Joy of Writing
Aside from the whole make-it-up as you go, invent a world, populate it, and set your characters free- god like powers, a writer has a few other joys. One of them is working your but off to tell a story, and later, years later, going back and rediscovering it. I have a bank of books, 50 or so that I have written over the years and it always thrills me to go back and sink into one of those. Of course I look at it differently, I find things to change, tweaks to make, new craft I can apply, but that is not the point. It is thrilling to see a story I slaved over pop back to life and live again.
In my mind writing can be broken down into stages or parts. The first is preplanning, this is the what and who is in the story. No computer is necessary. This usually occurs while washing clothes, dishes, painting or any other task that keeps my hands busy and my brain can be set free without endangering anyone.
The second stage is setting, where do I want the story and what needs to be there. Yep, no computer, I can be busy, but not too busy. Cleaning can work, but many things are out. I also may scribble notes so a pen and notebook are handy.
The third is writing it down. This is exhausting but liberating because my head is not big enough to contain it all so emptying it on paper helps me think more clearly. This is a mad race to get it all out. I work until I am exhausted and can’t see the words on the screen anymore. Then I sleep and do it again.
Sleep is the next phase. Sleep and living. I have to recover, let everything settle. Reconnect with real life people, read a few books, walk out in the sunshine, and engage with other stories.
Revise and rewrite is the next phase and I go over everything sentence by sentence, character by character. I agonize over this and that, rewrite and rewrite again. I polish and scrub as much as I can.
Beta readers go through and read while I chew my nails, convinced they will hate it. I can seriously gain 20 lbs eating my anxiety at this point. It is terrifying.
Feedback and revision comes with those glorious first responses. I love the people I trust to beta read for me. They are so helpful and so honest. ”I don’t understand this scene.” ”Why did you write it that way?” ”You made me cry…again!” My dad keeps lists of grammar, spelling, and confusing scenes. All of that is essential. Those beta readers give me the courage to show the final project to others.o
After those corrections and revisions, the story goes sailing off to the editor. She finds thousands of words to look at, phrases to reconsider, motivations to question, and organizational points to clarify. I address them all, one at a time, working very hard not to fume and complain over every objective criticism. Then I read it again, clarifying, smoothing it out, and keeping it mine.
The last round with the editor is fast and easy. She reads through looking for anything we missed. I do the same after her. We both find things, I correct them. And the last revisions are done.
Formatting is perhaps the most intimidating. Putting the manuscript into the electronic format needed to publish is scary. Trying to get spacing, chapter headings, page numbers and cover all in place. Uniformity is not a strong suite of mine so this is a special challenge. It only takes a few days, lots of tears and some head drumming on the table. In the end I Google for directions and figure it all out, but first I go a little crazy.
Once all the formatting is done, releasing is fairly easy. It takes up to 24 hours to be approved, but I always worry that there is some fatal flaw I missed and never noticed.
Once it is out I announce the arrival of my new brain child. And I hold my breath waiting for people to buy it and review it. Every review that doesn’t say it is garbage is something I treasure. It reaffirms that writing is not wasted, that I was able to create a world that someone could crawl into and find shelter.