On Monday, Jo talked about her habits – how she finds the time to write. Now, she talks about the process she goes through.
1) Do you have a different process for writing short stories versus novels?
Not really. Except novels are much longer and more complicated!
2) Do you plan out your stories, or do you write organically?
A little of both. I need a general outline before I start writing — usually the beginning, a few important points in the middle, and the ending. But I leave this outline very flexible and sketchy. If I plan too tightly and know too many details, I get bored and don’t want to keep writing. Why bother when I already know what happens?
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?
Definitely when I finish. My first drafts are fast and dirty. Then I do a quick reread, scribble notes, make changes, rinse and repeat. Sometimes those changes involve major surgery, sometimes they don’t. Then I give the book or the story over to my beta-readers, and start the process again.
4) How many times do you revise before you submit?
As many times as I need to — totally depends on the story.
5) How has your process changed over the course of your career?
I don’t know if it has changed all that much, rather I think I’m getting to a point where I can accept it and work with it better. I’ve tried different things — I wrote one novel with a chapter by chapter plan, and another with no plan whatsoever. Neither worked particularly well. I’ve aimed for a perfect first draft only to be forced to gut 20k out of the middle. But guess what? The less energy spent fighting your own processes, the more you can put into the work!
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?
The basic process isn’t different, rather some books need more work at different stages.
7) What’s the most difficult part of the book for you? Why do you think?
Letting go. Knowing when it’s ‘finished’ and ready for consumption. Why? Well, nothing’s perfect, is it? But while it lives on my computer and mine alone, I’m the only one who’ll see that imperfection. Sending my stories out into the world to be judged still terrifies me. It’s amazing, though, when people read them and like them. That rush is totally worth the fear.
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Joanne Anderton lives in Sydney with her husband and too many pets. By day she is a mild-mannered marketing coordinator for an Australian book distributor. By night, weekends and lunchtimes she writes dark fantasy and horror. Her short fiction has most recently appeared in Midnight Echo #6. She was shortlisted for the 2009 Aurealis Award for best young adult short story. Her debut novel, Debris (Book One the Veiled Worlds Series) was published by Angry Robot Books in 2011, and will be followed by Suited in 2012. Visit her online at: http://joanneanderton.com and on Twitter @joanneanderton
You can read the rest of the Writers’ Habits and Processes blogs here: http://nicolermurphy.com/writers-habits-and-processes/
