Let's Talk About Process
From a writer who is just figuring it out
Inspired by V.E. Schwab’s podcast, No Write Way, I’ve decided to talk a little bit about my own writing process.
In all honesty, I’m still figuring it out. My writing process has looked a little bit different from manuscript to manuscript, but in case anyone finds this helpful, or interesting (or, in an attempt to figure this out for myself), I thought I’d dive into it.
With FAMILIAR GROUND, my first completed manuscript, I planned almost everything out in advance. I started with the world’s structure, and then the characters that would live in that world. I wrote out the world history and made mood boards for every location and character. FAMILIAR GROUND was also written to be one in a series of roughly five or six books (depending on how the story played out and if I decided to add or remove any characters or plot lines along the way). Because of this, I didn’t just plan out all of book one, I also planned out books two and three, and very loosely, books four and five. I needed to know who my characters were, where they were going, and what they were going to lose along the way, in order to inform who they would be at the beginning of the story.
I then made a pretty detailed outline, stating what would happen in each chapter. Once I started writing, all I had to do was fill it in, and then do a lot of editing. I had a handful of wonderful volunteers beta-read the book (mostly friends and family), and then I did even more editing.
Looking back, I can’t believe I took on such a massive and complex project for my first book. I wasn’t thinking about the amount of work it would be in the beginning, I was just fueled by the idea, by my love of fantasy, and by how excited I was to write a story that I wanted to read. (More information about this project in Writing & Querying My First Manuscript).
When it came to my second manuscript, I knew I wanted to do a Grimm retelling. I had been a fan of Grimm fairytales ever since I was a kid and saw The Brothers Grimm with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. I’m also a really big fan of Ava Reid’s Juniper & Thorn, and just generally love the Brothers Grimm stories.
Once I decided that I was going to do a retelling of “The White Snake,” I created a rough draft of a query. Because I knew more about the process of getting an agent after querying my first manuscript, my goal was to write something a little easier to sell or, at least, describe. Rather than building out the world, the history, the characters, or doing a detailed outline, I started with a pitch and a query.
My final one sentence pitch for this story: “An anxious, unqualified housekeeper must travel to the Underworld to save the life of her hot, bookish, folklore-hunting employer in this contemporary reimagining of Grimm’s “The White Snake.” The wording of this changed over time, but the idea remained the same.
For this story, I zoomed way in. While FAMILIAR GROUND had a large cast and several locations, spanning continents, I knew SMALL THINGS was going to center around three main characters and primarily one setting.
I wrote the first sentence (which is currently still the first sentence) and went from there. I discovered these characters on the page, and sometimes, their actions shocked me—and I just went with it. I loved this approach. And, I realized, with both SMALL THINGS and the following project, that the less planning and outlining I did for a story, the more of myself bled onto the page. This way of writing is also known as discovery writing, or pantsing, when you “fly by the seat of your pants” rather than planning or outlining.
Letting this story carve its own path was fun, but I do think my lack of planning hurt me a little bit when it came to querying and especially when it came to reader/agent expectations. I had beta readers for this project as well—again, mostly friends and family—but I also worked with a developmental editor, and I do recommend doing this if you can afford it. (More information about this project in Writing & Querying My Second Manuscript).
So, my third manuscript. I had never imagined myself as a young adult or middle grade writer, but a question popped into my head in September of 2024: If I were to write a kids book, what would it be about? I made a list of all of the middle grade stories I loved—mainly, the stories I grew up with—and then circled what they had in common.
Then, I made a new list of all the things I wanted my hypothetical middle grade book to have in it and what I didn’t want it to have (For example, have you ever noticed that, often, in middle grade books, the parents are absent, dead, or incompetent? I didn’t want that to be the case for this story).
I named my hypothetical characters because I love naming things: Nora Night, Camden Claw, Victoria Veil, Harlan Hollow, and Evie Elmrot. Already, I was a little obsessed. Then, I thought, What would the title be? I knew I wanted it to have some alliteration. The first title I came up with was NORA AND THE NIGHTMARE KING. And I loved it. Then, I thought it might be cool to make it a series, where each book was dedicated to a different character. I came up with the title CAMDEN AND THE CLOCKWORK SPIES, and then I came up with titles for the other characters as well (those, I’ll keep to myself for now). Staring at my list of character names and titles, I just knew I had to write this series. I had no idea, at that stage, what or who the Nightmare King was. I had no idea what the Clockwork Spies were. I only knew that they sounded cool and I wanted to bring them to life.
I did have a list of ingredients (as Schwab says). I’d made a list of things I definitely wanted to include in this potential series (school setting, old house, found family, etc.) but the writing process for NORA AND THE NIGHTMARE KING looked more similar to that of SMALL THINGS than it did to that of FAMILIAR GROUND. I started at the beginning and wrote the entire story from start to finish, discovering it as I went. Then, I went back and connected the dots and cleaned up the prose.
Having finally found a community of writers, I had a few other writers beta-read NATNK, and I highly recommend doing this as well, if you can. Writers are able to look at a story with a slightly more refined eye than friends and family (no offense to my friends and family). Writers just spend so much more time thinking about stories, structure, prose, character development, pacing—the list goes on. And it’s easier to critique someone else’s work than it is to critique your own. That being said, if you’re getting other writers to read your work, offer to read theirs! It’s fun swapping stories and reading other’s work will only make you a better reader and editor.
I’ve been working on my newest project (my fourth manuscript) for about eight months now, even though I’ve only just begun to query NORA AND THE NIGHTMARE KING, and I predict that it will be ready to query sometime early next year. Working full-time has slowed me down quite a bit. So has starting a Substack *cough* *cough* but I’ve been enjoying taking my time with this one.
So, where did this new project start? One day, I was thinking about the relationships and roles of bastards in books and TV. In Game of Thrones, Catelyn Stark has a complicated relationship with Jon Snow. He’s living proof of her husband’s infidelity. And for her and Ned, this is a really big deal. Their entire family dynamic is based on love and loyalty. Ned is a great husband, except even he had a bastard, and Cat never fully healed from this betrayal. In CW’s Reign, Sebastian becomes a love interest for Queen Mary, which is made even more scandalous by the fact that Sebastian is a bastard (and her husband’s brother). In Assassin’s Apprentice, Fitz’s father, Chivalry, must go into hiding with his wife to protect both her and Fitz. Because of this, Fitz never meets his father, but he does meet his father’s wife, and their relationship is somewhat therapeutic, but still incredibly layered, and full of things left unspoken. These dynamics intrigued me.
I had an idea for a scene, centered around a question inspired by this train of thought, and I wrote it down. This became the first chapter of my new work-in-progress. Then, I sat with it for a few days thinking, What now? The character we follow at the beginning of this story has a problem (to be intentionally vague). This problem is immediately solved by the last person she’d expect. This did create some tension in the first chapter, but with the problem I’d created having been solved, something else had to go wrong.
I asked myself, What’s the worst possible thing that could happen to these characters?
The story started to take shape, and, because I liked where it led me the first time, I found myself asking, over and over, Now, what’s the worst possible thing that could happen to these characters ? Every time I thought of something else, I added it to the story. This project, admittedly, would have benefited from an outline. It is the least-outlined manuscript I’ve written. It’s also requiring the most research.
In a way, each project has created its own process, and I’ve learned a valuable lesson from each. As I continue to write, maybe I will pin down my process. Maybe someday I’ll be able to tell you exactly what works for me and what doesn’t. But, for now, I think I’ll just keep letting the stories tell me what they need from me, regardless of where they start. If you’re another writer reading this, I’d love to hear about your process. Are you a plotter or a pantser? Or, as George R.R. Martin says, an architect or a gardener? Do you start with the world first, the character, the pitch, a question, or something else entirely? And, how has your process changed over time?
Thanks for being here!
