Let’s Give Some Writing Advice!
Stephen asks:
“Your writing and self-publishing has been very encouraging to me, and as such I try to tell as many people about you as possible. As an aspiring writer myself, I wanted to ask you what your process is when it comes to planning out and then writing your books? How do you manage to keep writing consistently?”
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed the books!
As for planning a book, typically what I do is I first write out a synopsis of the book. In the synopsis, I sketch out the main events and subplots of the book. You want to hit all the main points of a well-structured plot – the introduction, the conflict/antagonist, the rising action, the climax, and the resolution. I also like to work out the internal conflicts of the characters when writing the synopsis. Having a character who faces both external and internal conflicts makes for a more interesting read (and makes it easier to write, too). Since I tend to write really long series, I make sure the synopsis also mentions recurring things or scenes that are important to the series.
Once the synopsis is done, I split it up into chapters and expand them out a bit. Then it’s time to start writing.
Some people prefer not to outline in advance, but I think the strength of outlining is that it forces you to think out the plot in advance, and so you can avoid plot holes and writing yourself into a corner. Like, have you ever read a book and wondered why the hero didn’t shoot the villain when he had the chance, or the villain didn’t kill the hero when the opportunity presented itself? Or a book where the ending seemed forced and tacked-on? Or the plot could only continue if one of the characters, whether the protagonist or villain, suddenly and inexplicably became a moron? That can usually be avoided by writing an outline in advance.
(My favorite plots are ones where both the protagonist and villain are intelligent and competent, but are operating on incomplete or incorrect information and so make bad decisions. I think of all my books that use this kind of plot, GHOST IN THE THRONE is my favorite, since Caina and Cassander Nilas both think the other is dead for most of the book.)
As for writing consistently, at this point I’ve been doing it for so long that it’s a habit that’s hard to break. In the old days, I used to try to make myself write at least a thousand words a day when writing something new. After I started self-publishing I raised that to 3,000 words, and now I try to hit at least 5,000 words a day on a new project. We’re talking about a span of twenty years here, so it took me a while to ramp up from a thousand words a day to five thousand.
And if I’m busy on a day and don’t hit my goal, I don’t beat myself up over it. Never let the perfect be the enemy of the possible! Writing 500 words in a day is still better than writing zero words in a day.
As runners like to say, you’re lapping everyone who’s still on the couch.
-JM