How this author handles the writing process

I'll be honest: I don't think I'd be a great teacher when it comes to my craft. I don't say that modestly or to mask some great teaching talent. Truthfully, I'm one of those writers who knows all the principles and concepts to write compelling copy, but trying to teach it to someone is something that breaks my brain.

When my kids have English homework and they ask me questions on adverbs or prepositions, I ask to see the problem and the answer comes to me. Yes, I can define those two terms, but it's not something that readily pops into my head. For lack of a better description, I just know how to use them in writing. Explaining it takes more time for me than just doing it.

The best example I can think of to illustrate this is to reference a list of musicians who couldn't read sheet music, yet became icons. They couldn't teach you how to read sheet music, but they could show you how their mind works when it comes to playing music.

Which brings me to the title of this blog post. For full disclosure, I was hitting a wall with blog ideas recently and saw a suggested topic of discussing my writing process. I also remember a comment on one of my TikTok videos where I asked for feedback on what my followers would like to see more of. How I handle my writing process was one of the comments, so I guess it's time to tackle it.

I hope you're ready for a long, verbose blog entry, everyone (sarcasm font enabled). I say that because I honestly don't have a structured writing process. In short, I tend to pick a spot (my writing nook, a coffee shop, a spot at the airport when traveling) and let the creative energy flow (or stagnate, depending on the day).

I don't do any special rituals. I don't meditate before tackling a chapter. I don't listen to inspirational music. I don't dress up as Indiana Jones and crack the whip a few times before starting (that would be hilarious though). I literally sit down with a drink of choice (water, coffee, chocolate milk) and start typing.

Ironically, as an overthinker, this is one of those things that I don't overthink. I just create. I guess if I had to analyze it, there are some pieces of the process that might be unique to me. For example, when I write, I see the images in my head as they would play out in a movie. I watch a scene in my head and see if it works and has a compelling edge to it. If it does, I start writing down what I see in the form of a descriptive narrative intertwined with dialogue at appropriate points.

Typically, though, the fun part about this is that I don't just think of a scene one way. I run a few variations of it in my mind and see which one speaks to me. Sometimes I take elements from three different versions and splice them together. Other times, one variation stands above all the others.

I guess you could call this me getting into character as I write. Ha!

Another wrinkle in my writing process comes from the times when I act out a situation to see if it's plausible. I'll give you an example. When I was writing an earlier draft of Legend Has It, there was a scene where one of the characters had to leap to safety from one platform to another. The platform he's on was slowly receding from the other, creating a growing gap he would need to clear by jumping. So, what did I do? I went outside to my driveway and imagined myself in that character's shoes.

I bent my legs and jumped from one section of the driveway to the other. I did this a few times, experimenting with the distance and the different ways he could make the jump (from a standstill, running start, etc.). I also took mental notes on what it felt like hitting the ground after each jump. The sharp shock against my feet. The ache in my knees. The tingling in my calves. The tightening of my muscles to halt my forward momentum. All of these sensations played a part in helping me understand the scene as I wrote it.

It's kind of crazy as this is just one small sequence of many in a larger story, but details like these are important. You want to keep the reader engaged and absorbed in this story. If the character jumped from one side to the other and then did a high jump and finished with a superhero pose, it would take the reader out of the story (unless I established that the character had superhuman abilities). In this case, he didn't, so that would have been a jarring sequence.

As I write, my mind is constantly thinking of the story, the characters and the progression of the scene. The best days are those when everything is clicking and the images are coming in fast and crisp. It's like being a director and watching reels of each scene while making changes in real time. I'm not sure if that sounds exhausting, chaotic or cool to those reading this, but it's incredibly fun for me. I get to let my imagination work. It's a trait I carried over from my childhood and continue to use to this day.

Some days I can't carve out the time to write, but the ideas aren't slowing down. On those days, I jot those ideas down in my notes on my phone. I have a running list of scenes, concepts, themes and dialogue that might make its way into a story. For instance, I already have a great idea on how to conclude the Legend Has It trilogy. Several months prior, that problem rattled my mind. And then it came to me during a workout. It's funny how the mind works, and mine seems to be always churning.

So I guess it's true. Perhaps I do have a writing process after all. I just don't think about it. :-P