I’m inspired by Dean Wesley Smith’s Writing in Public Challenge. See his latest post.
In the hopes that this might help someone else, or myself, I’m planning on tracking my work here. It gives me some accountability, and hopefully it will give some good information to someone else. I don’t plan on posting updates every day — I do need time to actually WRITE after all.
I’m working through a class, How to Write a Series. I should be ready to begin writing the first draft in a few days. If you’re interested, I’ve found the class to be very helpful. I’ve written three novels, but I’ve never been able to take them all the way to a finished state, ready for publication. I think I got lucky with this class.
I tend to get very bogged down in the novels. The middle tends to be wandering. I have subplots that get lost or take up too much space and attention. I’ve lost characters before, accidentally resurrected people, you name it. It’s a mess.
I’ve realized for a while that I need structure to my writing, and to my work habits. I have a Moleskine notebook overflowing with ideas, notes, lessons from the class, and plot ideas. I have Scrivener ready and waiting for the outline cards. I have my husband ready to do laundry and housework!
What else do I have?
- A high level view of the series and where the plot is headed
- Several major conflicts that the series will tackle
- Some world-building
- Lots of notes and ideas on the major characters
- Lots of ideas for individual scenes
- Some ideas for the plots and characters for initial episodes
Next Steps
- Work on plot of episode one
- Make high level notes for plot for the next couple of episodes
- Get a rough idea how the series will wind up, keeping in mind this is likely to change
- Write rough draft!
- Find a title. I am terrible at choosing a title.
Long Term
- Begin talking about the book on social media
- Start thinking about beta readers and how to find them (hint, hint)
I’d be curious to hear about your writing experiences, whether with fiction or non-fiction. What is your process? Do you see any glaring problems with mine?