My Writing Process

Hi! I wanted to write today to talk about my writing process. Even if you’ve never written a book before, or even started a manuscript, you may be wondering how it all works.  

Every book starts with an idea. Maybe the idea came to you in a dream. Maybe it came to you while waiting on your coffee order. If you’re anything like me, it came at the worst possible time and you have no where to write it down. Let’s hope we remember! 

Once I have an idea, I put it on a google doc. Right where a title would go, is where my idea goes. Under that, I start to list out things that go along with my idea. Problems, solutions, details I want included, anything I think of that I know I want in the story. This is kind of me trying to brainstorm and get it all out of my head and onto my paper. I need to see it in words in front of me. At this point in the process, there is no organization or perfect paragraphs, or really any complete sentences. There are simply just ideas all over the place. There’s nothing wrong with that. 

The next thing I do, on the same document, is start to outline or form my ideas into some kind of order. This might look more like a list at this point in the process. Think of the table of contents in a book and the way it kind of outlines what is going on throughout the story. That is what I do here- outline what I want to happen throughout the story.  

Once I have a good outline I go through it and start to add the details. This turns it from an ordered list of events into an actual story. I do a lot of adding and deleting during this phase of the process. I come up with ways to connect the main events and sometimes I end up not liking what I originally had. Lots of trial and error here! Again, nothing wrong with that, trust the process.  

Around this time, I try to come up with a twist in the story. I pretty much have a solid amount of flow happening, so I can usually find where I can shake things up a bit. 

The next phase of my writing process is to go through each part of my story with a fine toothed comb. I am checking how the story flows. I want to make sure I transition well from one part to the next. I like to read it aloud to myself and see how I’m feeling about it. I will make the necessary changes until it’s my version of perfect.  

The final phase is grammar. I have an amazing editor that I rely on heavily for this part. I at least like to go through it and do what I can as best I can. I like to send off my best version to her when it’s ready. She will first go through and see how the story flows and offer advice. It’s nice to have outside feedback. After all, by this point I’ve been reading the same story for 6 months to a year. After I change whatever we discussed to make it even better, she will send me the grammar edits. I fix those up and BOOM! We’ve got a complete story that’s ready to go to my illustrator!  

Please remember that I self-publish my books. I do not have to find an agent and go through the traditional publishing process. In my next blog post I will discuss the difference between the two and the pros and cons! 

Amanda ♡

My Books