Trust The Process!
AoR is running a favorite post from the past. Here, we take another look at wrangling creative chaos into order.
By Cindy Layton
Of course writing has a process. Everything has a process. Depending on who you read, there are three or four or five or seven steps in the writing process. I’ll stick with five because more than that and my brain will reject six and seven just on principal: Prewrite, Write, Revise, Edit, Publish.
Having a process wrangles the creative chaos into order. It’s a flow chart for the creative brain.
The problem with defining a writing process is that it can never account for the vagaries of creativity, (the loud voices of Ben and Jerry, the nagging thoughts about laundry, that reverberating sound of someone calling up Netflix), that all threaten to highjack the writer’s best intentions, until it becomes, not a writing process, but an aversion to the writing process.
And having a process doesn’t guarantee production.
Or quality.
Besides, it’s a mistake to confuse the writing process with the creative process. The creative process is the way writers harness the ebb and flow of their inspiration. The writing process is how writers approach the steps necessary to go from the beginning of a project to completion.
While I’m aware that, at some point, all the boxes will have to be checked, I can still write a lot of pages when I’m filled with ideas and committed to the work, without giving one thought to the process. What’s presented as linear steps can happen out of order or simultaneously. I’m still prewriting while I write. I edit while I revise. While I’m walking, I’m plotting. When I’m sleeping I’m dreaming of characters. While I write I’m thinking about the setting, but I’m also doing that while I’m editing and revising. It’s the most inefficient way to go about it – except for all the others.
It's all very haphazard and messy but I’ve decided not to fight it. It’s my process.
Of all the steps, I’m most fascinated by the idea of “prewriting.” Prewriting is where creativity and procrastination both live. Just about anything can fall under the guise of “prewriting” and make me feel productive at the same time. Everything I’ve ever experienced and haven’t yet written awaits in its wings.
I’m in an ever-state of “pre-writing.”
So take your pick, linear process or haphazard creativity - The best writers all have something to say:
“There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.”
Stephen King
“Swoopers write a story quickly, higgledy-piggledy, crinkum-crankum, any which way. Then they go over it again painstakingly, fixing everything that is just plain awful or doesn’t work. Bashers go one sentence at a time, getting it exactly right before they go on to the next one. When they’re done they’re done.”
Kurt Vonnegut
“I only write when I’m inspired, so I see to it that I’m inspired every morning at nine o’clock.”
Peter De Vries
“If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.”
Dan Poynter
writing routine, writing process, Stephen King, Peter De Vries, Dan Poynter, writing craft, Kurt Vonnegut, creative process, prewrite, revision, editing
