I’m here with BWU today to discuss my writing process – the
what, when, where, and how.
I can’t even calculate the amount of times I’ve had friends come up to me and say things like: “Wow, you actually sat down and wrote a WHOLE novel?!” or “I love to write, but it’s so hard staying focused” or even, my personal favorite: “You wrote over fifty-thousand words on a single topic/subject? You must have incredible willpower!”
So after I laugh internally, I smile and shake my head and assure them it isn’t as easy as it sounds. They seldom believe me. I think in their minds, I’m just a godless charlatan who wants to horde the secrets of writing all to myself so I can build an empire and rule the world! A bit dramatic, but you catch my drift.
I can’t even calculate the amount of times I’ve had friends come up to me and say things like: “Wow, you actually sat down and wrote a WHOLE novel?!” or “I love to write, but it’s so hard staying focused” or even, my personal favorite: “You wrote over fifty-thousand words on a single topic/subject? You must have incredible willpower!”
So after I laugh internally, I smile and shake my head and assure them it isn’t as easy as it sounds. They seldom believe me. I think in their minds, I’m just a godless charlatan who wants to horde the secrets of writing all to myself so I can build an empire and rule the world! A bit dramatic, but you catch my drift.
The point being, it isn’t as easy as they think and to prove
it, I’m going to break my writing process down in ten simplified steps.
(1)
Actively decide to write – it may seem like a no
brainer, but you’d be surprised how hard it is to make that decision. The way
writers work (or most of us, anyway) is that we need inspiration to hit in
order to write our stories. Inspiration can be anything from memories, a
normal, everyday experience, or our characters whispering sweet nothings in our
ear. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen every day and if we actually waited for
inspiration to hit every single time we sat down to write, we’d never get anything
done. Generally, it’s a good rule of thumb to get SOMETHING down. Anything.
Even if it’s just a few fragmented sentences. If you’re writing, you’re
winning.
(2)
Free myself from distractions – It could be just
me, but I’m easily distracted. I’m like an ADHD kid on 7 grams of cocaine, 2
boxes of cookies, and a shot of hard liquor. So that being said, in order to
write, my environment needs to be PERFECT if I’m going to get anything done. I
need to have white noise of some kind, whether it’s rain (rainymood.com) or the
soundtrack to one of my favorite videogames (Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6,
Legend of Zelda: Windwaker, or Super Mario RPG, for those who are curious) I
just need something to help silence the unhelpful background noises and coax
out my creativity. Speaking of videogames, I’m a huge gaming geek. I love
playing video games and sometimes it’s hard to stop myself from getting in that
extra battleground or playing that extra round of Hearthstone.
(3)
Sum up the chapters – I used to be able to just
write as I went along but I’m finding it harder and harder to write that way as
of late. I now open a wordpad document and write out the chapters and add 3-5
brief sentences about the key scenes in each chapter I want to touch on. This
helps me because I now have a goal to strive towards.
(4)
Write – Yay, I’m writing! How much fun is this?
LOOK MA, I’M A WRITER!
(5)
Become distracted…by something – Oh, look, is
that a unicorn? Or better yet; well, I’ve written a couple hundred (or
thousand) words…I deserve a break. Maybe fifteen minutes of browsing the
Internet (read: 1 hour) or a quick match in a video game (read: 2-3 hours)
(6)
Cry and regret life choices – Okay, so maybe it
wasn’t a good idea to spend all my free time playing video games and browsing
the Internet. My bad.
(7)
Drink and eat chocolate – You know what they
say: write drunk, edit sober. And in the middle of a potential emotional
breakdown consuming more chocolate that previously thought possible by a human.
(8)
Seek Reassurance – I’m only human. Sometimes
it’s nice to be told you’re not a failure and that no matter what, you can do
it. For me, my fiancé takes care of that role. =)
(9)
New Resolve – I can do this. I can get this
story done.
(10) Finish – After much
struggling and mental turmoil, I usually have a novel completed at this point.
Tada!
And that’s my writing process.
Blurb:
“I don’t like to be called an Assassin, I prefer the term problem solver.”
My name’s Alex. I’m an
average guy. I kill people for a living. But don’t judge me.
I don’t take jobs on
just anybody though. I only kill the really annoying people, like cheaters or
abusers. So if you think about it, I’m actually doing God’s work—okay, maybe
that’s stretching things a bit.
Other than the whole
committing murder and trying to get away with it thing, my life is simple.
Well… except for the
fact I’m in love with a fellow assassin who happens to be my mentor. I also
have to make sure I’m careful when I’m on the job because if I ever fail a hit,
I’ll be considered a “liability” and be executed promptly. Oh, and there’s a
small chance someone in the organization is trying to have me killed. But I’ll
figure that out, eventually. Did I mention I’m gay?
Okay, maybe my life
isn’t so simple.
Buy Links:
Author
Bio:
Michael
was born and raised on the Jersey Shore – the geographical location, not the TV
show. As such, he cannot boast having tanned skin, a rock-hard body, or being
BFFs with Snooki. His version of GTL is gaming, Tumblr, and Lounging. He didn’t
know what to do for a living until he wrote a couple of fun short stories as an
English class project and made people laugh, something he’s always enjoyed
doing and decided that’s what he wanted in his future.
A
self-described “Otaku” (person with obsessive interests in manga, anime, and/or
video games) Michael spends most of his time enjoying those things, becoming
emotionally attached to fictional characters and collecting every bit of My
Little Pony merchandise available.
He lives
with his fiancé of five years in the heart of NJ.
Find out more about Michael on his blog (http://michaelmeeps.blogspot.com/) on Twitter (https://twitter.com/MichaelMeeps), and on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/michael.meeps)!
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