Last week I came across an article on Catherine, Caffinated’s blog which sparked a discussion on the different types of writing styles people use. I had always thought that the way I wrote, which I think of as a strictly linear progression, would be the most common. But upon reading this article, I discovered that I seem to be part of the minority, and that most people write in a far more abstract way. That is, they write a paragraph, and then they immediately edit that paragraph. They might cut and paste a sentence somewhere else, they will move a word from one place to another, and then they might go back and completely rewrite the beginning of the paragraph and start the process all over again. I write from point A to point B. Where as everyone else seems to write from point C, then maybe to point K and then back up to point E.
I have a few friends who also write, and their technique sounds very similar to this. But I honestly can't imagine writing like that. Granted, they probably come up with a far better, much more polished draft than I do, but I rely heavily on the natural flow of my story. My process starts with the grand plan, which is essentially the skeletal system of the story. Then, starting at the beginning, I work out a denser plan with a more solid direction, the layer of muscle and tendons, we’ll say. And then I sit down and I flesh it out. I write until I come to the end of my plan, and then I pause, plan a little bit further, and then I write that. Once I write a paragraph it is there to stay. I don’t go back and endlessly fiddle with phrases here and there. I don’t write and rewrite chapters.
I once tried to write a collaboration with a friend who wrote with the other method, and our styles were so vastly and horribly different that we barely got past a hundred pages(Hand written, too, not typed). She changed the name of her main character three times. I couldn’t imagine doing that. Once I have my character, they are essentially set in stone; with a little leeway for development, of course.
All this isn’t to say I don’t edit. Of course I do. But I let it sit there for a bit before I go back and touch it again. If I go back too soon, I’m less likely to find my mistakes and I tend to get bored, it’s all too familiar in my head still. I do, however, have a writing friend who writes the same way as I do, and we often exchange chapters as we go and we’ll edit those for each other, just to iron out the main kinks like typos and those sentences that seem to just go on and on without you even noticing that they’re getting away from you. Much like that last one there.
I used to be jealous of the people who wrote in that critically careful fashion, and the people who write like Roz Morris (Her blog here), who has everything so intricately planned. She uses indexed cards for christsake! What is it like to have every little plot planned, to know every curve of your arc, to have your characters development mapped out before you’ve even started writing? What is it like to be so controlled as to know exactly where you’re headed pages before you get there?
But I’ve come to realise now that it’s simply not my style. I guess it must be working for me, though, seeing as I have completed six novels, with the seventh well on its way. Surely I’m doing something right.
Both styles have their pros and cons though. Neither is better than the other. People who write like I do are more likely to get stuck halfway through their story; because we start writing frantically before we’ve even really stopped and thought about it properly. People who write the other way however, run the risk of not writing anything at all. The afore-mentioned friend that I attempted to write in collaboration with has never actually finished a book on her own. She’s started plenty, sure, and people swoon over her writing, but she never gets far. She spends so much time developing the plot, archiving every little phrase she wants to use and perfecting her character profiles that she hardly ever sits down to write the actual story. This is what happens to me when I try to write like that. I find I never actually write. And jumping back and forth gets me so muddled, things like my continuity become even more atrocious than usual.
So what about you? How do you write? Does your style work for you and have you tried other styles?
