My Writing Process

   When I write, I love to listen to music. What I'm in the mood for often affects the tone of the story. As the minutes turn into hours, my ears drown out the lyrics and the artists' voices. My mind slips into a sort of trance where I don't even notice the passage of time. I become so immersed in my own story that it's more like watching a good movie than work. And that's the way it should be.
    For me, writing is as sensuous as delving into a piece of still warm cake. I wrap myself with words the same way I wrap my tongue around a pasty. For me, writing has always been easy. The ideas and words come naturally. Sometimes, I don't even have to think. As long as I have a pen and a piece of paper, my hand knows what to do. I've spent hours scribbling chapter after chapter with my subconscious seemingly in charge of my brain.
   Now, writing won't come easy for everyone. There are writers out there who struggle with getting their ideas onto the page. I've been to writers conferences where one of the featured speakers told us that if you write spontaneously, with little or no planning, that you're a hobbyist, not a writer. That just isn't true. Some people need to spend hours or even weeks planning their story before they start and others can just start writing. I believe what separates a writer from a hobbyist is the revising.
   Without revision, my work isn't ready to be shared. No matter how strong my euphoria after finishing that first draft, I restrain myself from showing it off until I've at least had time to check the spelling and grammar. There are as many missing words as there are mispelled words and misused ones. What I like to do is a quick edit for proofreading. I check grammar and spelling and then print out a hard copy. Once I've done that, I show it to my family and closest friends. Then I label it, bind it, and put it on the shelf for a minimum of 3 months. After that I come back to it and read over it for a full revision.
   Without the words being fresh in my mind, I find it easier to be more objective. This is where I add or remove passages, reorder parts of the story and fix any errors in character descriptions. I ask myself questions about the story that I think a reader would ask and try to use the text to answer them.
   Revising is the most tedious and annoying part of writing, but it is the most necessary. It didn't take me long to learn this, but it did take me a few years to figure out how to do it well. And even after it's all said and done, I always feel like there's room for improvement. I never feel as if I've done a good enough job. I just know that there's something more I should have said or that the book needs one more once over. But at some point, I have to stop and call it done. I send it off for independent editing and, let's be honest, I take their suggestions with a grain of salt. If there is some glaring technical error, I fix it. But suggestions about my story are just that, suggestions. And I don't have to use any of them if I don't want to. I'm not so arrogant that I don't consider the other person's ideas. I've simply learned that it's my story and I have to be satisfied with the final product. If I try to please everyone else, then I'll have nothing that I'd be willing to stand behind.