#MyWritingProcess -- You've Been Tagged!

The wonderful Shane Simmons has tagged me in the #MyWritingProcess hop... Which involves, as you might have so perceptively guessed, talking about this thing I do: write.

What am I working on?

The 2014: A Year In Stories project, of course. And I'm behind. I delivered the August installment a couple of weeks ago--the same installment that was due at the end of January. I'm still working on the September story, which was due at the end of February. October will be due exactly a week from today, and I haven't even started (obviously, since I haven't finished September--you see how this becomes a domino thing?).

I love this project. More on that during April, but for now let me just say it's an honor to be included.

I also have a novel in its thirty-something-th draft that needs--well, complete rewriting, I think. Should've done that last year, the rewriting, but instead--because I'm lazy--I thought I could just add and tweak and take out. I did; I cut it from 110K+ to 55K, then added another 50K (a different 50K).

Yeah. It's a mess. Which is why it needs complete rewriting. I mean from scratch. The weird thing is I'm kind of looking forward to that.

Writers. Strange, strange people.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Uhm. I don't think I'm the right person to answer that question--at least not if you want an objective, hubris-free answer (or insecurity-free, because hubris is just that, isn't it? Insecurity with a Napoleon complex?). Plus I don't write genre fiction. And that there is a genre, too, isn't it?

Image credit: this website

Maybe it's easier if I tell you how I'd like to write. What I strive for in my writing. No dragons, no vamps or werewolves, cute or sparkly or not; no fairies or wizards, but plenty of magic--but it's the magic of life, of moments; the magic of small things, of people that touch each other and, like dough meeting heated oil, change each other and there's no turning back. It's the magic of everyday life--the magic we so seldom take seriously.

I try to stay away from adjectives and adverbs. I like to write in deep POV. I love unique characters, characters with quirks and flaws, characters with obsessions and insecurities, characters that think they've got it all figured out when in truth they've no idea what they're really seeking--and I love it when that thing, what they really need, hits them in the face.

Why do I write what I do?
Because the interactions between people fascinate me. Because I've been changed--bettered, spoiled, but above all forged--by the people in my life, whether it's been a momentary brush or a lifetime friendship. Because life is made of moments, and it frustrates me no-end that we can't seem to remember that: we keep focusing on the future, or the past, or both. But what about the present? What about the now?

How does my writing process work?
I'm a pantster that's been flirting, on and off, with the plotter Dark Side. The first drafts of my novels have all (except one) been written for NaNoWriMo with very little outlining (read none), but for the 2014: A Year In Stories project I did outline the whole thing before delivering the first story to the editor. Because there would be no turning back once the stories were accepted. Knowing how much rewriting and revising my first drafts require, I knew that somewhere around the June or July story--or worse, around November or December--I'd think of a brilliant plot twist that would require proper foreshadowing in March or April to work... And it would be too late. So I did outline the whole story arc. Which doesn't mean I've stuck to that outline, but--well. I tried.

My first drafts are crappy: verbose, soaked in adj/adv arterial spray. Dialogue is probably the part I rewrite the most; in the middle of the night I'll wake up because I just thought of a brilliant comeback to something a character said. Dialogue, for me, is what takes a story from good to great.

Image credit: this website

I sit. I write. I don't believe in the hoo-doo of routines: I don't have a Writing Robe or an Inspiration Mug or a Muse-Friendly Desk. I don't believe in writer's block, either. Park your butt on the chair and write, dammit. It doesn't have to be Homer, it doesn't even have to be good. But--like Maya Angelou says, if you mean business, eventually the Muse will give in and show up. Talent to me is loving something so much that you can't bear not doing it--and that makes you willing to put in the thousands and thousands of hours of work it takes to get good at it.

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There you have it: My Writing Process. Definitely more Process than Progress :D Thanks for tagging me, Shane; this was a lot of fun to do.

I'm tagging three excellent writer friends to share their writing process next Monday: Silvia Villalobos, Emilio Calderón, and Mira Desai (who's just announced a wonderful publishing milestone--hop over to her blog and say congratulations!).

If you enjoyed this and want to jump on to the #MyWritingProcess tag, please! Yes! Do so! Next Monday (or whichever Monday works for you), answer these four questions on your blog and tag another two writers to post the following Monday. Leave a comment below letting me know when your post will be up so I can visit and tweet and FB and G+ and, you know, share it everywhere. Us writers must stick together ;)