The Novel Writing Process

By: Deb McLeod

How do you write a novel?

If you’ve completed a novel you have a process you used that got you to that milestone. If you haven’t yet finished a novel, you, too, have a process you’re using to get you to the end result. If you want to write, but you aren’t, you’re working a process too. The process is not writing and the by-product fulfills the process. Make sense?

The product you get is created by the process you follow. 

• Focus on improving the process and you’ll improve the product. 
• Focus on improving the product and while you’re in your processes, trial and error ensues. Judgment rules and writer’s block flirts on the horizon. 

Writing a novel is a matter of focus. Where will you put your focus? On the product or the process?

While no two people write a novel the same way, or use the exact same processes, there are generalities that can be applied. Here are the four stages of novel writing as I see them:

1. Idea stage
2. Creation stage
3. Revision stage
4. Sharing stage

Each stage involves getting clear on the processes used to achieve the goal of the stage. Let’s say I’m in the Creation Stage and I’m focused on the end product – my really good novel I want to create.

Are the pages I produce during the creation phase going to be good enough to stay in my really good novel product? Probably not. These are first draft pages. And drafty ones at that. What happens when those creation pages are judged against the end product (my very good novel)? They fail. When they fail, I freeze. I go take a craft class. Or join a critique group. Or get writer’s block.

Turn that around and look at what happens when you give yourself permission to really be in the stage you’re in and focus on learning what works best for you within that stage.

If I’m in the creation stage, and I’m okay with the fact that everything I’m writing is teaching me what my book wants to be, then whatever I write is okay. Right? It’s all fodder for the gristmill. And you never know what connections you’re going to make if you give yourself permission to freewrite scenes that may or may not make the cut. What happens if you quick-write scenes that aren’t fleshed out but have the gist of what you want to say?

I’m a firm believer (because it holds true for me) in “How do I know what I mean until I see what I say?”

It has been said that the first response will be a cliché. And it’s been said that the first thoughts are thoughts without a filter. Which one are you? Do you gravitate toward the predictable? Or if you write fast enough that your internal editor can’t shut you down, are your scenes more vivid and memorable? I think you should know where you fall here. It’s good information for next time. Right?

Take a look at the stages that follow and see some of the definitions, goals and the skills that are necessary to use the stage to your advantage.

Idea Stage – freewriting, reading, mulling, talking, brainstorming, playing what if, creating an overview outline, digging into characters.
Goal = deciding on an idea with characters you think has legs. Legs simply means an idea that has the possibility of being interesting and will hold for the length of the novel.
Skills necessary to master: novel concepts, plot twists, outer conflict potential, character exploration and psychology, mythic characters.

Creation Stage – freewriting, using prompts, NaNoWriMo, word vomit.
Goal = accumulate enough material for your novel.
Skills necessary to master: Freewriting to an ever-changing timer, scene construction, type of conflict, using the senses, figurative language, metaphor, discipline to write daily, a place or container that is conducive to your writing, how to use prompts effectively (even the stupid ones).

Revision Stage – analyzing, model book(s), thematic discovery, detailed outlining for character arc, detailed outlining for scene arc, rewriting.
Goal = understanding what you wrote and how to shape into a viable product.
Skills necessary to master: story structure, following theme trails, outlining, deep character discovery, scene structure and conflict, rewriting for the reader.

Sharing Stage – critique group, beta readers, sending to agents, etc.
Goal = testing the waters with your almost finished product.
Skills necessary to master: letting go of your baby, cultivating a rhinoceros- thick skin, finding reader readers rather than writer readers, considering the possibility of self-publishing. Most important of all in this stage is: Start something new.

How do you learn the skills necessary? One: by doing them. Two: by taking a class. Three: by working with me. :)

Pieces not the whole
I learned the art of breaking big projects down into smaller bits when I worked as an accountant. The enormity of the (boring) job had the potential of making me want to call in sick. But the pieces gave me a sense of accomplishment. Like checking things off a list. Lo and behold, when I did the job long enough, I actually came to like it. The investigation piece was especially interesting, but even the day-to-day getting the numbers where they belonged was good, in the way cleaning a house can be good. You know? I focused on the individual pieces and came to like what I was doing. Essential for health and happiness, right?

But the skills I learned in those accounting jobs have served me greatly in writing novels and in teaching novel writing. My clients work the process and step away from judging the quality of the product too soon. They allow themselves the creative freedom to explore. They write better books, more true to their voice and their deepest feelings about the themes.

Best of all, focusing on the process gets the job done. And gets it done faster.

So narrow your focus, write every day, and master your career in steps.It just makes the whole thing achievable. And far more pleasant. 

Know How You Tick as a Writer

By: Deb McLeod

I had the opportunity to teach my 5-point Scene Structure class online to RWA’s Kiss of Death Chapter. A month-long delivery of the process of crafting scenes. It was a great experience. At the end of it, for those who opted into my mailing list, I sent out a brief survey. I always like to know who I’m addressing when I teach. It helps me know what to teach when I know what people want to learn. The subject is vast and I could write and talk about it forever – just ask my clients.

One survey question asked writers to tell me which of several areas they felt they still needed to master. Their responses showed me that most are still looking for a novel writing process. That didn’t surprise me, really, because mastering the writing process was the craft element I needed most myself.

I remember the early days when it was just baffling to me how novels were ever written. I didn’t really have any organizational method and certainly didn’t understand structure. I wrote when the muse struck or there was a deadline. While I learned a lot by studying writing books and getting my degrees in creative writing, I hadn’t yet discovered what worked for me or why that was important.

The novel writing process isn’t simply learning the steps of novel writing, it’s knowing how you work within those steps. Writing is process. Mastering process in writing, and in life, is, in my opinion, the invisible barrier between becoming the author you always knew you were going to be and writing for a very long time before you see any success.

Knowing how you tick as a writer is essential to becoming successful.

Because I didn’t realize I needed a process, and that’s what I needed to learn, I have devoted my teaching to studying the writing process and creating classes and coaching environments to fit.

I have had clients who came to me early, early in their writing careers with the notion that writers sit down and write a novel basically the way they see it on the published page. Learning that there are layers to the process is a bit sobering.

But writing a book horizontally can add years to your apprenticeship. I have done my fair share of mentoring academic students in writing labs. The trend these days is to write one perfect sentence after the next, thinking that it saves time if you don’t have to go back. But that thinking only ended them in the writing lab with me and a next morning deadline. There was no way I could have them write in the layers they needed to see what it was they wanted to say. It was frustrating for one and all.

I know from personal experience and studying my clients' work that writers in general and novel writers specifically save time by writing in layers in a combination of pantsing and plotting.

I teach and monitor process with my clients. And I continually work on my own to understand myself better as a writer.

Here is the framework of my general novel-writing process:

Idea

The first part of the process is key and seems to be best served by pantsing. Freewriting, clustering, mindmapping, all of these exploratory activities flesh out what your book is about. If you do it right, you’re accumulating scenes, exploring character and beginning to see the patterns of meaning while you’re uncovering themes. Basically you’re finding your voice within the story. 

Plot

Once there are enough scenes and explorations from the freewrites, in the next step you have see what you have and create a story. This is where your inner plotter must be honored - even if you’re a pantser. I can say that because I was a hard-core pantser. I had to train myself to first identify and then make friends with the plotter inside. And that has saved me time and headaches. I enjoy plotting now. 

There are all kinds of ways to structure plot – screenwriting structures, the journey model, 3 Acts, etc. Exploring these and finding out what works for you is essential. Creating a well-structured plot means you’re probably right on in your pacing, your story has an arc, and it’s balanced. There’s far less revision necessary when you use a structure. 

Write

I use my 5-point Scene Structure Method to structure and prep scenes before I write them. When I was a pantser I liked surprising myself and was convinced that if I preplanned that wouldn’t happen. But what I discovered instead was that I’m surprising myself when I’m preplanning and when I’m writing. When I’m preplanning I’m right in the scene and able to investigate while beginning to create some sort of order. Then when I write I use my five points to direct the movement of the scene. For some reason that takes some sort of pressure off to figure out the scene as I’m writing it. So I immerse myself into the scene more than I would. When that happens everything is more vivid.

Revise

Once I’ve written the first draft I begin the method of revision I came up with for myself and my clients. Here we discover what problems there are in the structure or the scenes themselves and more. Here you are your own teacher. The idea behind the revision step is to analyze your work as you might a book you’d like to write. To me this part is like taking a class. And I love taking classes and analyzing fiction.

Edit 

Here, it’s time for a professional. A copy editor and a proofreader. But make sure you pay attention to what they find. Make a cheat sheet for next time of the most typical editing mistakes you make, whether its grammar, continuity, dialogue tagging, or whatever. Many of my clients keep their cheat sheets by the computer.

Ongoing pieces to the process

Organization

I use Scrivener and can’t speak to anything else and probably wouldn’t change even if something else of worth is out there. But you need a system or way to organize all the vast material you accumulate when you’re writing a novel. I love my Scrivener and keep finding new ways to use it in my process. Here is where I will accumulate what freewrites make it into the novel and which are simply notes for the scene I want to tell. I come up with a to do list of scenes.

Discipline

While you’re working on steps 1 through 5, you also need to master writing discipline. I’ve only begun to explore the results of dedicated and consistent writing time. I just started tracking word counts and deepening my relationship with my internal editor. I'm pushing myself harder and seeing results. 

I knew habit was important, and I did have a habit, but it was easily pushed aside for the demands of life. I wasn’t consistent. It’s only now I realize how important it is to my writing, and my clients' writing. I am seeing how we’re changing the more we honor the discipline.

So if you haven't yet mastered your own process, find out what makes you tick as a writer. Certainly you can work with me and I'll teach you a process that works, but even if you don't there are ways you can own each step. 

Honoring the process you discover can cut the time you take to begin the author phase of your career.

By years.

About the Author: Deb McLeod, MFA, practices novel research immersion. For her novel, The Train to Pescara, Deb journeyed to Sardinia to study ancient goddess worship and spent time in the Abruzzi village her great-grandparents left in 1905. Her metaphysical knowledge for the Angel Thriller, The Julia Set, culminates from four years of studying and teaching meditation, clairvoyance and chakra healing. For over fifteen years, Deb McLeod has been a creative writing coach helping other writers to embrace their passion and get their words on the page. For more, see www.debmcleod.com.

October is NaNo Prep Month

By: Deb McLeod

Are you doing NaNoWriMo? November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) created as a nonprofit contest to write 50,000 new words on your novel during November.

When I first heard of it, I thought (snob that I was) how could anyone write a novel in a month? 50,000 words in a month? It would be garbage. I didn’t participate and I thought those that did weren’t really writers. (I was a snob – but I’m reformed now, so that makes me more heroic, right?)

What I didn’t appreciate at the time was that participating in NaNo is simply a time to put your writing first, to meet new people and find camaraderie in a pursuit that’s solitary, and most importantly, to take a chunk out of the first draft of your novel. Once I got involved, I began to see how I could make NaNo a part of my annual process.

So every year for the last five I have written part of the first draft of my next novel. October is for NaNo Prep. And in November I write. I compete against the deadlines I set and sometimes my friends if they’re up for it. I follow the outline I created in October and just get the words on the page.

The first few years I attended write-ins all around Denver. There I met a lot of wonderful people who had the same writing dreams as I did. Lately, I’ve turned NaNo into such a part of my process that I write alone as I would all the rest of the year. But I check in with my NaNo buddies and exchange messages and encouragement.

The only important thing about NaNo is that you get words onto the page. Even if you don’t win by getting your 50,000 done, you win because you have more words than when you started.

But I have found that the trick is to be prepared. So you don’t face the blank page, here’s a list of NaNo Prep work you might do in October to help you get through November.

• Prepare your family – get them on board. It might mean preplanning dinners or asking someone else to do the laundry for a month. Whatever it takes. Then prepare your writing space. Where will you write? Pick out a time when you will write every day. Find some rewards to keep you going.
• Then start making notes about your book. Research your world. Answer questions about the setting, the social constructs, and the rules. Do you need an expert? Call them before NaNo starts. Go to the library. Freewrite about place. 
• Decide who your hero is. What’s the outer goal and the inner growth they will face in your novel? What is the journey your hero will take? What’s the before world? What’s the after world? 
• Pick a journey template to use – mine is a combination of Freytag’s Triangle plus Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheets. Make a list of scenes that will hit the beats of your hero’s journey. 
• Storyboard your scenes. Look at the props your characters will interact with. Find the conflict and plot the emotional change your character will make for all the scenes you’ve decided to tackle. Read more about storyboarding your scenes here.
• Freewrite some dialogue. Put your character in anxiety-producing situations so you can see how she reacts. Give her a monologue that will sum up her worst fears and grandest dreams. 
• Write about your main character’s past. Include her room where she was growing up. The school she went to. The relationships she had. 
• Collage your characters and their world. Spend an entire day hunting the web for pictures that depict your story. If you’re not publishing this, you don’t have to worry about screen grabs. Play in Microsoft PowerPoint. Very easy to do. 
• Write a book jacket and a logline for your novel. Doing this before you start writing helps the story begin to focus for you. 
• Write about your antagonist. Is this a villain or simply a gatekeeper? Do a character sheet for your antagonist and your hero. Know their emotional and psychological issues.
• Hook up with your regional NaNoWriMo. Look for write-ins and start adding buddies. 

There’s lots to do in October that will get you ready to launch in November.

When you start writing in November, if you write 1667 words per day, you will hit your 50,000 by the end of the month. I shoot for at least 2500 the first week. Because each week, for me, has its personality and flavor. The first week I come out of the gate strong. The second week I slack a little on a day or two. The third week is always the challenge for me. By then I’m starting to get tired, so if I’ve hit it hard in the beginning of the month I don’t have to push so hard now. I like to take Thanksgiving and much of that weekend off. So I often plan to finish before Thanksgiving. This year, if I don’t finish by Thanksgiving, there are a few days to finish up before the end of the month.

This is totally doable. I highly recommend making NaNoWriMo a part of your annual process. It’s a great charity and it will further your dream of becoming a writer by putting writing front and center for a month. And it really is easier than it seems if you prep and get involved.

About the Author: Deb McLeod, MFA, practices novel research immersion. For her novel, The Train to Pescara, Deb journeyed to Sardinia to study ancient goddess worship and spent time in the Abruzzi village her great-grandparents left in 1905. Her metaphysical knowledge for the Angel Thriller, The Julia Set, culminates from four years of studying and teaching meditation, clairvoyance and chakra healing. For over fourteen years, Deb McLeod has been a creative writing coach helping other writers to embrace their passion and get their words on the page. For more, see www.debmcleod.com.

Working on My Puzzle, er, Manuscript

"Easy-to-read is hard to write."  — Pam Zollman

By Stacy S. Jensen
 

As a kid, I worked on jigsaw puzzles. Today, I'm back at work. No pieces this time — a jumble of words.

 

My quest to add submissions into my writing process has resulted in feedback and rewrites.

The revisions click on some days. I hear angels sing.

On other days, I feel like all the puzzle pieces are black. I have no idea where to begin. I hear my toddler say, "Now, that's a problem."

Before critique groups, I rewrote my manuscripts completely. It's an easier technique with a 500 or less word picture book manuscript. Third person point-of-view changed to first person. My main character morphed from a boy to a girl. Secondary characters vanished.

Now with an assortment of critique groups — in person, online, and a local Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) critique group — I add a new layer to the process. I pick a version to submit and absorb the feedback.

I've decided to allow myself to be irritated by some suggestions.

"They can't kill my darlings! That's my job!" Oops said that out loud.

Of course, I've found that acknowledging how the feedback annoys me actually helps me. I think about it (well, steam about it sometimes). I question the validity. I rewrite the scene with the suggestion.

I've found that it works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't.

At the end of the day, it's my story. For me to pitch it, to be passionate about it, and to continue revision after revision, it has to stay my story.

After attending the Big Sur in the Rockies last spring, I am bolder about how I utilize critique time. I may ask for specific attention to an area of the story or a format issue like an illustration note.

Even though critiques fire me up to revise, I often will wait a week before opening up the story again. I do research like check out books brought up during the critiques as possible comparable titles. Then, I return to the critique notes. I make changes. I ignore suggestions. I write new scenes. I replace words. 

The perfect word is important in any genre, but in a short picture book it can be difficult to find.

Then, I decide whether the story is ready to return to the outside world. Oh, and whether I need to rewrite the query letter or not.

As I go through revisions, I do focus on whether I really love the story or not. At one conference, an agent mentioned she must love a story, because it takes two to three years for it to reach bookstore shelves. The same can be said about a story I write. You must love a story to keep revising it over and over again until it's right.

What's your favorite way to revise a story, scene, or novel?
 

About the Author: Stacy S.Jensen worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for two decades. Today, she writes picture books and revises a memoir manuscript. She lives in Colorado Springs with her husband and toddler.

Add "Submit" to Your Writing Process

By Stacy S. Jensen


Write. Revise. Repeat.

I repeat this phrase often and embrace it. This year, I’ve felt it’s a puzzle with a missing piece.

I’m inserting a fourth step in my writing process — submit. I’ve been on the treadmill of writing, revising, and repeating for too long.

One would think the submission part would be easy. We write to share our stories. We want to get published. So, why is it so difficult to hit the send button to submit my work to an agent, editor, or magazine?

Fear. There’s always a healthy dose of fear when one can get a rejection letter, or worse, no acknowledgement.

Time. I’ve found time to be my culprit. Through years of reading, talking, and practicing the art of writing whenever I can, I haven’t figured out how to apply this technique to the submission process.

When I write, I don’t have to read interviews or research industry guides for the right word. I just write. The submission process doesn’t feel that easy. There’s research, more research, and the nagging fear I haven’t found the right person, who will like my manuscript. So, I’ve been guilty of write, revise, and repeat with no submissions.

This year, through several associations, a critique group, and submission focused Facebook groups, I’m stretching out of my comfort zone and sending my work out into the universe.

It hasn’t been easy, so far. I’ve stumbled and found myself pushed up against “end of the month” deadlines more than once. It’s not an ideal technique, but for now my “babystep” is to hit send on those query letters to see what happens.

By the end of the year, I hope to look back and see the puzzle together — Write. Revise. Repeat. Submit.

Do you have a submission strategy for your work?

About the Author: StacyS. Jensen worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for two decades. Today, she writes picture books and revises a memoir manuscript. She lives in Colorado Springs with her husband and toddler.