When a story takes hold, leaving you sleepless, daydreaming… the first words trickle in, you write them, and you can’t stop going back, creeping back to your laptop or journal to write a bit more. When the writing bug bites, it’s there to stay, calling you wherever you are.
There’s an excitement, a thrill, the adventure behind closed doors… just you and your characters. With each line, you get to know more about them, then it’s almost as though the characters lead you into their stories.
The first draft is an exhilarating experience even if you have written a few books. You can’t stop thinking about it, you wake up at 3 a.m. with a jolt of inspiration, and if you don’t write it down, it’s gone… I have had a few lost… gone… but a 3 a.m. journal, a gift from my daughter, is safely ensconced on my bedside table, close to my reading lamp, capturing the late night unexpected bouts of inspiration that intrude upon restless sleep – not even a blaring alarm clock can do this on any good day!
Starting out
Starting out as a writer, I had two stories competing for attention. Thinking that this might be the one book I will write, I merged the stories, hooked them as plot and subplot. Across Time and Space pulled and tugged at intrigue, unexpected encounters, crime, romance and human rights issues.
Discovery
From that first draft of my first book to the first draft of my fourth book (locked in editing as we speak), my process has morphed along the way. While being between a plotter and pantser, I moved from laptop screen drafting to handwriting some chapters in a journal.
This sped up the drafting time, I was writing by hand with speed, more naturally than the words that filled my little laptop screen as I tapped my way forward. I then started writing in my little journal, my second arm, traveling with me wherever I went. No backspacing, just scratch and keep going… forward… ideas gushed, building up at a faster pace.
The benefit
Having a chapter crafted by hand gave me so much more to work from and editing, stage 1 began as I typed up the manuscript. I noticed the difference from those chapters that went from head to screen from a basic ‘pantser plan’ to those chapters that were handwritten – less cleaning up and more ideas emerged and flourished to grow the plot.
As each handwritten chapter was completed, the digital chapter was typed no longer than a day later. The ideas are fresh, too much of life and its distractions have not happened in twenty-four hours or less, (fingers crossed) so there’s no fear that distractions will play havoc with the handwritten chapter, all that happens is a bit more spit and polish.
Am I converted?
I can’t quite be sure on that but I have stacked up on the journals that I feel comfortable writing in – the easily portable type, the ‘anywhere journal’ when inspiration strikes, even at 3 a.m.
How about you? Do you write from head to screen or are you a paper and pen person first?
Please share your thoughts in the message box below.
Happy Reading, Happy Writing.
Tell your remarkable story today to touch a life or many lives through storytelling.
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