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What is my writing process as an author of a self-published book?



AI image of a stressed, slim young man holding a pen while surrounded my mountains of paper.  His eyes are sullen and he image is in a drawing style.

I think I’ve covered some of this already in previous blog posts, but people seem to keep asking me this question. So I guess I will just have to make a dedicated blog post towards it and go into greater detail. First, I should start by saying that my approach won’t necessarily work for everyone, especially because I’ve got a weird brain. Nevertheless, I hope at least some of my advice can be of use because the world seems to lack creativity these days. Or at least visible creativity. Drowning in quantity while thirsting for quality seems to be the norm.


I plan ahead. There’s not an enormous secret to it. I’m sure plenty of other writers plan as well. But I scribble out a rough plan for each chapter and make sure that there is a purpose for every chapter. Everything should serve a broader narrative, but there should be mini-climaxes and conflicts in every chapter. The more conflict, the better. I always make things as awful for the protagonist as possible. They shouldn’t have one or two problems, they should have five at least! Make sure the reader is engaged, and the best way to do that is to break down the novel into small, manageable chunks and just put in all your effort. Do a plan, write it, look it over, and then move on.


That last part is important. It’s fine to take a bit of time on your chapters, but it should never take weeks to write a single chapter! If most of your book is fine, and you have some not-so-great sections, then that is perfectly okay! You can iron stuff out in editing. The point is to get a manuscript that you can work with. I found it was much easier changing and re-writing the manuscript than writing from scratch. And when that time comes to edit the manuscript, it is important to not get sentimental. Don’t get attached to characters or story arcs. Dare to be bold and let the rewards come flooding in. Do whatever the hell you want and the audience should be surprised at every turn of the page. Whether they like it is up to them, but once you finish your first book and sell your first copy, then you are officially an author. An artist. And art is subjective, so you can look at it like that. Personally, I take all criticism and apply it to my work. You know, how can I make it better? As a writer, you should always look for ways to improve. If people have detailed criticisms, then you should listen. Even if you start out as a 4/10 author, that doesn’t mean you can’t become 9/10 in a few years with more practice.


So my process is very simple. Ramble and be emotional. Write whatever I want and then when the dust settles, I look it over and make some changes. Then I hand it over to an editor (in this case my English teacher) and they make a bunch of suggestions. I listen to most of them and rewrite large parts of the story. I add some more chapters (in the case of The Malignancy, 10k words worth of new material in the third draft.) Then, once the book is released, I listen to what to readers have to say. Some people do beta readers and perhaps for book two, I will do that. I listen to what they like and what they don’t. Using that information, I start planning the next project and customize it to the tastes of my audience. Most importantly, though, I used deadlines. They are so important. I mentioned them earlier in my article about overcoming writer’s block. With deadlines, you can force yourself to get stuff down on paper. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again and again; people need to get it through their heads that their first draft does not have to be anything great. Don’t worry about it. Be free. Just make the deadlines and follow them. Once you have something down on paper that you can work with, then you will be in a much better situation. The best way to enforce these self-imposed deadlines is to tell other people all about your book. Hype it up. That way, you’ll feel pressured to follow through. If you want to talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk, eh?


At the end of the day, you can write your book however you want. Don’t feel restrained by any sort of structure. Don’t be beholden to the expectations of others. If you have an idea, grab it by the neck and squeeze. Pick something and put all your effort into it. Plan each chapter and eventually that idea that you decided to write down starts to change into something else. It becomes something that is uniquely... yours. Your very own self-published book! People say write with your audience in mind, and that might be good advice. But don’t compare yourself too much to other authors in your chosen genre. In fact, don’t chain yourself to a single genre at all. Write your story and figure out how to market it later. I might get some flak for that statement, and maybe I’m not qualified enough to be making such audacious claims. Yet, I believe that art should be unrestrained, except perhaps by time (deadlines.) After all, without deadlines, you might never finish your story at all. And that would be a damn shame.


Thanks for reading!


Liam



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