The Writing Group (TWG)

Chris -

Two very helpful points of view. Thanks. I will try the multiple stories approach.

I write a monthly column for our local newspaper. Ideas for columns come out of nowhere sometimes. A memory, one of my kids says something, the cat stares at me...any number of things can trigger that magical writing response.

Once I get the idea, my mind floods like the valley of a broken dam. Woosh. The whole story is right there. I type it out first, because I can't read my own handwriting. Then I print it and make my edits. I make my family read it, then I edit some more. Then if I really want a truthful opinion, I send it to my friend who writes for the AP and he gets back to me in a day or two with his comments.

By that time, I usually have another crazy idea popping into my head. :)

I like to outline my books, but my working outline bears no resemblance to anything I'd show my agent or editor. Well, one time I sent an outline to my agent by accident. Her response? "What in the hell is this?"

For my first book, the outline was half the length of the finished book. In fact, you might call something like that an extremely ugly first draft, rather than an outline. When the book was finished and we were ready to shop it, I had to go back and write something short and coherent for my agent to submit that was fit for human eyes other than my own.

For each of the next three books, the working outline got shorter, but I still had to cut and tighten it before my agent would send it to my editor for approval. This time, my editor finally said, "Aw, I know you'll finish it. That paragraph of plot description in your last e-mail was enough. We'll call that the outline."

Now I'm 70 pages into the new book and I don't really have much of a working outline for it, since I feel like I've learned the process of putting a novel together. Still, it's a little scary to work without one, so I may go back and outline the thing before I get any further into it.

Hi y'all! I'm new not just to this group, but also the site, so bear with my learning curve.

When writing fiction, I have to think about the first few sentences for a day or two before I even start getting anything down. Sometimes I'll get the whole first paragraph written in my head.

For awhile, I preferred to write it on paper first, then take it to the computer to edit and tweak. But while in college (back in my mid-30's) I got the hang of starting on the computer, and it seemed like if I tried to write first on paper, my fingers couldn't keep up with my mind.

There are disadvantages to both. I'm very messy on paper, scratching out words or even whole sentences. On the computer, it's too easy not to just tap the whole thing out before going back. I have a tendency to edit as I go along and try as I might not to do that (because I think it breaks the flow of getting into the voice), I still do. It's a habit I'm still trying to break.

Now in non-fiction writing, I just sit down at the computer and write. I don't worry about the opening so much and prefer to go back afterwards and tweak.

And when editing, I always, always, read it out loud several times. I find that sometimes a sentence may look good on paper, but when spoken it just doesn't make sense.

The process truly is a personal thing of what works best for each individual writer.