The process

A long time ago I co-wrote a series of novels that will never see the light of day. My collaborator drove me nuts during that time.

See, when I'm writing I don't spend a lot of time actually writing. I spend hours every day thinking about whatever I'm working on, imagining scenes, plotting out the plot, all that sort of thing. This is between calls at work, on my lunch break, at the grocery store, or sitting on the couch watching TV or playing a game. By the time I'm sitting here at my computer, fingers poised over the keyboard, I've already planned out my day's work. Actually physically writing it normally only takes an hour or so.

My collaborator thought that I had to actually be sitting at my computer banging away to actually be working. That's the way he did it--he thought that's the way it's supposed to be.

And I used to work that way, too, a long time ago--before I found out that after a five hour session of sitting, staring at the screen, typing, staring some more, typing, basically forcing the story out--that I would later go back and delete everything I wrote. Because it sucked. It read like I was struggling to find somethiung to say. Because I was.

Now I play with the project in my head throughout the day and it sort of flows when I sit down to work on it. It's amazing how easy it is, and it simply isn't necessary for me to spend all that time sitting here forcing myself to work.

I'd say I spend as much time as any other writer on writing--it's just that I spend more time with the pre-typing process, I guess.

Of course there are as many different approaches as there are writers--some work better sitting for hours at their computers writing and writing and writing. Others work more like I do, sort of daydreaming about their projects.

As Kipling said, "There are nine and ninety ways, for writing tribal lays, and every single one of them is right."