If you’re anything like me, you’re pretty curious as to how the lives of other authors work (I think this may be because authors seem so elusive outside of the internet-land). I’m always up to read a bit about the life of another author, especially a successful one. So, to help other authors fuel this need for knowledge, here are the logistics to myself writing:
The steps to my writing process:
Pre-write – a loose plan of how my novel should flow, consisting perhaps of major scenes and character entries, as well as turning points and the identification of the setting.
Rough draft – the first cohesive draft and baseline to my novel. While the most fun part to write, it reads the worst.
Revise draft one – this is the first draft where I work on editing and revising. I take the rough draft, print it out (I prefer to type on a computer), and go at it with my favorite green pen. Then, after all the pages have slashes and lines through them, I sit back down with my computer on the left, my printed revise draft on the right. On the computer I make a copy of the rough draft, rename it “revise draft one,” and input my markings on the print version into the computer.
Revise draft two – Print out revise draft one, revise/edit it, make a copy of revise draft one on computer, rename it, input changes. Repeat until desired.
Pre-beta reader draft – The draft I give to my pre-beta readers. So, I have these things called “pre-beta readers.” These people are my immediate family. They get to read over my book first and make sure I don’t have any stupid mistakes in it before I release the book to my beta readers (the rest of my family and my friends and acquaintances). This is because I don’t want to completely embarrass myself or have every single beta reader pointing out a huge flaw I somehow missed.
Final beta reader draft – this is the draft I feel safe enough giving to all of my beta readers for review. Whenever possible, I prefer to share my book online, to prevent using up all of the printer’s ink and pages.
Final draft – After I have collected all of my beta reader’s feedback and gone through it, marking up my “final beta reader draft,” I make a copy of the document online and rename it – you guessed it – “final draft.” This is a pretty emotional time for me. After all that work, this is it. The draft. Sometimes I will go through this draft multiple times online, just to make sure it is perfect, and that there are no stupid errors. After all that, when I feel it safe enough to do so, I print out my final draft to forever keep immortalized in printer ink and pages.
Now, those are my steps to writing the book, and I haven’t even mentioned the post-writing part. But, that’s a whole other beast. However, for a brief look into what I do after writing the book, check out this post on how I fully immortalize my writing.
