Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
Absolutely! The first story I ever wrote after deciding to become a writer was a novel entitled WHISPERING THE PAST. It's the story of a woman who moves into her childhood home with her husband. Her abusive past comes back to haunt her as her life begins to mimic that of her alcoholic mother. I was 14 years old when I started it. Two and a half years and three typewriters later, it was finished. It isn't bad, but I've never let anyone read it. No matter how much they've begged. Who knows? One day I may decide to drag it out, dust it off, and polish it up for publication.
What is your writing process?
My process usually goes like this:
Have a brilliant idea at the most inconvenient time. Jot down every detail as fast as I can before I forget. (Learned to do that the hard way) The idea usually consists of the title, the opening, and a vague sense of where I'll end up, but no real idea how I'll get there. Eventually I'll finish another one of the other projects I have going and get around to starting that one. Then I go like hell for as long as possible, writing thousands of words a day (my record is 10,500). Once finished, I step away for a while before coming back to read through it from the beginning, adding and taking away, polishing the story as best as I can. Then I step away from it for a while and come back, reading through it from the beginning one more time and paying special attention to both the words and the story, catching as many errors as possible.
I only write notes by hand, although occasionally I'll scribble out a short story or if I'm away from my computer and something strikes me, I'll write a scene by hand. Otherwise, I write it all on my laptop. I rarely outline anything. I've tried it. I don't like it. It just doesn't work for me. I like to go where the story takes me, and having an outline puts me under pressure to follow a strict route. It stifles me and I can't work that way.
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