I guess the way that my brain works is that I try to plan out the best ideas, the best scenes, the best actions first. I focus on what excites me and what will function the best. This uses a lot of brain power, and I can only do it for a bit before I get exhausted and end that day’s writing.
After that when I edit, all I have to do is cut and rearrange things, make the dialogue better, stuff like that. (I’m not doing the full prose yet.) At times where I will have to punch up or completely rewrite scenes, that will be tough again.
. . .
I’m writing my first novel, and it’s a blockbuster of a literary mental health work set in a space-age afterlife universe. I have full faith in it, but I’m always learning during the process. I pantsed for part of my first draft/pre-draft, but man does pantsing give me bad results. Now I just semi-prose outline the full novel, until the whole story works.
So among the other things I’ve discovered about writing and about my own processes, my philosophy is this— an edited version of something I read about game design:
- Make it function
- Optimize
- Make it pretty
- Optimize again
That “make it pretty” part is where I do the full, proper prose. That won’t be for a few drafts down the line. I’ve almost gotten my full story finished now though! (Which is v2. “v1” had a lot of story gaps.)
I’ve found that I’m the same way. I’m glad there’s another writer out there who needs something to exist to refine it to something good.
I’m a terrible writer but just do it for fun. I just try to write a single, handwritten page a day. If I do that I’m happy. I used to try to plan but now I all finally embracing “start with the end” (goblin miners ally with local Baron to protect their shared territory from an invasion) and all basically just writing little scenes that tell the story from a characters perspective (engineer who got lost in the woods and ended up in a new, swords and sorcery realm - hardly original).
Having lots of fun with the whole “I’m from the future” including the wizard in residence also being like the engineer (but from yet another alternate future) and they work together to start manufacturing things which helps build the alliance with the goblins that have the raw materials.
One full handwritten page is quite a bit! I usually settle for about 100 words or so, but I write nearly every day, and inspiration will push me over that edge. I’m happy reaching 3000 words a month, especially when the writing isn’t paying the bills, and something as little (lol) as 3000 is still better than zero.
Yee, when I’m in drafting mode I often write 1000 words a day. But I also am on disability, perpetually unemployed so far.
