wheel of the writing process

I've been watching Wheel of Time and, of course, am now thinking about the wheel of my writing process as 2021 comes to a close with one book done and ready to query in the new year, and one new book 40 pages in.

Now that I'm 1.5 years into committing to writing daily, I can totally see not only how my writing has evolved (gotten better!) but also how my process has changed (also, mostly for the better!).

When I started writing Luna, I had a character and a concept for a Protectress. But that was it. The whole book was written without an outline or a cohesive plan. For me, though, the most important thing felt look moving forward and getting it all out, then fixing it later.

Now, I know what a complete disaster that first draft will be without any sort of plan.

While it was fun to write, all subsequent drafts just required a lot more help and rewriting. So, after my 2nd draft for Luna, I sat down to outline the 2nd book in the series in detail, and then the rest of the books a bit more loosely. And, it was super helpful for working on the other drafts because there was a plan!

The idea for The Eternal Night Soiree was sudden from working on a writing prompt. I knew, almost immediately, that I wanted to write it as a book. I also knew that I needed to plan it better than Luna (sorry, Luna!). So, I outlined the chapters, themes, character arc, plot arcs and so on until I had a solid PLAN to go off of.

I'm 40 pages in, committing to 30 pages a week, which I've so far worked out to 5 pages a day for 6 days in a week. It's just such a different feeling this time around, having an outline to work off of. Already I've veered off course, and added a chapter from a different character's perspective, but the outline still leaves room for the story to unfold.

That said, here are the things I've noticed that are most different:

1. For Luna I was writing 2 pages a day, now I can way more easily do 5 because I've been writing a lot. And it gets easier. Trust that for your own process! Don't overcommit on pages if you won't be able to accomplish them daily.

2. Full on outline believer. But that doesn't mean the outline is set in a Cursed Stone. The story can veer off course, but at least it has a course to veer back towards for structure.

3. This book has lots of different characters, and chapters from their perspectives. It's fun to bounce around a bit after Luna, where I really only got her perspective.

Hope some of this is helpful in your writing process! No matter what, if you want to write, KEEP SPINNING THE WHEEL, KEEP WRITING!