Me and SEP

My writing style is very haphazard. I sit down with an idea and let it take me where it will. I have a basic idea, a direction to go, and then I let the characters walk me through it. If they get lost, I call a time-out and draw them a map.

I'm about 70% through my "get it out of my head and onto the page" portion of my writing process. The first draft is done, but there is a lot of detail I miss on the first pass. So now I'm going back to fill in the holes and to fix anything that's still wrong.

And there are things that are wrong.

As I took a break this week, I read a post by Susan Elizabeth Phillips which cheered me. She wrote that her writing style is very similar to mine, the "throw it against the wall and see what sticks" approach. Except that means you have to go back and scrape the mess off the floor when it doesn't stick (which is where I am now). She said she is also rewriting her current work in progress. I'm in good company.

This is the work portion of the writing process. The probabilities and the improbabilities and making the story believable. I've had to correct an "improbability", except my hero had a reaction to that which I want to keep, so now I have to approach it from a different angle. I will essentially be rewriting the last 30% of this book (although it should be close to what I've already done). The good news is that it will make the story better. The bad news is I have to do the work.

Five weeks to the editor's schedule, and I still have the culling process to do - pulling out overused and unnecessary words and phrases. That should only take a week (although that process is also VERY tedious).

On the plus side, I have a cover concept which I'm jealously guarding to tease you with when we get closer to release day. Now if I could only write a strong blurb to entice you to read it! But first things first. More work to do.

Anon.