Process – Good writing depends on careful attention to the process of writing.
Begin with an idea, usually based on an experience you have had, and develop the story. You may want to start with tape recording some of your thoughts, and write them down later. You may want to jot random words on a piece of paper, and then circle and connect them. You may want to prepare an outline. You may want to write scenes on index cards and lay them out in a pattern which becomes your plot. You may want to start right in stream of consciousness writing and read over your pages later. You may be combining stories that you have started log ago.
Discipline – Building writing discipline by understanding where and when you write.
Discover your best times and places. Do you write best at night? Do you like to get up early and write? Do you find writing all morning is best? Or do you prefer to write for a few hours and take a break and come to it again?
Perhaps you like to write at a desk. Perhaps you like to write sitting on the floor. Perhaps you like to write sitting in a soft chair. You may want to write longhand on a yellow pad. You may want to use your computer to compose your work. Or perhaps you like to start writing in longhand, and later, turn to the computer for the final writing.
Have you made a contract with yourself to spend a certain number of hours PER DAY writing?
Planning – Successful writers realize that the task of the writer is to think about and plan out the writing before beginning to write.
It is not possible to sit down and write an acceptable – much less publishable – piece of writing without pre-planning. The very best you can hope for is that the theme, organizational outline, and relevant details have crystallized in your mind, and that you know what you want to say. And now, the moment has come: you are in the state of "ripeness." You are ready to write. Ripeness, John Gardner described as "having all aspects of your story come together at the same time." Your thought processes have been at work, organizing and planning your writing long before you sit down at the computer or yellow pad or notebook and put your words on paper. Sometimes there is researchs the you must do. Checking facts, reviewing the circumstances, and establishing credibility are all parts of the writing process. The details of your setting always need to be provided.
Revision – Experienced writers understand that revision is a vital part of the writing process.
Another reason you cannot sit down and write your best work at the first writing is that the best writing takes shape only after careful scrutinizing of your first drafts. Go ahead and write. Put you thoughts and ideas. It is smart to set a goal of so many pages per day or so many words per day. No one can decide that for you. You decide what your goal is.
Then put your work aside for a day. Go back to it, and read it. You will probably see that you need to add or subtract sentences, words or paragraphs to clarify or enlarge your thoughts. Is you meaning clear?
You will need to check to see if you have used the same words or phrases over and over. (We all do this, and most times cannot discover these idiosyncrasies. This when an outside reader is needed to read your manuscript.)
Perhaps you will find that you may not have said what you wanted to say. And so you consult a Thesaurus to find more appropriate words.
You may not have written in a fashion to enable the reader to follow your thoughts. You may need to analyze the length and types of sentences and shorten or lengthen them.
You may have made assumptions that your reader will grasp your basic premise, or understand the background, or realize the particular circumstances of your story.
In all these situations, a good writer knows it is vital to revise and rewrite the manuscript.
Support – A writer realizes that it is helpful to locate a writers' group for feedback and support.
These types of writing groups function usually in small groups, and are on-going for weeks, months or years at a time. Many writers – of all levels of experience and all type of genres – benefit from attending a writers' workshop where feedback on the written manuscript is given by the leader and the other writers. Thus, a support group of writers can help you with suggestions to massage and mold your writing so that it becomes the best that it can be.
A writers' critique group follows a pattern to ensure that everyone benefits:
- A writer reads his/her work, providing everyone with a typed copy.
- Then the leader directs the response to the work.
- Each participant gives responses to the work as follows:
- First, a positive comments is made.
- One or more constructive comments or questions are made with the intention to improve the writing.
- No personal criticisms are made.
- The writer takes notes on the suggestions . The reader does not defend or justify the writing. The writer may choose to use the suggestions, and revise the work.