#PenPower Myth Debunk #4: I MUST outline

For this week's post I have to state a disclaimer first: Outlining is great. It's useful. This post isn't designed to prove outlining is not done or not useful. As usual every writer is different. Some outline, some don't. Either way can work for you to finish a manuscript. You just have to figure out what works for you personally.

So what IS this post about if it's not about disproving outlines can help you?

I've always been curious about the subconscious and the work our brain does when we're not actively thinking about work (or anything in particular). I wondered what this means for both writers who outline and those who don't.

Is the subconscious more relevant to writers who write directly from their brain without doing any pre-work? It seems like it should be - outliners usually have everything planned don't they? Is there a correlation between using your subconscious more or less whether you're someone who outlines vs someone who just writes what comes into their minds? I thought for a long time that there might be - surely someone who has thought up a tight plot doesn't need to rely on their subconscious so much - but I've since learned for myself this is not the case. The plotting outliners do before they start to write relies on the subconscious as much as the story that goes directly from brain to page.

But don't take it from me! Let's see what our twelve writing superheroes have to say about it!

This week we've asked:

How much control do you want over what you are writing? Where does the subconscious come in?

ADRIAN: (This was a very juicy question to pose to Adrian. As we've seen in the last few posts he's definitely a planning mastermind. He likes to know what he's doing before he does it. I was really curious what he'd say about the somewhat flightly subconscious...)

There is definitely a subconscious element [to writing a story], and I think perhaps a big part of being a writer might be to have a good partnership with your own brain. It’s very difficult to describe just when I’m riding my subconscious and when it’s riding me, and I suspect that the real writing gets done in a littoral space between the two worlds, informed by both.

RICH:
I am a control freak. Experience has taught me I get the best results from detailed planning and preparation. That might just mean thinking about something for a few days and letting it germinate, rather than making extensive notes, maps, writing histories, etc, but I still have to have most of the story already formulated before I begin.

JOHN:

I think my subconscious is much smarter than I am, so I try to remain open to its innovations while I'm working on something.  So many times, I've been writing something and the very process of working on it spawns an idea that improves it.

THORAIYA: I want the story and characters to follow my plot outline. But there’s something to be said for the subconscious solving plot problems while you’re working on something else.

KAT: Editing. If nobody likes my writing, I’m the only one that gets hurt. But hell hath no fury like a writer whose been told their ideas need work.

SUE:

Picasso said something like the muse comes when she’s called, and if you show up every morning at 9 at the studio, she’ll be there waiting for you. Your subconscious will be delighted to work with you if you enjoy what you work. Be careful not to sabotage yourself and your subconscious with self-doubt and destructive self-criticism.

It’s a good idea, though, to always carry a notebook with you or have a notes app on your phone. The subconscious has a bad habit of delivering great ideas when you least expect them.


CAITLIN:

My subconscious is a lot smarter and a lot more confident than I am. Sometimes it falls short (that's when those outlines come into play), but when I'm actually putting words on paper, I sort of zone out, and the writing happens. Similarly, when I'm doing those outlines, often the AHAH! moment comes when I'm doing something else. Cooking, walking, trying to go to sleep... it takes the pressure off, and then the part of my mind that's in the background flips a few puzzle pieces around and suddenly it makes sense. I just have to provide the structure (outlines, notes, writing schedules, etc) to make sure things keep working.

MARTHA:

I think the subconscious comes in a lot. I don’t always know much about the story when I start. I want to explore the character I’ve come up with, and I have an image of the environment they’re in that I want to develop. I’ll usually have some idea of the first plot point, and a very vague idea of what the ending might be. Once I get to that first plot point, I’ll have a better idea where to go from there. Sometimes I’ll get stuck because I’m trying to push the story in a direction where my subconscious doesn’t want it to go. Trying to figure out just what my subconscious wants can mean a lot of writing and re-writing.


TIM:

The subconscious is crucial because it's always gathering and combining things I've read or observed or experienced and sending weird little ideas to the surface: what if? what if? what if?  I daydream a lot, I run little scenarios in my mind, I talk to my characters (not aloud, anymore, usually), I get on the stationary bike and listen to music and figure out character arcs and plots. By the time I write I usually know what I'm writing (that's how I do it fairly quickly), but I do leave myself room to improvise and be surprised. I usually know what my characters need to do, and leave myself some wiggle room regarding how they do it.

ANNA:

Well, as stated before, I'll decide I want to write a story about ... equality, say, and I might get 10,000 words into it before my brain tells me I'm actually writing about oppression instead. So then I'll have to redraft parts of what I've already written to fit what it is I'm really trying to say. People talk about having a muse; for me that's my subconscious, and subconscious Anna can take a while to get going, but when she does, she comes up with good ideas. 

I've learnt that in my case it's best to let go of some level of control, because that's when I do my best work. The broad framework of the piece - the setting, the characters, and the main elements of the plot - will stay roughly the same, but the emphasis can shift quite dramatically when I find what it is I'm actually trying to say within that framework.

EOWYN:

In all of my books so far, I have had a core idea and a rough outline going into the process. But I also know that ideas and plot outlines are a dime a dozen. The surprising phrases, the unexpected development in a character or storyline, those things that jump to mind as I'm writing -- that's where my best work is, and I can never force or predict those moments. All I know is that I have to sit down and put in the time, and eventually it will happen, the layers will deepen and the metaphors will come. So for me, both elements -- the logical, linear and the random sparks of creativity -- are important to my writing process.

YOON:

I mean, there's only so much conscious control one can exercise. For me personally, I care a lot about controlling plot (that's the part I spend the most time on) and somewhat about controlling character and then theme just sort of happens as a side-effect. I'm sure it's different for others.

And... cut!

Again we are faced with a slew of hugely diverse answers about the subconscious works for our twelve writing superheroes.

I'd argue that the most important insight we can glean from this post is: There is a certain measure of subconscious effort that goes into every story whether you outline or not.

So is there then a reason to panic over not having an outline? To be afraid of losing control and not knowing where to go next? Probably not (unless your deadline is tomorrow and you haven't even started the story yet). Although it's useful (very useful) to have a plan where you're going (like you would on any trip!) your subconscious will do some of the work without you having to think about it. The rest is just sitting down and applying some elbow grease to your piece of text.

Here's an example. Say you live close to Amsterdam and you'd like to visit a city in your vicinity: Berlin isn't so far from you that you couldn't hop in the car and visit it (coronavirus aside). As someone who doesn't outline too much you may just get into the car and drive where your navigation system tells you. That's fine. You'll eventually reach Berlin.

It's equally fine to create an itinerary of exactly how you want to drive there. Do you want to stop somewhere in the east of the Netherlands to get gas? Do you want a lunch stop in Cologne? You can plan all these in and have a real outline of what your journey might be like.

It's fine to do it either way. Similar instincts to those that tell you when to stop for food (as opposed to having planned that exactly at 12:00 you will stop in Cologne to get a sandwich at a gas station) are the ones who'll tell you where your story's going off the rails if you haven't planned it out.

So what's the real secret to driving away the blank page fear here if you don't absolutely have to outline? It's this: Sit down and apply elbow grease even if you hate outlining. The story will come to you either way.

Next week we're going to look at another fear writers often come up against: What do you do if you don't have any ideas? Where do you start? So we're asking our twelve writing superheroes: How much direction do you need to have before you can start a story? Stay tuned!

#PenPower #3: Rules and Fear (How to beat your writerly worries)

In our last post we looked at how fast our favourite writing superheroes actually work. Do they get their work done in a few days? Does it take them months? Years? You can look all this up here: #PenPower Myth Debunk #2

This week's post is yet another treat. It isn't your usual Writing Rules post found on almost everyone's blog.
I did ask our twelve writing superheroes: Are there any hard and fast rules you adhere to? But I also asked two follow-up questions to clarify: What do you do when the writing gets hard? Are there any tips and tricks you use to get yourself on track?

We've got a lot of really great and insightful responses! They are of course closely connected to each writer's writing process and as usual each writer is different with their own tricks and guidelines that help them succeed. It may be to plan first. It may be to write at night only. But is there really THE ONE RULE every writer has to adhere to? It seems not.

In the stonemasonry world the rule might be something like this: Don't hit the hammer on your foot. In the writing world you can do that! You can hit your characters with a hammer - and more! You can even use adverbs (in limited fashion).

Without further ado let's see what our PenPower Twelve have to say about RULES and how they deal with writerly fear, stress, and other anxieties of difficult projects:

Do you have any hard and fast rules you adhere to? How do you stay on game mentally when you get worried? What tips and tricks do you use to stay on track?

MARTHA: I don’t really have any rules.

[Writing]'s not easy. I’m stressed most of the time and it’s often hard for me to concentrate. It helps to love the story you’re working on, but you can’t always count on that. The middle of the story, where everything has to start making sense and pulling together is the hardest, and that’s where a lot of new writers give up. You just have to keep slogging away on it. Usually if I can relax enough to get into re-reading and the draft, I can start sort of losing myself in the story and start producing new words. It’s an ongoing battle.

SUE: When you get writer’s block, it usually means nothing more than that you don’t know what to write: you aren’t sure how to start a piece, what to write as the next scene, how to solve a particular problem, etc. You solve writer’s block by figuring out what to write next. Some writers always know what to do, and others find themselves getting a bit lost from time to time. I’ve learned that when I’m having trouble writing, I need to make a plan so I know what to do, and the block evaporates.

I also keep a quote by Isak Dinsen on my bulletin board: “Write a little every day, without elation or despair.” I take that to mean that a good or bad writing day doesn’t define you as a good or bad writer. What matters is consistent effort. Every job has good and bad days, and a persistent trajectory leads to successful writing.

I’ve been working as a professional writer — that is, for pay — since 1971 when I was in high school. As a result, for me, writing is a way of life. It’s my job and I do it, whether the exact project I’m working on is easy or difficult or exciting or boring. All jobs have their good and bad parts, and that doesn’t worry me.

KAT: (again from an editor's point of view and more specifically about slush pile reading!) [The author's submission] must fit what I’m looking for the first time or not at all. I usually give authors the benefit of the doubt and read the first three paragraphs, but if it doesn’t hook me in that time, I give the piece a pass and move on to the next one.

I cannot stand blatant clichés. Stories that began with “You’ll never believe me” or “I’m not crazy” got an automatic rejection. Stories that brought gender issues or politics into the story got an automatic rejection. Modern politics has no place in my Lovecraft anthologies.

I love editing stories. I love helping authors to find their true voice and really make their stories shine. I’ve never had a moment where I felt worried or that the job was hard. It is true, there have been a few manuscripts where I knew I would have to be harsh and I didn’t know how the author would take it… but I just tell myself that this is part of the job. It’s up to the writer to consider my critique or not.

For Whispers, I did have a few authors who were not happy that their stories did not make the cut. And they voiced their displeasure in emails. That is fine. As long as they keep [it] civil. The few that did not just proved that I made the right choice in not working with them. And now I know that this isn’t a person I should work with in the future.


RICH: I am a control freak. Experience has taught me I get the best results from detailed planning and preparation. That might just mean thinking about something for a few days and letting it germinate, rather than making extensive notes, maps, writing histories, etc, but I still have to have most of the story already formulated before I begin.

IT’S ALWAYS HARD. Writing books is not easy, otherwise everyone would be doing it. But fear of failure and the need to pay your rent are great motivators.

I tend to look forward rather than back. If I find myself stressed or under pressure I always tell myself that the bad times will pass. They always have so far, so I guess that attitude works.

JOHN: I have to write fiction by hand and I prefer to use a legal pad.

[Stress and worry] happens all the time to me. I don't think there's a single work of fiction I've written that hasn't, at some point towards the end, made me feel deeply nauseated, as if it's terrible and I can't complete it and I don't know why I even bother.  I've learned, though, to recognize this as part of my process, and to accept that this usually means I'm doing what I should be doing.

ANNA: I've learnt that in my case it's best to let go of some level of control, because that's when I do my best work. The broad framework of the piece - the setting, the characters, and the main elements of the plot - will stay roughly the same, but the emphasis can shift quite dramatically when I find what it is I'm actually trying to say within that framework.

This is also important when it comes to editing. An artist acquaintance of mine told me she couldn't believe I would consent to be edited as that is muddying my artistic vision and did I not care about my work that I would let someone just come along and interfere? And ... that made me really angry. If she was painting an abstract piece and Jackson Pollock came along (yes, I know he's dead) and said, have you thought about adding a bit of red, would she really turn down that piece of advice? At the very least, she'd stand back and examine her creation and picture it with red in it. It's the same with editing. [You] have to give your professional editors' advice serious consideration.

[I] think the most important thing I try to remember is that I'm worried because I love the story. I love the characters and the themes I'm trying to explore. Because of that, because I want to do justice to the characters and their adventures, I worry about falling short. And in a way that's healthy. If I didn't care about the book, that would come through in sloppy plotting and inadequate writing. So a certain level of worry - of wanting to get it right - is probably natural.

But yes, that worry can escalate. For me it usually happens when I get bogged in a section and I can't find my way forward. And THAT usually happens because that section is wrong. For whatever reason, it's not working. It may be that I thought I needed it in, but I don't, or that I thought I wanted to explore a certain theme, but actually my subconscious is slowing down my forward momentum because it wants to analyse something else.

When that happens, I'll try and push forward regardless. My brain works in a strange way and very often I'll have to write the plot wrong in order to work out what I should be writing. It can be really time-consuming and every book I've written so far has an accompanying file called cut-scenes, and each one is filled with anywhere from 60,000 to 90,000 words that I wrote that didn't make it into the book - and that's BEFORE an editor gets their hands on it.

CAITLIN: [The one rule might be not to overthink things.] The limited time I have on weekdays [due to my day job] is actually helpful. I don't have time to overthink. I show up, draft according to my outline/notes/feeling of what needs to happen next, then put the computer away for later.

For editing, I make checklists encompassing the very large and very tiny edits. For very large edits, I'll break those down into individual steps. Then, if I have a deadline, I'll chunk up my checklist into daily to-dos; if I don't have a deadline, I'll start with the small stuff first, and it'll usually organically snowball into the larger changes.

The biggest tool I have [against stress] is outlining and taking walks. I'll outline as a way to solve problems, whether it's how to restructure half of a book or how to get from scene A to scene C efficiently and interestingly. I'll write out specific problems or gaps, note down what the solutions to those have to accomplish, and then just play with it. It's not necessarily a fun process (often it's terrifying and I end up convinced I'm a fraud), but eventually I come out the other side with a game plan. The game plan is the most important thing. If I can see the step by step of how to get from where I am to the next bit, I can put my head down and do the work.

Timers help, too, on a more directly practical note. If I'm anxious and spiraling, that usually means I'm avoiding doing the work. So I'll set a timer for ten or fifteen minutes. I have to focus on writing for that time period, and then I'm free to stop if I'm still feeling miserable. Half the time I immediately feel better once I'm back in the draft. The other half of the time, I start actually grappling with whatever problem is distressing me, and then I won't stop until it's solved. Either way, those ten or fifteen minutes get me back on track.

EOWYN:  I tell myself I have to write 500 words a day, and I set a timer to write for 20 or 25 minutes, then a five minute break to throw some laundry in the washer or feed the chickens, then it's back to the computer.

[W]hen I'm actually putting in the time and actively working on a piece, I'm rarely worried or stressed. It's when I step away from the writing, either because of other demands on my time or laziness, that I start to have doubts and worries. But I know the solution -- get back to work. There are times, though, even when I'm working actively that I feel stuck or stagnant, like I'm bored with what I'm doing, and then I'll go back to the books that have most inspired me, and I'll try writing exercises designed to mix things up a bit, and I'll seek out new ideas and art work in all forms. As I do this, I'm reminded that this is where the joy is -- in the work, in connecting ideas and learning and stretching myself in new directions. The writing and the editing is the fun part, and if I wasn't mostly enjoying it, I'd find a new occupation.

THORAIYA: Write in the morning, in silence, on a computer with no internet connection.

I like the three-sentences trick where you make yourself get started on the day’s words by telling yourself you’re only going to write three sentences. It almost always turns into more. With Titan’s Forest, when I got stuck, a walk through a real rainforest inevitably got the creative juices flowing. Remind yourself of what you loved about the ide before you started writing it!

ADRIAN: [Ideally] I have a good idea where I’m going before I set out.

I am generally fairly resilient when it comes to just sitting down and getting on with it. There is usually a stretch in the mid-section of a full-length book where it all feels like slogging uphill in the mud, but I’m a creature of habit, and I’ve written enough that I know it’s a part of the process (brought on, I suspect, by the middle being the part of the book I think through least, when planning). I actually get most stressed when I’m between projects or haven’t been able to get any writing done, including any protracted periods of editing and the like. My mind needs to create.

YOON: I need time to compost ideas and get a sense of the big picture. My outlines are fairly telegraphic notes divided up by chapter, and occasionally I'll also take notes on worldbuilding or characters along the way so I don't mess up consistency, but I do most of my cleanup in revisions.

One of the things I'm best at is "butt in chair"--just showing up, sitting down, and getting the work done.  I definitely have days when I wonder if any of this is worth it, but I also really hate the thought of messing up a deadline. I'm stubborn if nothing else. 

TIM: [I don't really have any rules] since I believe all that matters is making the story work using whatever tools seem best for the job, but there are guidelines and best practices that I've found work well for me, personally. If I'm going to be writing for more than an hour, I try do it at a desk instead of on a couch or chair with a laptop, as otherwise I'll mess up my wrists. I try not to stop writing at the end of a chapter because it's hard to psychologically get going again from a break point; I try to stop in the midst of a scene, or at least jot a note about the next thing that happens.

I usually write books in order, because I get myself through the hard or complicated parts with the promise of getting to write that fun cool scene I know is coming up; if I wrote all the fun scenes first, they'd be less of a treat and make the hard parts harder. If I'm having a tough time getting started, I use the pomodoro method: set a 25 minute timer and sit there and stare at the page and don't let myself do anything but write. Then a five-minute break to walk around (usually eager to get back to writing by then), then another 25 minutes, repeat as necessary. I try to write short stories over one or two days because I find they have a more consistent tone and pacing that way. These are all just my personal preferences. All that matters is what ends up on the page. How it gets there varies wildly from author to author

I find that having my rent due every month is an excellent motivator. I don't like washing dishes, either, but when the sink is full, you go over there and you do the dishes. There are certainly days when the writing doesn't come easily, when it doesn't go well, when I can't seem to find the right way to express what I want to express (or can't figure out what I'm TRYING to express!). Unless I'm on a tight deadline, I shrug, say "Oh well," and go do something else: read or cook, take a walk or see a friend, play with my kid or play a game or watch a movie. Then I try again later and see if it's working better. Eventually it will be.

If I'm on a deadline though, eh, I just get on with it anyway. Writing isn't magic; it's just work. (Sometimes it feels like magic, but succeeding at anything challenging can feel that way.) Inspiration is nice! But when inspiration fails, fall back on craft, and type the words. If they come out lumpy and bad, you can always fix them later.


And... CUT! (This isn't to cut off Tim. It's to make sure there's a visible division between Tim's last comment and the start of my conclusion.)

All the important parts have been covered by our writing superheroes:

Writing isn't magic. It's just work. (Thanks Tim!). IT'S ALWAYS HARD (Thanks Rich!). It's butt-in-chair and get it done.

Writing exercises and side projects can help take a more distant view and return to seeing the forest rather than the individual (sometimes ghastly first-draft) tree. You can always go back and edit later.

You have to be ruthless (like Kat) culling those stories that don't fit your edited volume (and in writing: Those characters that don't fit the story. Those scenes that don't fit the plot. Those themes that popped up because you had a horrible day but aren't actually what your story is about.). And you have to have a thick skin if you're going to do anything at all. A lot of people will be displeased by what you write/edit/paint/your hairdo. That doesn't mean you should stop looking like Elvis Presley met a unicorn! (Or that you should stop writing because your inner editor thinks you suck.)

In the vein of rules and therefore: control we will spend next week looking at another really juicy subject: How much control do our favourite authors need to write? Where does the subconscious come into (planning/writing of) the story? This one's always been on my mind - We've already seen it's pointless to force it when the words just aren't there or when you're stuck. There is a point where you need to step back from the work and do something else - So how much control should we exert on our characters and plot? How long should we try to push that triangular block into the square hole?

Let's hear from our PenPower Twelve next week!

WriteBot.

#PenPower Myth Debunk #2: I have to write FAST!

Are you a rabbit or a snail?

I  used to be a rabbit. I wrote quickly and I didn't think of what I was writing much. All in all that's a good strategy to create output and to test your wings. As a beginner (although you don't necessarily need to write every day as we have shown in post #1) the more you write the better. The practice you get is invaluable. Writing fast and often (I used to write 10000 words every day for two to three weeks then take an equally long break) is useful when you start out.

However, there are two main issues with writing FAST:

1. Trying to write when you're not ready. Stories need time to gestate. The story that pops into a writer's head fully formed is rare. It happens, and it's a gift when it does, but these instances are rare. Usually, a story takes a while to complete itself in your head before you write it down. We'll see below from our writing superheroes how stories come to them and how they approach the challenge of being patient enough to let it form on its own.

2. If you write too fast then the quality of your writing may suffer. This ties in with the above. I know you want that story out. I know you want it written, preferably yesterday. I know there are some writers who don't like the writing process but like being 'done'. However: each story has its pace. You can't force it. And that's not an excuse for laziness. That's fact. Your mind needs rest o figure out kinks and twists and turns and broken plots in your story. All good things take time.

That latter was a hard lesson for me personally to learn. I'm impatient by nature and I love to write fast. I can do it - if the story is ready. If not? Why, the story just crashes and burns, and it takes a while to recover it. Once I've gotten out of the frenzy of I HAVE TO WRITE NOW (EVERY DAY) EVEN THOUGH I KNOW THE STORY IS NOT READY I usually delete most of what I've written and go back to exactly where I knew the story needed to gestate and ignored the signs.

In the background of many writerly minds there seems to be a race going on: A lot of new writers are trying to get their projects finished and another started. They either want to be THE FIRST to use THIS IDEA or perhaps they are just worried an idea will run away if they don't use it NOW. Or they just want to get it DONE because they don't like the writing process and prefer to edit. Or they don't like the writing process period. Alternately they may think if they don't hit high in their youth they will never make it.

So how do our writing superheroes handle this need to write fast? Do they think it's necessary to write quickly at all? I've posed them one simple question that's allowed me to gain a lot of insight into the subject.

1. How long did it take to finish your [novel/trilogy/project]?

ANNA: (On the Godblind Trilogy) My first trilogy has been a long and winding road! From first draft to publication, the first book, Godblind, took approximately 13 years. After that, the sequels came out roughly 12 months later - June 2017, August 2018, September 2019 - so a good decade and a half from story germination to published trilogy. When drafting Godblind, I didn't have any external input from anyone at all, which may be one of the reasons it took so long. These days I draft a lot faster.

YOON: (On the Machineries of Empire Trilogy) I started [the first novel] Ninefox Gambit in 2011 and completed a draft in about a year, then spent another couple of years revising it. I wrote the sequel, Raven Stratagem, and most of the third book, Revenant Gun, on spec.  The third one was about half-written by the time I signed with Solaris for the trilogy, but finishing it (in 2016) was complicated by the fact that we were flooded out that year and I had to ask for an extension to my deadline, which Solaris graciously granted. It takes me about a year to draft a novel.

TIM: (On The Wrong Stars Trilogy) I couldn't even tell you the beginning of the idea. 2013 or 2014, maybe. As I began to plan the end of my Marla Mason urban fantasy series, I started to think about what I wanted to do next, and space opera was appealing. That's when I began jotting notes. In 2015 I wrote the first 12,000 words of the Wrong Stars. That was to create a submission package, which also included an outline. Took a while to sell the book, and then the due date wasn't for even longer, so I wrote and revised the other 80,000ish words in 2017, over about six weeks. I began writing The Dreaming Stars in December 2017 with the last 50,000 words written over five days at a writing retreat in February 2018. I started The Forbidden Stars on New Year's Day 2019 and finished revisions [in] March. For all three, of course, there was more revision in response to editorial feedback, and copyedits, and proofreading, and etc, but the above covers my pre-submission process.

THORAIYA: (On the Titan's Forest Trilogy) Initial concept was in 2012, final book published in 2019! At the time I was writing 5 days a week, aiming for a thousand words per day.

MARTHA: (On The Murderbot Diaries) Each one was different. I wrote All Systems Red in 2016, after I finished a first draft of my last fantasy novel, The Harbors of the Sun. All Systems Red was a novella of about 32000 words, and took me about a month to write. When Tor.com bought it for their novella line, they asked for a second novella. I started Artificial Condition, and it was a little longer but took about three months to write. Then I started on Rogue Protocol, then Exit Strategy. Both were around 34,000 words each and both took about three to four months each. The novel, Network Effect, was much harder to do. It’s 110,000 words, which isn’t particularly long for a novel, but it took about 18 months, just constantly writing and revising. So it took from around May-June of 2016 to the publication date of the novel in May 2020. 

KAT: (An editor's perspective on Whispers from the Abyss) Whispers from the Abyss Vol. 1 took about a year to go from concept to completion. 

We set out an open call for submissions as well as invited a few specific authors that wanted to include. Reading submissions [after the deadline and maximum submission volume had been reached] took about two months. In all it took about six months to go from open call to selection process.  

As for publishing, I ran Kickstarter campaigns to raise the funds needed to print the books. The Kickstarter lasted a month and many of the authors were kind enough to help promote the project. From there it went to the printer and in the hands of the reader.

[Whipsers from the Abyss 1] was so well received that we immediately launched the open call for Whispers Vol. 2. 

ADRIAN: (Example: Children of Time) Now I’ve gone full-time writer (have been for a little over a year) I’d say around 4-6 months to produce a first draft, plus up to a month to turn that into a submission draft. I spent a few hours each day, mornings and evenings, and that generally suffices. 

In general, the total lead-in time between breaking ground on a new book and that book hitting the shelves is 18 months to 2 years, and you’re entirely at the mercy of the publisher’s schedule for most of that.

EOWYN: (On The Snow Child) It took me about a year to have a first, rough draft of the story. Then it was another year of revising and working with my agent, and then maybe another year or more before it was actually out in the world.

SUE: [On the Semiosis Duology] It took me about two years to write Semiosis, and another two years to write Interference. I was working on other projects at the time or at part-time jobs, so I could only devote limited hours of work on the novel on most days.

I finished Semiosis in 2004. Then I started sending the manuscript or queries to agents and publishers. I got no takers, so I decided to write a couple of short stories set in the Semiosis world to get some attention. One of them, “Spiders,” was published in Asimov’s magazine in 2008, and it was picked for a “best of” anthology that year. (Both stories are available at the Semiosis website. https://semiosispax.com/2019/04/18/two-short-stories-set-on-pax/)

That piqued the interest of a small publisher, who bought the book, but then the economic recession reached the publishing business, and the publisher wasn’t able to get it to print. The three-year option ran out, and I got the rights back in 2014, so I began to try to sell it again. I found an agent, who sold it to Tor, and the book finally came out in 2018. By then, I’d finished Interference years ago, and when Semiosis did well, Tor was willing to pick up the sequel.

So … never give up.

JOHN: [On The Fisherman] I first had the idea for the story that would become the book back in 2003. [The] book was published in 2016. I didn't work on it every day during that time. [There] were long periods when I was writing other things.

RICH: (On the Steelhaven Trilogy) I started writing the first novel in 2011 (my files show chapter One as written on 6th January). Book Three was published (according to Amazon) on 7th May 2015.

CAITLIN: (On The Luminous Dead) I wrote the first few chapters and outlined much of the rest of the book in fall of 2014. I then didn't touch it, for various reasons, until November of 2015, when I decided to use NaNoWriMo as a prod to actually finish it. I wrote every day from then through the middle of December, when I finished the first draft. Editing was sporadic over the next year while I queried it, and I signed with my agent in spring of 2017. We did another editing round and sent it off to publishers, where it was bought by Harper Voyager in August 2017, at which point I had to rewrite the second half of the book entirely! That and subsequent edits took until the summer of 2018. So, all told, it was almost four years, but with a lot of breaks and different purposes for each edit.

There are two most important things we can glean from these answers.

1 (curtesy to Sue who summed it up in one simple statement): Never give up.

2: It seems that a lot of our superheroes took times off their works in project 'for various reasons' (quote by Caitlin but almost everyone mentioned starting the idea then taking a 'break' so to speak).

So what is the deal here? It seems to again come down to two reasons (apart from dreaded REAL LIFE getting into the way):

1. The story needs to gestate. It might mean the writer isn't ready yet or it might mean the story isn't ready yet. (You could of course argue those two are so closely related they may just be the same.) Time is required for your brain to make sense of the story - What it's trying to say and how that information can best be packaged. 'How' it wants to say it. This unfortunately cannot be rushed. There seems to be no 'average' completion time either. Eowyn wrote her book in a year and published it in three. John took his time from 2003 to 2016 - 13 years. And our superheroes working on trilogies and series are unicornishly hard to pin down: a few months to a year. A few years to a decade+.

This all comes down to one important point which I've already mentioned in post #1:

The second insight: everyone is different. Each author has their own way or approaching writing and their own pace. An Adrian Tchaikovsky might plan to meticulously it takes him only a few months to finish a book. An Anna Stephens may take 10. And a Sue Burke might just take 14.

So is there a 'wrong way'? Is there a novel that takes 'too long'? Is it worth working on a project that doesn't come to fruition until decades later?

The more commercially oriented of writers might say 'yes! Stephen King writes a novel or two a year and he's rich! I want to be rich!'. That's fair enough.

But does it mean you failed if your writing doesn't take off within its first year? Does it mean you failed if you can't get the story outline together in a month?

Of course not! I don't know where you got the idea and why you are beating yourself up about this! Each writer has their pace. Each book has their timeline. Rushed work is (usually) low-quality work. The best advice I can condense from our generous superheroes' answers is this: Take your time. Don't stress about your novel not being finished. Don't fret over the plot not coming together immediately. Remember: All good things take time.

And remember to check in next week for the next batch of questions! Next Saturday on: Are there any hard and fast rules WE MUST adhere to when writing? The writing superheroes will have some great input for you!

#PenPower Myth Debunk #1: Write Every Day

We've all heard it before: Write Every Day.

Is it required to write every day? Is it useful? I have agonized about this question for years and finally decided to ask some of my favourite authors for some insight. Do they write every day? Does every published author write every day? Certainly there are the Stephen Kings who stick to a strict schedule of four hours of writing every day. They might do it in the morning or in the afternoon. Or they might do it in the middle of the night.

But there are others who don't.

In order to answer the question 'Do you need to write every day?' and the perhaps even more poignant: 'If you don't write every day can you call yourself a writer at all?' we'll take a close look at each of the twelve writing superheroes' writing process below.

I would personally argue that after you've leveled through the beginning stages (where indeed you should be writing a lot of the time) you do not need to stick to a rigid schedule or write every day. As we'll see below it's not necessary to write every day to get published. Just like a stonemason (forget the tired old plumber metaphor) gets two days a week off work the writer needs these two days (or three weeks or four months) off just the same.

A lot of writers (no quotes given because who truly knows where any of this originated?) have given a reason for this: You must 're-fill the well'. You must 'gestate your idea'. You must mentally (subconsciously) test the idea to make sure it's worth it. You must let go of the idea and see what comes back (Hint: usually the good ideas come back!). Et cetera.

All these come back to a simple reason for taking time off: Your brain sometimes needs a break. You've finished a story? Chances are you've wrung your mind dry. The ideas are all out there and you're... blissfully empty. Or not! I often get the feeling of wanting to write - almost HAVING TO write - MORE even after I've successfully added a good chunk of useful words to my project. And isn't that great? It is! But at some point my energy levels will still drop and I won't be able to stand sitting and writing for a day or two - or a week. And isn't that all right?

But don't let me the one to convince you to drop your fear of letting go and taking a few... time to relax! Let's hear from our writing superheroes how they churn on through endless days or words vs no words.

Myth #1: Write Every Day

Question: What is your writing process like? How much time do you spend writing every day?

SUE:

I work full-time as a writer and translator. I get up and go to work every morning in my home office, and on a perfect day, I work on one project in the morning and different one in the afternoon. If I had a “day job,” it would be more complicated.

It took me about two years to write Semiosis, and another two years to write Interference. I was working on other projects at the time or at part-time jobs, so I could only devote limited hours of work on the novel on most days. Of course, I had no deadline, so I could take my time.

CAITLIN:

I wrote the first few chapters and outlined much of the rest of the book in fall of 2014. I then didn't touch it, for various reasons, until November of 2015, when I decided to use NaNoWriMo as a prod to actually finish it. I wrote every day from then through the middle of December, when I finished the first draft.

I write best in committed bursts, probably because of NaNoWriMo. I'll average about 2000 words a day while drafting, and work 6-7 days a week, but then not touch that project again for a month or more (when possible).


TIM: (Hold on to your seatbelts this one's getting lengthy! But so interesting! I couldn't cut too much of it out!)

Tim had a special question from a while ago added. (A while in this case is about two years when I first started to bug him with them!)

1. Do you write every day? (Or do you take the weekends/holidays off?)

Oh, not remotely. According to my work diary I only wrote or revised fiction on 50 days in 2017. (It was my lightest year in a decade. I wrote on 94 days in 2016, which is more typical.) I have a full-time day job, a ten-year-old kid, and a busy social life. Writing one day in three or four is about the most I'd ever do.

In 2015 I wrote the first 12,000 words of the Wrong Stars (four days of writing, scattered over three weeks in late spring/early summer). That was to create a submission package. I wrote and revised the other 80,000ish words in 2017, over about six weeks. (21 working days total, according to my writing diary.)

I began writing The Dreaming Stars in December 2017 and did a bit more on a dozen days in the next month, with the last 50,000 words written over five days at a writing retreat in February 2018.

I started The Forbidden Stars on New Year's Day 2019 and finished revisions on March 17, across 15 working days total. (I did another little retreat in there where I produced another 50K in six days.) For all three, of course, there was more revision in response to editorial feedback, and copy-edits, and proofreading, and etc, but the above covers my pre-submission process.

ANNA:

I work part-time and write the rest of the time, not just on my novels but on short story and novella commissions for Black Library and other various presses and anthologies; and I have a semi-regular newsletter and a monthly Patreon, all of which take away some focus from my main writing. That said, I manage around four hours' writing a day, usually seven days a week. When I'm on deadline I increase this as much as possible/necessary, but the rest of the time it ebbs and flows. I'm trying to be less strict with myself - instead of having to write 3,000 good words a day, I'm trying to focus on writing 40,000 good words a month. So if that's 500 words on Monday but 4,000 on Tuesday, that's fine. Having a daily word count target worked for me for a while, but then it ended up causing me more stress. Shifting to a monthly word goal has actually improved my productivity.

EOWYN:


It's always changing based on circumstances. When I was working on The Snow Child, it was a crazy time for me and my family. I was pregnant with our second daughter and working part-time as a bookseller, my husband was working full-time as a fishery biologist, and we were building our fixer-upper cabin that had no running water or electrical wiring as we lived in it. And then, as I continued writing the novel, we had a newborn. I couldn't have done it without my husband. Each night, after he'd worked a long day and we had finished dinner, he would get the girls ready for bed while I stole an hour or two of writing. That's how I wrote it, an hour here, and hour there, always in the evening.

Once The Snow Child was published and both our children were in school, I found myself in this wonderful but strange situation of being a full-time, stay-at-home writer. So now, instead of sneaking in an hour or two at the computer, the whole day stretches out in front of me. I tell myself I have to write 500 words a day, and I set a timer to write for 20 or 25 minutes, then a five minute break to throw some laundry in the washer or feed the chickens, then it's back to the computer. Sometimes I give myself a treat of writing at our local coffee shop or at the library, just to have a change of scenery.

ADRIAN:
 

I’m far to the planning end of [the writing] spectrum. I’ll generally start a project by building a world I’m interested in exploring – setting out its axioms and parameters, its species and factions, and gradating into finer and finer detail. There’s a definite difference between doing this for fantasy and for SF, in where the focus is and how I approach the ‘rules’ of a world. If I’m working with hard SF, such as with Children of Time, I’ll need to research and talk with people who know more than I do about various aspects of the science and the setting. After that I will generally set out an overview of the plot, detail the major characters, and then produce a chapter-by-chapter breakdown. 

I spend a few hours each day, mornings and evenings, and that generally suffices. My personal process for planning and writing means the first and submission drafts are generally fairly close in content, which is a godsend for getting stuff done.

YOON:

I need time to compost ideas and get a sense of the big picture. In particular, I need to know the beginning, midpoint, and ending before I can really get into outlining. I use outlines partly because I like planning, partly because I have a terrible memory--if I don't write down the master plan somewhere, I'm liable to forget what I was trying to do halfway through.  Of course, I do frequently diverge from the outline and end up changing the plan, but that's part of the process too.

These days I write at a pretty steady pace of 1,000 words/hour, and a sustainable pace for me is 2,000 words/day, so that's two hours of writing a day.  The rest of the day is spent dealing with other writing business matters (answering emails, promo, revisions to earlier pieces) or on hobbies like gaming or art.

MARTHA: (short and to the point!)

  
I don’t really have any rules. I usually write in the morning, and try to do at least 1000 words a day, but I also know pushing myself if the story isn’t working doesn’t help. If I push myself, I usually end up having to take it out and re-write it.


 

MR. SPACE MARINE RICH:

I’ve been writing for about 10 years and I’ve only just developed a process I’m happy with. I take an extremely modular approach to writing a novel - it’s a monumental task, and I can only achieve it by breaking it down into bite-sized pieces.


First I will formulate a plot from different ideas, be they influenced by character arcs or specific scenes in my head. With the Steelhaven trilogy, this involved working on an excel spreadsheet and mapping each major character’s arc, then crafting an interweaving story. I’ll take these ideas and organise them into a chapter-by-chapter breakdown. Each chapter will only consist of a few very basic bullet points.


I go on to use Dragon Naturally Speaking to dictate the basic plot of each chapter, as though I’m telling myself the story. It results in a very short and rough draft, but I find it helps when I come to writing the actual prose. Next step is to turn this synopsis into the first draft of a chapter.


[How much time I spend writing every day] can vary wildly. I’ve been writing professionally for about 10 years now and my process has never been the same for more than one book. I tend to go by word-count-per-day or a chapter per day. Currently I’m on about 2,000 words a day, which might take anywhere between 3 and 6 hours, depending on my level of focus.
 

JOHN: 

I try for a page a day, which works out to somewhere between three and four hundred words. I try to get to that page when my inner critic (i.e. the voice that says, "This is awful.") is asleep--either early in the morning or later at night. I have to write fiction by hand, and I prefer to use a legal pad. At the end of a project, though, I may be good for a couple of pages at a time.

KAT: (This one's a bit different. Kat's an editor primarily and a writer second. Still her 'writing' process and progress can be gleaned from her brilliant answers!)

Volume One [of Whispers from the Abyss] took about a year to go from concept to completion. We set out an open call for submissions as well as invited a few specific authors that [we] wanted to include. As far as the open call went, I waited till the submission doors closed before reading the submissions. I learned not to do that for the second volume.


[The Slush reading process] is very different than editing a manuscript for a client. I look for different things when vetting submissions for an anthology. Mainly because the submissions for the anthology should have already (presumably) gone through the editing process and the [writer] is now submitting to me their best work. In going through these works I’m looking for how well the story is constructed and how well the author can grab their audience in the first paragraph. It must fit what I’m looking for the first time or not at all. I usually give authors the benefit of the doubt and read the first three paragraphs, but if it doesn’t hook me in that time, I give the piece a pass and move on to the next one.



THORAIYA:

I used to be a pantser, but there’s nothing like a big fat fantasy trilogy to turn you into a plotter. I write best in the morning, in silence, on a computer with no internet connection.

[While writing the Titan's Forest Trilogy] I was writing 5 days a week, aiming for a thousand words per day.





As far as this interview went we received 12 very different answers. Some of your writing superheroes will work meticulously seven days a week (a lot of the outliners seem to be the ones who stick to word counts a day!). Others are content to write 94 days a year (looking at you Tim!). And yet others fall somewhere in between.

All of the writers above have their own process and style. All of them have found a method that works for them. Some take more gestation time than others. As scary as it sounds, it's all about finding your own path.

I believe Martha's response in particular can be very helpful with this - whichever way you want to approach it: Martha has a wordcount she would like to achieve daily but won't push hard if there's no give from the story (her muse, some might say!). As with any puzzle: if you don't know where the square block fits then forcing it into a round hole will only destroy the framework around it.

So the best I can make of this as a summary: Find your own way. Don't panic if the words don't come one day. I assure you they will the next. Don't agonize over 'I should be writing' if you really don't feel like it or are busy otherwise for day - or even half a year (like Tim). The most important thing is to get back to it when you are ready. And this readiness can't be forced.

You'll find out yourself if you keep at it: Sometime you need a time-off. Sometimes you need to find new ideas. If you're patient they will eventually come out to play.

And play is our next week's topic! We're going to go deeper into our superheroes' writing process. When did they start their magnum opus? When did they finish it? How much play did they need in order to get it done? How fast did they get it done? We're debunking the myth that you have to fast or your food gets cold! Are you a rabbit or a tortoise? [Hint: All good things take time!] Stay tuned for next week's post!