Dear Readers,
I asked in my street team what people would want to read about on my blog, and they gave me a healthy list of awesome ideas. This week I'm going to talk a little bit about my writing process. It's different for everyone - it's even different for me from book to book - but it's all about what works for each individual writer.
My current work in progress (WIP), tentatively titled Vintage, is about 87,000 words at the moment. I'm not even close to being done writing it (or figuring out how I'm going to split it into a series), but writing this one has been vastly different for me than anything else I've written. The reason is because I'm outlining this one.
I've always been a "pantser," or someone who writes by the seat of her pants, instead of a "planner." But it's true what your high school English teacher said... outlining helps organize your ideas. My husband asked me one day why I don't outline my books after I told him I was teaching my students how to outline. I thought it was an excellent question, so I put it to the test.
As I've been writing my WIP, I have noticed that when I sit down to write, I always have a direction. Before I started writing this one, I always knew where I was taking each of my stories and the journeys my characters would take, but it took me a while to get back into my words each time I stepped away from them. But now that I have events outlined, I can pick up where I left off a little more easily, and I really feel like this will be my best book to date because there are elements in there that can only be included with planning. No spoilers here, but this one will likely fall under the New Adult Romantic Suspense category.
Except then Thanksgiving happened, and I had to go shopping on Black Friday, and then I had to decorate the house for Christmas, and then somehow four days passed and I didn't write a single word. After being away for so long, I have to admit that I was a little terrified to open my document last night. At first I opened the file and re-read the last two chapters I wrote. I glanced through my outline, and then, magically, somehow the words flowed out of me and I hit my goal of 1000 words in under an hour.
This wouldn't be called random ramblings if I didn't ramble on for a bit without a point, but here's my point (which is actually two points): If you're a writer and you've hit a roadblock (or the dreaded WRITER'S block), try outlining... and make sure you don't let four days go by without opening your document. I've heard hundreds of times that authors have to write every day, and I'd just like to reiterate that point. I think the compilation of inspirational photos I snagged from Pinterest say it best.
Oh, and don't forget to follow my boards on Pinterest! I've got a whole board dedicated to VINTAGE if you're interested in learning more: pinterest.com/lisasuzanne24
I'll end by saying thank you for reading. If you have any ideas, comments, or suggestions for future topics for my Random Ramblings, I'm always here to listen!
XOXOXOXO,
P.S. Don't forget to enter my REVIEWER APPRECIATION GIVEAWAY if you haven't already! Details here: rafflecopter
P.P.S. Some bonus writing inspiration!
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