After giving us some great thoughts on his habits on Monday, Jason’s here now to talk about his writing processes. Take it away, Jason.
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1) Do you have a different process for writing short stories versus novels?
With novels, I tend to write to an end point. I will try to plan them a little, so I know roughly what key events need to occur for that the end point to be reached. Short stories have far less subplots, fewer characters — my shorts tend to be about mood, wrapped around two key ideas or perhaps a character scene. The process of writing both is similar, but usually, the novels take much longer!
2) Do you plan out your stories, or do you write organically?
A little of both. I have a rough road map in my mind, or perhaps even sketched out on paper, usually leading to the climax, but I don’t worry too much if the story goes off the road, as long as I can see the destination is still in reach.
3) Do you wait to finish the draft before revising, or do you revise as you go? If when you finish – how do you approach it? If as you go – how do you approach that?
I believe in getting to the end. I write fast and fairly loose, and spend a lot of time in editing to polish the plot as well as the prose. So the process is usually along the lines of: think about the story, write the first draft, revisit it, rest it, edit it, get feedback, edit it, revise and submit. There may be extra feedback periods in there, depending on how dire the first draft was. The rest period can be weeks, months, even years, depending on the piece. Some may never see the light of day, others might be cannibalised.
4) How many times do you revise before you submit?
For short stories, I prefer to run them past my writing group before they go anywhere. So I will revise, submit for feedback, revise, perhaps rest and revise again. Novels can go through numerous iterations until I’m satisfied, and they will ideally be beta read at least once, and problematic portions and the key opening scenes will also go through the writing group. I like to do at least one hard copy edit before anything goes anywhere.
5) How has your process changed over the course of your career?
I try to plan my novels more so I have a clear, logical world and chains of cause and effect, and to spend more time with the characters before the writing starts.
6) If you’ve mentioned previously (or haven’t but think it’s true) that the process is different for each book, can you give some more details on how this is the case?
I suspect that the process can be different, depending on how much knowledge the writer has about the world and the characters before they start writing. I’ve written manuscripts in different ways — straight narrative line and piecemeal scenes as inspiration strikes — and both had merits and flaws. I think the easiest editing job came from that straight linear writing because there was less wastage — fewer scenes that were rendered irrelevant by the final shape of the story. The nature of the work could also dictate how a story is put together — some time-jumping or less traditionally structured stories might reward or even require a less linear approach.
7) What’s the most difficult part of the book for you? Why do you think?
Plotting is a big hurdle for me. I’m a mood writer, a bit of a pantser rather than a plotter by nature, so getting the cause and effect of the novel to make sense as well as the scenes to look pretty can be a pain. It’s all about the motivations of the characters and keeping them true — pretty has to be forsaken sometimes in favour of honesty. Logic is the framework for narrative, so I do a lot of logic testing these days. ‘Why’ is perhaps the biggest question I ask myself about every action and scene.
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Jason Nahrung grew up on a Queensland cattle property and now lives in Melbourne with his wife, the writer Kirstyn McDermott. His fiction is invariably darkly themed, perhaps reflecting his passion for classic B-grade horror films and ’80s goth rock. He is the co-author of the novel The Darkness Within (Hachette Australia). His novella, Salvage (Twelfth Planet Press), is due out in 2012. www.jasonnahrung.com
You can read the rest of the Habits and Processes interviews here: http://nicolermurphy.com/writers-habits-and-processes/
