Blogfest 2009

My writing process is an unusual one: I start with a one-page (and no more) outline. I have chapter titles, section titles, and a book title, and usually a lot of notes from the other books in the series. (About a quarter of THE SHADOW DRAGONS was moved up from THE INDIGO KING; and about the same was moved from THE SHADOW DRAGONS to Book Five).

I’ll then start doing thumbnail sketches of the illustrations, while jotting down notes next to the chapter titles. When this process is done, I’ll have a general outline of the entire story, plus key images for each chapter. That’s a lot to work with.

From that I do one full draft, straight through. This is usually where the winnowing process takes place, as I realize certain part of the story don’t fit the arc of the story I’m telling. This is also where surprises happen: the ever-loved Mr. Tummeler, the talking badger from Book One, wasn’t meant to last three chapters – but he did, and his son and grandson are major players in THE INDIGO KING.

After that draft is done, I get an editor’s letter from my two editors, and I’ll usually answer their questions while doing the big structual changes that may be needed. After this, the book is largely complete – but there are still a few more editorial passes to make sure everything connects and makes sense, and looks good.

Storywise, doing a book like THE SHADOW DRAGONS is less anxiety-inducing for myself and my editors because the characters are old friends of ours. We know how they’ll act, and speak, and respond – so it’s more a matter of wrapping the plot around the characters we already know, and making sure it ties together in the end.

It’s a lot of work, sure – but it’s ALWAYS worth it.

Constantly. Every day. In your head. On your keyboard. On the paper. On the telephone . . . Writing is organic and it is constantly changing. And it doesn’t become good (like pizza dough) until you really work it over. To the point of sweating, really.

Constantly. Each book I’ve written has gone through at least a dozen rewrites, often more. It’s part of the creative process. Write, read it over, revise, read it over, have somebody read it over, rewrite, repeat, repeat, repeat… until the point at which I start switching back to what I previously wrote—or worse, I want to throw the whole thing away. Then it’s time to stop.

I was told once that the secret to success is not the first draft but the numerous redrafts that make it better. When I was a young reporter, I didn’t have time for too many drafts. With a novel, there’s more time to work, but there are times when I’ve wanted to throw up my hands and run screaming into the night. But it’s not always a lonely process. Writers and books are made better with the assistance of a great editor who can see plot holes, one-dimensional characters, flat dialogue, improbable set ups, as well as a sounding board for ideas. (And I have been lucky to work with great editors like Caitlyn!)

The toughest part of rewriting is knowing when to stop and let it go. I don’t know if I’ve even been fully satisfied with anything that I’ve written, and that includes newspaper articles long since forgotten. I’m constantly wondering into ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda’ territory.

It depends on the book, but since I’m on a tight schedule with my series work, I have a kind of system that works for me. The first thing I do in the morning is read over and edit the scenes/chapters I wrote the day before. This helps me wake up my brain, reminds me of where I am and where I’m supposed to go next, and gives me time to punch up what I’ve already written. Then I jump into the scenes I’m supposed to write that day and read those over the following morning and so on . . . . Once the entire first draft is done, I leave it alone for a few days to give my brain time to refresh, then I read it all over again as one with a clear head and a fresh eye. At this stage I often end up moving scenes around, deleting or adding, because I realize something is missing or that the story is repetitive or confusing. Once that draft is done (I call it my “final first”), it goes to my editor and he or she makes comments. Then I work on it again and send it back. Usually, that’s the last time I see it, unless there are a final few questions to answer. I try to be as clean as I possibly can with my earlier drafts because we don’t have a lot of time between starting the book and publishing it. That’s just the way the series thing works! When I’m working on a book that has a bit more time built in, there are usually a couple more drafts between the first final and the final final, but generally the process is the same. I usually go with my first instincts and don’t give myself a whole lot of room for second-guessing, or re-plotting, because if I did I’d probably drive myself crazy and never get anything done.