Process

A lot of writers talk about process. I thought I’d spend a moment before plunging into the chaos that is the day before a move with a few thoughts and a peek into how the Lima goes from OMG, I have an idea to a finished manuscript.

What is "process" exactly? For me, it’s what happens from the moment there is a notion in my head to when there’s a finished book on the shelves. Then process becomes marketing (marketing happens before the book hits shelves, too as this is an iterative process and blends, but that’s a discussion for another day).

Lightbulbs, anyone?
It begins with a mental pinprick. That vague, elusive strand of thought that over a period of time morphs into an actual storyline/plot/characters. Could be anything that fuels that spark–the site of an old man in full cowboy regalia standing at a street corner, lasso and saddle in hand (a real life sight). Could be a chance overheard conversation, a photo, an article I’ve read. In fanfiction, we often call these snippets of ideas "plotbunnies"– not fully rounded/deep enough for an actual plot, but the beginnings of one.

If it intrigues me enough, I’ll jot down my thoughts onto an RTF document in TextEdit and save it to my Snippets folder in my writing directory. This is where all my plotbunnies hang out. They may eventually get taken out, dusted off and become books. They may not.

From Bunny to Rabbit
After a while, if a particular bunny keeps tickling the back of my brain (a.k.a., the Lima can’t stop thinking about it, or keeps forming mental scenes in her head) I’ll pull out the snippet and review. The trigger to move this from bunny to actual possible proposal? If, in addition to the mental tickles, I immediately begin to surf the Web for information, that’s usually a good sign. For a contracted book, that’s where the real work starts.

What Kind of Rabbit Is This?
Thanks be to Al Gore, I don’t have to spend hours and hours at my local library, crawling through reference books. The next step is high-level research. I start crawling the Web, usually via Google search, entering phrases and words that may be relevant to my idea. For example, in Matters of the Blood, I researched deer hunting, hunting seasons, how much blooddoes the average white-tailed deer body have, lures, field stripping, cost of funerals, floor plans for mortuary prep rooms, etc. etc. etc. Yep, it’s a really long list. Before I begin any actual writing, I do a lot of searching, oftentimes in between other projects.

At this stage, I simply find the sites, do a quick scan to see if it’s relevant and then bookmark on Delicious. This saves me a lot of time later on, so that when I do run across something while I’m writing, in all likelihood, unless the story’s taken a huge detour, I’ll have something bookmarked that will help.

Creating the Skeleton
In home building, this stage would be equivalent to creating your project plan. I open a new project in Scrivener, name it (usually something pithy, like say, "Book5" and save it to a new folder in my writing directory. If I have key URLs at this point, I’ll go ahead and import them into the research directory in Scrivener.

Then, I open a notes document under Research. This is where all my thoughts, snippets of dialogue, plot outlines, etc. will live for now. Eventually, I’ll sort them out and group by type/topic/character, etc. –also under Research, but in the early stages, it’s all one document.

Visualizing the Rabbit
Pictures are worth way more than a thousand words; they’re absolutely priceless. I’m an extremely visual person. During initial research phase, I’ll save links to images as well as to articles. In this phase, I’ll begin to create my photo collage. It’s not a physical collage that can be mounted to a bulletin board, instead, thanks to Scrivener, I create it in my project. Photos of locations, scenery, people, animals–anything and everything that match the theme, story, place, etc. Google is my go-to, but I also spend a lot of time on Morguefile.com, a repository of no cost, license-free imagery. Occasionally, I may run across an image in a print venue. When this happens, I do cut it out and tack it to my bulletin board, or see if I can find the image online (often easy to do if it’s an ad or a magazine photo).

Fantasy to Flesh
Then the words. The hardest darn part of all of this. During the above processes, I’ll often have particular scenes in mind. I don’t ignore them, because frankly, if I do, they’ll vanish into the ether and I’ll never get them back. That’s why Scrivener is such a godsend to authors. In the draft section, I’ll open a new document and jot down the scene. Eventually, if it’s used, it becomes a chapter. Since the program is so flexible, I find that creating a document per chapter works for me. I don’t title them chapter one, chapter two and so on–instead, the title is something like: "Return to Texas" or "Gigi’s here"–a short phrase that triggers (for me) what the chapter is about.

For the next 6-7 months, I work exclusively in Scrivener. My project files & directories are all saved in Dropbox, so that if I’m traveling, or need to write from somewhere other than my home, I can access my files. The project itself will grow in bits and spurts–a chapter here, a set of notes there. Until one magical day, after I’ve written, rearranged chapters, revised, etc., I deem it ready for beta.

The Betas Have It
If I’m lucky, I’ve finished at least a month before deadline, so I can send the completed manuscript to my three or four beta readers. Two of them read for plot and overall arc; two for inconsistencies, typos, word usage, etc. I am VERY lucky to have these amazing women in my court. They’re the ones that catch things before I submit to my agent & editor, saving me from even more embarrassing gaffes!

Grooming
After the betas send comments, I review, revise and polish. Sometimes, this takes a little more effort than anticipated. I’m glad for it, because my betas are fantastic at this process and always help to make the book a great deal better. I tweak, I poke, I fix stuff.

Ready for Prime Time
Time to turn the rabbit over for inspection by the judges. I do one more quick spellcheck and review, compile my draft into an .rtf document and email it to my editor and my agent. It’s not over at this point, but for me, the hardest part is done. All that’s left is the editorial feedback, copy editor’s feedback, galley proofs, marketing copy proofs, cover proofs–oh wait, did I say the hard part was over? ::g::

And that’s all, folks. In a fairly long, involved nutshell, that’s how an idea becomes a manuscript–in my world. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from years of hanging out with writers–we all do it differently. What works for me probably won’t work for Maggie Stiefvater ( ) or Seanan McGuire ( ) or Di Francis ( ). And, IMHO, that’s the way it should be. We are all unique people, why should our processes be the same?

Cheers and please wish me a smooth moving experience!!