Somebody on social media tried to tell me how writing works, and I thought it was weird. I feel like I have a pretty good idea at this point how it works. But it got me thinking: how does it work? More to the point, this was in the context of fiction writing being a non-deterministic, unquantifiable process. Writers around the world and throughout time have wanted fiction writing to be predictable and measurable, but we all have learned, for various reasons, it just isn’t.
If you write 1,000 words a day, you technically will have a novel in 50-ish (depending what reckoning you use for a novel’s length) days, but will that be a finished novel? Almost certainly no (there are plenty of notable exceptions, of course), and that rests on the idea that you can maintain that pace consistently.
But let’s say you do hit that mark every day. How many of those words are the right words? And how do you know? More to the point, do you feel good about those words, ready to engrave them in stone for all time?
Writing is strange in the sense that its very name indicates a simplicity in the act: typing one word after another. It sounds so easy!
But when I talk about “writing,” I’m talking about the writing process, or what it takes to create a finished piece of writing and how that works.
First things first, it’s essential to note writing works differently for everyone because everyone is different. Obviously. That’s part of the difficulty of learning to write: we all have to learn what works for us in achieving our own goals. Also, goals vary, and any process that helps you achieve your goals is 100-percent irrevocably valid.
That said, there are some constants in the writing process because, despite all of us being unique snowflakes, we’re all snowflakes, so we have that in common, which is cool.
These are parts of the writing process we all have in common, the unavoidable truths we all have to face to produce a finished piece of writing. My deepest concern is that, in this time when anyone can just rattle out a story and publish it in minutes, young, beginner writers deny themselves vital parts of the writing process. What’s more, I’m concerned there’s a broad, too-literal understanding of what writing is and what the writing process entails. There is one view of writing that is as simple as putting one word after another until you get to the end of the story and then moving on. If that aligns with your goals and provides everything you want out of writing, okay, but for me, as a reader, I look for the writers who spend more time and energy on their writing than that. As a writer, I’m chasing a story that outlives me, and I know that, by simply putting one word after another, I will never produce it.
Let me explain how writing works (for me).
(more…)
