What's Your Writing Style?

I get it down and edit later.
I write the first draft by hand, and do a lot of editing when I type it up. I divide into chapters after a couple of edits.
I have found that trying to get it right the first time just clogs me up.

With my first novel I tried editing as I went along. That was a big mistake, at least for me. The second one I just let the words flow. I'm now in round one of editing. If I try to edit as I go along, it seems that I'll never finish. I figure I can flush out all the flaws once I'm finished. I do have chapter breaks as I'm writing, though when finished I may break one into two. This just works for me. I need to feel like I'm going to finish or I get too depressed.

I, uh... well... WOW, that's a lot of questions in one post. Hmm, where to start?

Mostly I worry about the editing only after I'm done - or if I get "stuck" someplace. Then I'll go back and edit. Especially for my short stories, which I tend to just crank out as the idea comes to me and only go back and look at once I've put the final "the end" on it. One of my reasons for this is also the varying word counts of different places that I might submit it. I get the idea out first and then worry about the word count second.

It's mostly the same way for chapters. I tend to see each chapter separately and so write them that way. The breaks just seem to come - for the most part - naturally to me and I know about where to cut them. I'm also a subscriber to the theory that generally speaking chapters ought to be about the same length. One page chapters generally annoy me, unless they've got a specific purpose.

I have a recurring character, but couldn't even imagine attempting an actual serial.

Depends on the story!

Typically, though, once I get the first 10,000 or so words locked in--or else, up until the first major huge unchangeable crossing-the-threshold plot point--I can continue relatively uninhibited until the end. But those first 10-20k words...I like beginnings, they're fun, but they're also hell to write for the first time.

That's why I write them many, many times.

And by that point I usually know where the story's going and I can write the middle and the end pretty quickly, just chugging away and letting the words flow.

Chapters just kinda happen, as I'm writing. I have no clue beforehand how many I'll have and whatnot. They just form themselves into nice little chapters.

All this tends to happen whether I outline or not. My subconscious is my greatest ally!

When you write, do you just focus on pumping out the story and finagle with the editing later or are you meticulous about what reaches the page initially and pore over it as you go along?

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I get it down as best I can and then go back and edit the scene/chapter as soon as I'm finished with it to add all the layers needed before moving on. So, I guess that's a bit of both.

How do you section out chapters? Do you write the whole shebang and then go through it once it's finished or do you know where each chapter ends and where a new one begins?

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By feel. Usually, I write a sentence and know that's where the chapter's got to end, so I end it there.

I'm a "pantser" (which means I don't outline). I write scene by scene. I don't formally edit as I go, but I've usually thought about a scene before I write it, so it's fairly well formed before it hits the computer.

I am a fairly meticulous writer--I hate sloppy writing whether it's the first draft or not. I just can't bring myself to just put it down without using an internal editor. It might would be better if I could, but there ya go. That's the way I am. So I write carefully even with my first draft. And I always know where the chapters go. I just know.

I write in the mornings, edit in the evenings. I've been doing it for years now, and the routine works for me.

Willie

I have the story in my head but that doesn't mean that's what's going to end up on the screen-

I write it down and make it up as I go- sloppy first draft- then I go back and edit and rewrite and edit- so on and so forth-the important thing to me is that I get the puppy down while the idea is still hot in my head.

I rewrite the first 2k fifty million times or until it feels right. Then, I plunge forward! I only go back to edit the WIP when I get stuck.

Where to end a chapter comes naturally. As far as my series... I have a rough idea of how I want to end them before I start writing. Once that story arc is over, so is the book and its time for the next one.

I do a lot of outlining ahead of time, so I know where I'm headed and roughly how long it ought to take me to get there.

Then I write through, linear fashion, mostly concentrating on laying down words. If a scene or chapter is definitely not working, I'll stick with it, but mostly I want that first draft. The whole time I work on the first draft, I have another document called "Things to Fix" open on the other side of the screen. When I think of something ("You know, I'm not sure I've covered X enough,"), I immediately jot it down in Things to Fix. That way, I have an action list of things to take care of ASAP on the second draft.

The second draft is usually about big fixes.

The third draft is about smaller fixes.

The fourth and fifth drafts are fine-tuning.

I do rough outlining -- I have five acts to my book, and five chapters per act. Before I start writing each chapter, I have an idea of where it needs to end, and in what state my characters need to be before the next chapter. What happens along the way usually comes as a surprise.

I write scenes as they pop into my head and then go back and fill in the rest. It is a very random style, lol, but it's worked out pretty well so far.

I just write it. Then I edit it when I'm done.

And my chapters just naturally break.

I write it without paying much heed to editing at first, though if something is really annoying me I will go back and edit tiny things so I can go on. If it's a really big thing that needs editing, I put a 'comment' on using MS Word (which leaves a little yellow highlight over the section, and if you hover the cursor over it, you can read the notes you left yourself). I can then jump from comment to comment easily when it comes to editing.

I outline, loosely at first, just things like 'section 1 - MC does such and such, section 2 etc' so that I can see the shape of the overall story, then I go into more detail for each chapter as I come to it, working out the exact moves etc. In terms of breaking chapters up, usually that comes naturally to me, though I have seen me in edits, if I've added a great deal or taken stuff away, I've changed the break.

For those books I know will be part of a series I outline it the same way, with a kind of general arc for the series, then I will do rough notes for the 'shape' of Books 1, 2, 3 etc, then go into more detail for the one I'm writing at present.

ClaudiaGray said:

I do a lot of outlining ahead of time, so I know where I'm headed and roughly how long it ought to take me to get there.

Then I write through, linear fashion, mostly concentrating on laying down words. If a scene or chapter is definitely not working, I'll stick with it, but mostly I want that first draft. The whole time I work on the first draft, I have another document called "Things to Fix" open on the other side of the screen. When I think of something ("You know, I'm not sure I've covered X enough,"), I immediately jot it down in Things to Fix. That way, I have an action list of things to take care of ASAP on the second draft.

The second draft is usually about big fixes.

The third draft is about smaller fixes.

The fourth and fifth drafts are fine-tuning.

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You described (much better than I did) what I do, exactly. Except that since I do my first draft longhand, my "Things to Fix" file is actually a collection of scribbles and post-its on the first page of my notebook (or occasionally on the page that contains the issue).

I just write to get it out. Well, my first book I did that, and then I went back and revised it a million times, broke up the chapters a little better, added and deleted things.

With my current WIP, i'm doing it mostly that same way. Except my best friend loves to read it as I go along, so if she suggests a big change, then I consider it and go back and fix it if I need to.

Shadow_Ferret said:

I just write it. Then I edit it when I'm done.

And my chapters just naturally break.

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ditto

I fuss over my opening - a lot. I have written and chucked out about a dozen openings for my WIP but I seem to be approaching something I like. The rest of the manuscript is revised daily. I usually go back to what I wrote the previous day, make whatever alterations I think necessary and then continue on. I do that all the way through the novel. Once I've written 'the end', I set it aside for two to four months then go over it as many times as I think necessary. I always want it to be better so I usually don't put a stop to my 'tweaking' until I begin getting requests for partials or fulls.
Linnea

Dragon-lady said:

I am a fairly meticulous writer--I hate sloppy writing whether it's the first draft or not. I just can't bring myself to just put it down without using an internal editor. It might would be better if I could, but there ya go. That's the way I am. So I write carefully even with my first draft. And I always know where the chapters go. I just know.

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Dragon-lady and I seem to be in the minority. I am very meticulous and can re-write a sentence a dozen times before moving on. As I finish each chapter I go back over it one more time, but more for spelling, punctuation, etc.

Working with a rough outline, I generally know where the chapter ends.

JessRamage said:

I outline, loosely at first, just things like 'section 1 - MC does such and such, section 2 etc' so that I can see the shape of the overall story, then I go into more detail for each chapter as I come to it, working out the exact moves etc. In terms of breaking chapters up, usually that comes naturally to me, though I have seen me in edits, if I've added a great deal or taken stuff away, I've changed the break.

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This sounds like my style, right here.

I threw together a nifty Gantt Chart back in November. X boxes down (# of story branches) and Y boxes across (# of chapters). Inside the boxes I've bullet-pointed the major events and happenings within each respective chapter. So I have a plot.

From there I've been developing each bullet-point on seperate pieces of paper, getting progressively more detailed the deeper the planning goes.

For example...

[Bullet-point] Character A meets with Character B. They talk/shag/fight/whatever.

[On a separate piece of A4] A questionnaire:

Where does this scene take place? (answer explored on a seperate sheet)

Who is present? (as above)

What time of day is it? (you get the idea)

Basically I build it all from the ground up. A single bullet-point is developed over numerous hand-written sheets of A4, and each separate sheet usually spawns a number of others: like a family tree of notes.

If I'm writing a script I tend to be much less thorough, as the extra detail is rarely necessary. It's essential if I'm working on my novels though, as I tend to get stumped and hate having to use placeholders (because I sometimes forget where I left them).

I am always meticulous. But I don't think about being meticulous while I'm writing. It just happens.

I guess, some might find my writing habits rather funny, but they do work for me. I did try, in the past, to "write first, edit later" but it definitely didn't work for me because I inevitably got side-tracked big time and ended up with a kitchen-sink mess instead of a plot. Then I tried to outline first, and it worked even worse because, as I discovered, a story that seems pretty believable and low-key in an outline turns out totally larger-than-life Hollywood-ish when I actually write it down.

So for years I've been doing it my way, and it definitely works for me:

I think in scenes, 1000-2000 words in length, so the first day I jot most of it down. After that, I spend the rest of the day thinking about it, changing things in my head, making it more logical and believable. Next day, I reread what I wrote (which is always awful), I edit it until I'm relatively happy, I introduce all the changes, and write on. Then I spend the rest of the day thinking.... you got it. Every day I add a few paragraphs until I come to the end of the scene, all the time editing the previous bit, and all the time thinking and changing the actual events, until I'm relatively satisfied with the scene and can't think of anything else to change; I print it out and move on to the next one.

On average, it takes me about a week to do 2000 words, but then it's basically done. Most importantly, not only the writing itself is relatively edited, but the characters in every scene do natural things , the dialogue is relevant and the conflict is in place. Which means every scene gets about 6-7, sometimes 10 rewrites, while technically it's still the first draft.

I'm like in the middle of the two.

I write pretty fast but I also am careful about what makes it on the paper. I despise editing and want to cut out as much of that stage as I can. If something bothers me on paper I will work with a few times to get it right.

Names are my biggest trip up. I give characters a unique designation until I come up wiht a name for them. That way I don't have to sit there and agonize over it.