Your Writing Process is Yours

Hi everyone!

So I want to try to catalog experiences and things that happen to me as a writer on this blog. Sometimes that's hard. Sometimes I have nothing to say other than "Hey I wrote 3k today" and other times, something happens to me that I just have to share.

So yesterday I was at the library doing my volunteer work and I came up with this awesome idea for a serial I want to do. Well my original plan was to put it on here and let all you lovely people read it and I was going to just write and not worry about planning and just write whatever came into my head.

Bad plan. Really really bad plan.

Why?

Because I'm an author.

Now let me be clear, there are some authors out there who can write "from the seat of their pants" and not plan and not outline and do it very well.

I am not one of those people. Not anymore. I used to be able to think up an idea and sit down and write three hundred pages but that was before I knew about character development and how to write a novel. And you know what, I wouldn't go back even if someone paid me.

But I'm getting off track here. So yesterday when I was writing my new story, I did a quick character sketch of the characters and sat down to write. Four hundred words in and I was struggling. Something felt off. I didn't understand. I had the setting. I had the characters. I had them somewhat outlined. I had the basic plot. But still something wasn't right.

It wasn't right because I hadn't spent time planning things out. I hadn't given my characters the attention they deserved. I hadn't figured out where my story was going to go other than the basics. I had no theme, something that is vital to a story!

I didn't have any of this because I hadn't taken the time to properly plan and process my story!

So, lovelies, my point of this blog is that know what works for you. If you are a planner, plan to your heart's content. If you are a "write by the seat of your pants" type writer, do that. But know what works. And if you want to change up your process, make sure its one that works for you. If you are still figuring out your process, experiment. Try outlining, try just sitting down and writing. Do what works for you and what you feel at peace with.

Your process is your process. No one can take that away from you. 

So that is my experience with planning! What is yours? Are you a planner? Are you a "sit down and see what comes out" kind of writer? Let me know in the comments, either here or on social media.

Until tomorrow my awesome readers,

RA Odum