How do you write?

[amhran_comhrac]

It's no secret that many, maybe even most of us here are writers.  In the interest of sharing "best practices," as they say in the cube farm, I thought it would be interesting to discuss our own processes.  Maybe someone can pick up a trick or two that way.  Some of us co-write, some use betas, one person (and my virtual hat is off to you for your bravery, miri1984 ), has even taken to livestreaming as she writes.
So, I suspect there's a great deal of variety. 

Share! How do you write?

Comments

[aithne]

For me, it depends. On occasion i'm sneaking a little bit of writing in while I'm at work--I (usually) use Google Docs, so I can write from anywhere. Mostly i'm in my office at home with one or both dogs crashed out behind me, or downstairs on my laptop if I'm home alone and the dogs want to sleep on my legs. This weekend is a writing intensive weekend, so I've switched to using MSWord. (And I *will* finish Old Roads today. I have determined this.)

I tend to write with music on, either my writing playlist (full of soothing classical and Celtic music and soundtracks), or my project playlist, which is the soundtrack to the story I'm writing. i can't write with other stuff going on in the room, and I do my best work when i have at least a couple of hours to pound out words, but I rarely get that.

For a long project like Old Roads, I have a file that's full of things like prospective titles, plot touchpoints, quotes I might use, and other dribs and drabs. When I fire up a new chapter document, I make a list at the top of plot points I think I want to hit, and then just start writing. Usually, I've been writing the chapter in my head for a bit, so once I actually have time to write it goes pretty quickly. This has been especially true with these last three chapters of OR, as I've been writing them in my head for *months*. I knew back in December how it was going to end, I just needed to get there.

Once I've got a first draft pounded out, I'll let it sit for a bit and then go back to it and start tweaking. My first pass is a spell check and looking for egregious grammar mistakes and typos. My second pass is looking for my writing tics--I have a semicolon and emdash problem, and sometimes in the interest of getting a chapter done I will write some seriously awkward sentences. I'll also be on the lookout on this pass for shape and tension issues, and whether I'm missing anything I need to add. At this point I'm also nitpicking language and dialogue, tweaking to make sure I'm using the right words and rhythm for the POV I'm in. (In practice, the hardest POV to get right is the dog's! All of his sections get lots of changes made to them.)

Third edit is mostly a final readthrough and spellcheck to make sure I haven't missed anything genuinely horrible. I don't have a beta, so at that point I button it up and post it around.

Back to the word mines for me! (It's a "with your draft or on it" weekend. I *will* *freaking* *get* *this* *finished*.)

[miri1984]

I write awkward sentences that I think are REALLY awkward and vow to go back and change them, but when I go back I can't find them again! I think sometimes we THINK it's awkward because it was difficult to get out, IYKWIM?

[aithne]

Mostly, what happens with me is that I try to get clever and i fall flat on my face. My sentences tend to be like overgrown little gardens, and I have to get out the shears. :)

[andorin]

My sentences tend to be like overgrown little gardens

I just love this description. I find myself having trouble getting my sentences the right length. They tend to get either labyrinthic or very short.

[aithne]

And as of *right now*, i have a completed draft of Pitiless Games! That only needs minor tweaking before it's ready to post!

*falls over*

Oh dear gods the ending has SLAIN ME.

And of course, ff.net is choosing now to have issues. Grrrrr.

[amhran_comhrac]

Is it time to break out Jethann?

[amhran_comhrac]

Oooh, I have a file like that. A lot of dialogue snippits that I loved but didn't work for Maggie and that version of Anders, which may end up tweaked to work in one of my other universes ended up there. A lot of my Bioware Bang fic started out there, too.