Let's Talk About Writing—My Projects, Passion, and Process!
- writer_alexandra_lee
- Feb 9, 2021
- 6 min read
Hello lovely, readers! I haven’t been posting to my blog as much as I would like to, so I decided to write this fun post!
Over the years, my content has moved away from writing and more toward books and reading. I love talking about books, and the stories I read have a huge impact on my writing and general interest in the craft, but I’d like to chat more about my writing. That’s what I’ll be doing today.
Projects
The main reason I don’t share a lot about my writing is because I haven’t done a ton of writing (outside of blog posts) for the past few years.
If you know me, you know I love fiction, particularly fantasy. I’ve tried writing a fantasy novel before (it was my first project, and I was really committed to it. In the end, it just didn’t work out). I’ve written a few short stories and poems. I even tried nonfiction at one point, but I’ve struggled to find a long-term project.
One of my goals for 2021 was to find a long-term project to work on. I’ve missed brainstorming, creating characters, and fleshing out worlds and plot lines. All of my reading has aided me so much in understanding the structure and components that go into crafting a great story. I’m ready to get back to it, and I’m happy to share a little bit about my new project here!
My new project is like me turned into a fictional book (if that makes any sense). I shared a few teasers on my Instagram, so in case you missed them:
BETRAYAL! HIGH STAKES! PARANORMAL WORLDS!
I started outlining this story at the end of 2020. It took about a month for me to outline. It took so long because I wanted to make sure I had a lot of the details worked out before I started typing the first draft. I’ve learned from previous projects that if I do not create a thorough outline, I end up finishing the story without answering a lot of the core questions posed to the reader throughout the book. This creates a giant mess when I start editing and stresses me out.
I went into the first draft of this project feeling very confident and prepared. So far, I’ve hit a few roadblocks, but most have been minor. The biggest issue I’ve come across has to deal with POV. Thankfully, with some advice, I’ve alleviated that issue.
The word count of my new project currently stands a little under 2,000 words, so that shows you just how much work is left to be done on the project (plus editing and everything). I’d love to hit a final word count anywhere from 80,000-100,000 words. I used to be an underwriter (someone who under writes their story has to add a lot of content in the editing phase). I’ve had a few “novels” come in at 20,000 words, but with all of the outlining I’ve done and the complexity of this story, I’ll, hopefully, be able to hit my goal.
Passion
I started writing in sixth-grade. At that time, I was really into Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, The Hunger Games, and a lot of the other “classic” middle-grade and YA series. These books sparked my passion for writing, but my tastes have matured throughout middle-school and into high school.
Classic literature has caught my eye and influenced my writing tremendously. All of the research I’ve done on the craft—from reading books to watching lectures and videos on YouTube—has continued to shape how I approach a project and mold a story.
The more you write and read, the more you understand what works and what doesn’t when telling a story, the better you become at writing. You may not come up with the most original ideas, but I’ve learned that you don’t need an original idea (a majority of ideas have been used before). You just need a promising idea, a creative mind, and an eye for story that comes from reading literature and practicing your craft.
That “eye” has developed a little slower than I would’ve liked, but I’m beginning to see it emerge and it’s exciting to see the hard work pay off. Some people might hate me for saying this, but part of the joy of writing is the struggle and the rearranging of scenes and the editing. If writing was easy, anyone could do it. If writing was easy we wouldn’t have the same reaction we have when people tell us they are working on a book.
We wouldn’t say, “You’re writing a book? Tell me more!”
We’d say, “Oh no, not another one.”
There wouldn’t be any feeling of accomplishment or perseverance if writing was easy. And that’s something I’ve learnt, and something I carry with me, especially when I come to a particularly difficult scene.
When I used to get stuck writing a scene, I’d freak out and be like, “Oh my gosh I’m never going to get past this hard part.”
These days, I just step back, rack my brain for an idea (after all, I’m the one who wrote my characters into this mess, and I’m the only one who can get them out) and give it my best shot. If it works, great! If not, I shrug it off and try something else.
If someone asked me why I love writing, I’d say I love writing because I love seeing the story idea, one birthed by my own mind, start off and just explode from there. This happened with my current WIP. I started off with two strange images: a girl in a dark forest and a race of people who were shunned from society because of their powers. I’ve turned those two images into a ginormous brainstorming sheet and a forty-page outline.
The passion for the story is there! And that’s why I’m super excited to continue working on this project.
Process
Now that you’ve gotten a taste of the project, and the passion behind the project, I want to share some specific details about my writing process. My writing process has shifted a lot over the past few years, but there are parts that have remained the same.
The first thing I do when I begin a story is create a brainstorming sheet. I make a brainstorming sheet on my computer and write down as many ideas as I can. I also expand on ideas as more details come into focus until I’m left with short blurbs that will eventually get put into an order and become scenes. This process usually takes a few days. Then the real work begins.
After I compile as many ideas as my brain can handle (often color coding to keep everything straight), I have a basic direction for the story. I know the genre and the main plot of the piece and can continue on to phase two: creating characters. By this point, I already have a simple picture of my protagonist. I begin drawing up character profiles and fleshing out their personalities, looks, goals, motivations, backstories, etc.
There was a time when I would have called myself a character-focused writer, and of course all great stories need great characters, but I’ve learned over the years the importance of having a captivating plot (because that’s the part that always trips me up when it’s time to edit).
Once my characters are well fleshed out, I take all of the information from the character profiles and the brainstorming and smash it together into some semblance of an outline (which for me is a synopsis of what happens in each chapter, plus notes I add in about dialogue, description, or additional ideas that need fleshed out).
As you can imagine, since I outline as much of the story as I can before I drive myself crazy, call it quits, and start writing, this compiling of all of the information is the longest part of my outlining process. For my WIP, I got to chapter 28 in the outlining phase (there will probably be 35 chapters, give or take) before I threw my hands up and started writing the first draft. As I near the end of the first draft, I plan on briefly outlining the final few chapters, but I have a solid idea of what they are going to include thanks to all of the outlining I’ve already done.
Now I continue to write, do some macro-edits (probably two or three rounds of this), some micro-edits and proofreading, and voila! It’s done!
Yeah…I wish it were that simple. But that’s the current plan. It won’t go that way perfectly, but that’s the plan.
Thank you so much for reading this post! It was fun to write. If you enjoyed it, please subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss out when I post. I will be posting more information on my new project and regular updates as I continue to write the first draft.
It’s been a pleasure writing for you, and until next time—stay weird and stay writing. - Lexi
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