My Writing Process

(or how to get easily distracted)

the first picture I took of Bailey and Eclaire

There’s no one magical place I get story ideas from.

When I first started on this writing adventure, I relied heavily on writing prompts from books. I purchased a number of writing prompt ebooks and spent a couple of days picking out prompts that I thought I could turn into stories.

Two of the flash stories that have been accepted for publication were from dreams I had. I’ve tried to get into the habit of writing down my dreams (even if it’s at 3 am and means the cats will think HEY FEED US NOW) if it’s something I can use.

There’s a couple of stories that are based on real events. Names of course have been changed.

Finally, there’s a some personal/memoirish type pieces. One was published earlier this year, two will be published later this summer and there’s a couple that will never get beyond my lap top (those were more ‘I need to get this out of my head/off my chest sort of things).

when the scratching board becomes a napping spot

I don’t always have a title for a story in mind when I start writing it. Sometimes the title has to bitch slap me over the head, sometimes I’ll be in the middle of writing a sentance and I’ll scroll up to the top of the document, throw in a title, and then go back to writing. It really varies.

Bailey posing for the cover of Cat Fancy

I don’t generally outline stories. I get an idea, I start typing. Sometimes I’ll think of something for a story that I’m writing and I’ll just make a notation at the end to see if it would fit.

I also tend to edit as I go. Maybe not the best way to get things done, but I’m constantly tweaking. I use Pro Writing Aid which is a huge help in verb tense, show don’t tell, getting rid of a lot of word salad and extra words my stories don’t need.

I always use their suggestions as sometimes what they suggest changes my voice or the voice of a character too much.

And I have a tendancy to jump around from two or three stories at a time.

Eclaire sniffing my bag.

Once a story is finished, I let it sit for a couple of weeks. Then I’ll look at it and run it through Pro Writing Aid again. Make a couple of more tweaks and let it sit for another week.

Then I’ll start looking for lit mags where I think the story will a good fit and start submitting.

While I’d like to say there’s a time frame for this whole process, there’s not. I’ve had some stories take me a few months, some a few days. Since I’m not on a deadline or anything, I just write as much as I can while the words are flowing.