My Creative Process

My creative process is a little frazzled. I prefer large chunks of time to work on writing, but life tends to get in the way. If I find myself awake in the early morning, I brew a pot of coffee and squeeze in thirty minutes of writing before the family awakes or I have to leave for work. Again, I might get an hour or so of writing before bed, if I'm not too sleepy. Sometimes I can sneak off to a coffee shop for a few hours if need be. As it is, I've learned to write in the bits of time life, work, and family allow. Like right now, I'm writing this blog post while my daughter is watching Frozen. (Otherwise she'd be in my lap wanting a story.)

When it comes to writing, I'm the dump-and-clean-up sort. I wrote the first draft of my novel with the goal of getting the words on the page and connecting them in a coherent way. I started with the beginning, but jumped around after that. I ending up writing the ending and having to make the two ends meet. Once the first draft was finished, I let it sit for a while before editing and revising. When I revise I delete parts that don't add anything and I expand places that read like a summery. I also like to read each chapter aloud to myself to hear how it flows. So, if you ever see me at a coffee shop talking to my laptop, don't think I'm crazy.

This post was written as part of a LinkUp Party. Check out how these other bloggers explain their creative processes: http://victoriasramblings.com/your-creative-process-my-first-linkup/