My Writing Process

I can still remember the first time I picked up a pencil and wrote a poem. We were challenged with writing a short poem. 

I wrote: 

Today is a beautiful day, 

I wish I could play, 

When the sky turns dark, 

I go away from the park, 

I smile a great big smile, 

And run a mile, 

Today is a beautiful day. 

I was in 3rd grade, and the poem was entered in a writing contest. It was so long ago that I don’t remember what the prize exactly was, but I remember it being published and winning some awards. The poem was in a book, although if we wanted a copy of the book, we had to pay for it. At the age of 8, I was published, and that's when I became the family's writer. After that, I wrote mostly poetry. Although due to my A.D.H.D., all my poetry notebooks have been lost. 

Ever since then, I have dabbled in various genres here and there. I have learned that I do better when given prompts. Some days, writing is easy, and others it’s extremely hard. Writer's block is no joke, but the best way to overcome it is to simply write.  There are methods I have been using recently that seem to really help me out. 

STORY PROMPTS

Years ago, there used to be a blogging website that would give you writing prompts. It made it very easy to write creatively because I wasn’t brainstorming ideas.  That website is no longer up. So now, when it comes to finding fun story prompts, I have used Google web searches, asking friends on Facebook, and even Chat GPT. Sometimes I get a prompt that takes me on a journey, and I can’t help but write it out. 

Having a variety of options for ideas when you just want to write about nothing in particular helps make my mind feel free to write. 

PLAYLISTS

There is nothing like popping in my earbuds, turning up the volume ( Sorry, I like my music high), and getting lost in the music. Ever since I was a teenager, one of my favorite things to do would be to lie in bed with the music playing, close my eyes, and drift away into a music video in my head. It’s no surprise that I decided to go ahead and use that as a way to write. 

Sometimes, I open up a music app on my phone with all my “liked” music and hit shuffle. I then close my eyes and listen to the song, and try to imagine what the music video would be like, and take inspiration from that. I listen to the lyrics and let them take me away. 

Sometimes when I am writing, I write based on the song that’s playing. This helps me make sure I am not staying in a section of my writing for too long.  A sad song comes on; that part of the story is sad. Same with happy and so on. 

OUTLINE

Having an outline is always a must for me. Even the books I’ve been working on have outlines. Each chapter, story, and section has an outline. I even outline my paragraphs. This helps me stay on track and make sure I am not over-repeating myself, even though that still seems to happen. 

For my story Echo in  Music Box, my outline looked something like this:

PART 1

Rowan finds an old music box in the attic

Opening it brings back memories of Archer

PART 2

Rowan and Archer's history

Archer meets someone else

Their families remain connected

PART 3

We find out Rowan and Archer's grandchildren are getting married. 

She’s happy their lives have always been connected

END

Rowan listens to the music box one final time

She peacefully passes away

Archer greets her in the afterlife. 

Then I take all of that and structure sentences out of it. This is what I consider my Rough Draft. 

ROUGH DRAFT

Being able to make a rough draft helps me to get everything out I want to say and then go back and edit it. This way, I have a continuous flow of typing going without stressing too much. I try not to overly focus on grammar. Sometimes the whole screen is covered in red lines, telling me that the word is definitely not correct. I am fine with being able to make mistakes, since I ultimately can go back and edit them. 

OPENING A NEW PAGE

Once my Rough draft is done, I open a new page and set the two up side by side. I then retype what I had before, while adding, editing, deleting, and changing what needs to be done. 

When I wrote “Press Start: A Family Story”, my rough draft had 613 words. When I retyped it, it ended with over 1k words. I changed things, made sure my wording was right, and also did my best not to repeat myself. I did plug it into Chat GPT to see if there were any continuity errors or anything that was off in the wording. I consider this my Final draft, and it is normally what I publish. 

DISTRACTION-FREE TIME (or not)

This one is easier said than done. I am a mom after all. I have a 5-year-old constantly running around, and teens asking me the most random questions you can think of. Sometimes my husband shows me videos. So, being able to have as much distraction-free time as possible is needed at times. I still have to have some noise in the background, as I do find it hard to concentrate in complete silence. 

I am hoping to keep my writing going. I have found new inspiration and feel like I am really starting to learn quite a bit about writing. Growing my skills will help me build my worlds. I keep learning new stuff every day, and I am so glad to have everyone on this journey with me.