In a post on Writers Helping Writers, Jenny Hansen shares tips for keeping a story organized, even if your brain or writing processes aren’t. “Like underpants, writing process is personal,” she says. “You’ll find out what fits YOU the best by trying it on for size. At the end of the day, the only writing process you need to embrace is the one that allows you to finish your stories.”
Some writers like to have a full story roadmap, while others write better in bite-sized chunks. For new writers, the challenge is finding what works. Do you outline or not? Do you write scenes in order or not? Do you work better in the morning or at night? Can you write in 10-15 minute time increments, or do you work better when you have a few uninterrupted hours?
Hansen’s process is a little bit of everything – plotting, pantsing, and quilting. She starts by listing all the scenes she has in mind. “Like many writers, each book usually starts with an idea or a scene that comes into my head fully formed,” she says. “I write that scene to get it out of my head and onto the page. I keep writing until all the initial scenes are out of my head.”
Then she organizes these scenes and starts brainstorming. “Near the beginning of the process, I bat some ‘what if’s’ around and decide on the overriding theme for the book and the internal and external conflicts for the main characters,” she explains. “I might be wrong, but it gives me a place to start.” From there, she keeps writing until she runs out of scenes, and starts to form the story, setting scenes in a logical order. Hansen uses Scrivener to keep organized, but note cards and other writing apps can work as well.
