There are so many different ways to write. I remember in school we were told that we needed to plan our writing. We always used to do pre-writing activities. Sometimes we would need to fill in a story planner, a chart, or draw a concept map before we were allowed to start writing. I now realize that none of that is necessary.

All you need to write is an idea and some time. I don’t preplan out my stories. Sure I have an idea about what it is about. I know a little bit about the characters I want to include. And I have a rough concept for the start of the story but that is about it. I realize that I don’t need anything else.

I can start writing and not even know where the story is going to go. In fact, this is how I work. I like to discover the story as I work. It is like a journey. It’s like a hike were you aren’t exactly sure of your destination. The cool thing about writing like this is that the story and characters can surprise you. The idea that you had for the book might not even work once you start. But then something magical happens and the story creates itself. It goes in a new unexpected way and it just works.

I can’t really explain it. All I know is that is how I write. I write the story and let it come alive. I don’t like to go back and do revising as I write either unless it is absolutely necessary. I just write and write until the story is told.

I then put the story away for a while. I work on something else or take a break for a few months. It is then that I can look at the story with fresh eyes. I read the entire story in one sitting, even if it is a novel and takes up my entire Saturday. This helps me catch any problems or continuity errors in the story. I take notes as I read but that is it.

On the following day, I can make changes, revisions, and edit my file on the computer. I can work on developing themes and bringing out what I have wrote so that it is clearer to the reader.

I know that all writers seem to work differently. I can tell you that a lot of writers don’t preplan out everything. Planning is a good idea. I mean, you need to have some idea of what you are doing but you don’t need to do extensive planning. You can do it in your head and make it up as you go. It works for me. That’s my writing process.