draft 2 and that took me 5 weeks at just over 80,000 words.


I was frustrated at the time, but I was so much happier with the story in that draft 2 version, the direction, the world, the characters I just knew it was heading in the right direction at that point.


The writing process isn’t meant to be easy, the fact that you are writing anything is an achievement in itself, regardless of how bad you think it is.


Just keep writing!


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