My education doesn’t include the craft of writing, outside of the normal English classes during my school years. Teachers encouraged me to take up writing as a profession, but I got sidetracked by life and chose a different profession. I still wrote, but project plans, technology documents and corporate emails are a totally different animal from writing fiction.
To explain my writing process, it would be too simple to say I just sit down and start doing it and let my imagination lead the way. I suppose many authors might start out with a what-if idea, as I do. There was one I imagined as I rode in a car down a lonely road through the woods. Normally, as a passenger, I watch the woods to see if I can spot any wildlife. One time my imagination came up with a what-if that included werewolves running through the trees. Maybe I’ll revisit that one at some point.
So, I start with a what-if and then begin writing, watching the movie in my mind as it unfolds and writing what I see. Then I go back and change things because even when I’m not sitting and writing, excerpts of the movie play in my mind and the story grows and changes. I outline as I go, because I have no outline defined when I start and I’ll need to reference it later, during editing.
And there are many edits before anything goes to an actual editor (and bless her heart, after they come back, too).
My writer’s mind forgets everything it learned in all those English classes, even though they were my favorite classes. I LOVED structuring sentences and everything related to writing and understanding the written word, but I forget all the rules as I write. I’ve had to learn to switch off my writer’s mind and switch on my editor’s mind when I’m reviewing my work. Then I have to remember to switch off the editor’s mind when I read books for enjoyment. The editor’s mind finds no enjoyment in reading.
The mind is an amazing thing and imaginations are our playgrounds.