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IT'S
ALL ABOUT PROCESS
BY LUCY MONROE
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Not
someone else’s process, but yours.
This
is not another article on how to plot your book or get into your character’s
heads. Those are both important and
necessary goals, but how YOU get there may have nothing to do with GMC,
extensive character interviews, or breaking down your ideas into scenes and
sequels. During a recent
“Chat with Susan Anderson and Caroline Cross,” Caroline made the comment
that writing is about learning the process that works for you and taking
ownership of it. Her comment
sparked with some thoughts I’d been having lately about the process of
writing.
As
writer’s we are interested in words and how to convey a certain idea in the
best way possible. This sometimes
leads us to putting boxes made up of “how-to” walls around our creative
muse. I remember the first time I
heard about the debate between being a plotter or a seat of the pants writer.
I thought I knew which one I was until I wrote my next manuscript. You see, first I was convinced I was a plotter and then when
I deviated from my plot cards by scene three I thought, “I must write by the
seat of my pants.”
Recently,
I had to accept I am both. I
thought, “Oh my gosh…I’m a schizophrenic writer!
I can’t make up my mind about how to write a book.”
My creative muse was all folded up inside a tight little box.
The walls were made up with some pretty common labels:
Plotters vs. Seat of the Pants Writers, To GMC or not to GMC, Write the
Book of Your Heart, Write for the Market. Powerful
concepts, but as with any label, applied with absolutes they are also powerful
restrictions to the personal writing process.
When
Caroline said that as writers we need to take ownership of our process, it all
finally gelled for me. I have a
process and it works very well for my muse.
It’s a three-step process and which step I begin with depends on how
much I know about my next story when I’m ready to start and what mood my muse
is in. I’ve finally accepted this
is okay. I don’t have to follow
someone else’s pattern to write a good book.
I don’t have to analyze my characters and determine their types in
order for them to have depth.
As
a person who functions in both my left and right brain depending on my mood (not
necessarily my situation), I must accept that my writing is going to follow the
same pattern. How about you?
Are you a plotter or a pantser? Do
you swear by GMC or write blind, going back and starting over when a direction
your book has taken doesn’t work? Or
maybe…you’re just a little like me, a bit schizophrenic in your approach to
your books and sometimes that makes you feel guilty because you don’t fit
under any one label very well.
No
matter, how you write, one thing remains true.
The process that works for you is YOUR process.
It’s part of your voice, your uniqueness as a writer and you should not
compromise that process to fit with someone else’s label or well-meaning
how-to concept.
I’m
about ready to start a new book…I wonder which step of my writing process my
muse will lead me to first. It doesn’t really matter, as long as I stay true to myself
and the vision in my head for the story. Because
if I do that, I’ll have those special moments of magic telling a story that
comes from my heart.
Lucy
lives in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest, surrounded by towering Douglas firs and
a plethora of pets and children (her own, the neighbors, her sisters...). She
started reading romance at age 13 and has been in love with the genre ever
since. She finds inspiration for her stories everywhere as she is an avid people
watcher. So much so that she disconcerted her husband upon first meeting when
she watched the other dancers as much as she watched him.
He thought she wasn’t interested...silly man.
She
believes there is no stronger emotion than love and that it truly is a force
that can overcome pain, past rejection and the challenge of finding happiness
despite the hardest things life has to offer.
To her, the passionately sensual romance novel is a beautiful expression
of the reality of love packaged in a fantasy readers can enjoy.
She believes in the victorious conclusions found in today’s romance.
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